Coverage Policy

1. What this policy covers

The Coverage Policy describes the financial protection GrailGuard provides for items in our courier custody. This is not insurance. GrailGuard is a California LLC; coverage is a first-party contractual indemnity funded directly from GrailGuard's operating reserves, not a transfer of risk to a third-party carrier. The Shipper retains title and insurable interest in the item under Terms §1A and may obtain separate first-party property, fine-art, or commercial transit insurance at the Shipper's election.

Regulator re-characterization. If a state insurance regulator (including but not limited to the California Department of Insurance, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, the New York Department of Financial Services, or the Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner) characterizes this Coverage Policy as insurance subject to that state's regulatory regime, GrailGuard will, on sixty (60) days' written notice to affected Shippers, (a) register as required, (b) withdraw the Coverage Policy in that state and substitute an arm's-length insurance product, or (c) restructure the program to comply. The declared-value limits in §2 remain payable in full for shipments in transit at the time of any such change.

Within the limits below, and subject to the exclusions in §3 and the Limitation of Liability in Terms §11, coverage applies to:

• Theft while the item is in our courier's custody or in the custody of a sub-bailee engaged under Terms §1A
• Accidental damage to the item while in our courier's custody or in the custody of a sub-bailee
• Loss of the item while in our courier's custody or in the custody of a sub-bailee

2. Coverage limits by tier

Coverage is anchored to the value the customer declares accurately at the time of booking. Included coverage varies by service tier: Metro $25,000, Nationwide $50,000, International $75,000, Animal-Nationwide $100,000. Declared values above the included amount add a coverage surcharge at checkout, scaling up to the tier's per-shipment ceiling (Metro $99,000; Nationwide $249,000; International $249,000; Animal-Nationwide $249,000). Shipments above your tier's ceiling, or above $500,000 in any tier, require manual review and a custom quote.

GrailGuard's liability shall not exceed the declared value provided at the time of booking, and is further subject to the Limitation of Liability in Terms §11. If a customer declares a value below the actual market value of the shipped item, the maximum potential reimbursement is capped at the value declared, not the item's market value. Accurate declared value at booking is what determines coverage — under-declaring caps the customer's potential payout.

3. Exclusions

Coverage does not extend to:

• Items with undisclosed, misdeclared, or misrepresented value
• Damage attributable to customer packaging failure or improper preparation
• Loss of value due to market fluctuation or condition reassessment by a third party
• Loss or damage caused by acts of God, force majeure events, or natural disasters
• Loss resulting from customer-provided inaccurate or incomplete delivery instructions
• Items transported outside our authorized service areas or in violation of the prohibited-items list in Terms §4
• Loss, seizure, detention, forfeiture, or destruction of the item by any governmental, regulatory, customs, law-enforcement, or security authority acting under color of legal authority, regardless of whether the action is later determined to have been wrongful; provided that this exclusion does not apply where the seizure was proximately caused by GrailGuard's gross negligence or willful misconduct

4. High-value coverage — declared value applies; Rider required above $250,000

No per-category subcap. GrailGuard's Released Value coverage applies up to the declared value of the shipment, up to the absolute $500,000 per-shipment cap in §2. For self-serve bookings (declared value at or below $250,000) the per-tier ceiling in §2 applies; for shipments covered by a signed and countersigned Coverage Rider (declared value above $250,000, up to the $500,000 absolute cap) the per-tier self-serve ceiling does not apply and coverage follows the declared value up to the $500,000 absolute cap. There is no separate subcap for art, jewelry, collectibles, manuscripts, gemstones, currency, bearer instruments, bullion, or trading cards. The declared-value surcharge paid by the Shipper at booking is the consideration for the declared-value coverage on that shipment.

High-value rider required above $250,000. For declared values above $250,000, the separately-countersigned Coverage Rider must be signed by the Shipper and returned to GrailGuard before pickup. The Rider documents the Shipper's good-faith representation of the item's identity and declared value, plus the arms-length assent to the declared-value cap on a high-value shipment (Hughes v. UPS prong-2 hardening for declarations a single inline checkbox cannot adequately evidence). Without the signed Rider on file, GrailGuard reserves the right to hold the booking and contact the Shipper to complete the Rider before pickup.

Above the $500,000 absolute cap. Declared values above the $500,000 absolute per-shipment cap require custom review on a per-shipment basis. Email support@grailguard.io with the item description, authentication documentation, and route before booking; GrailGuard will return a custom quote and a custom-review addendum to the Coverage Rider.

Accurate declaration required; misrepresentation voids coverage. Misrepresentation of value or item nature voids coverage for that shipment under the misrepresentation grounds in Terms §4 (Accurate Declaration). This is the same misrepresentation defense that applies to every shipment, regardless of category. This section does not limit liability arising from GrailGuard's gross negligence, willful misconduct, or fraud (California Civil Code §1668).

5. Evidentiary Presumption of Intact Delivery

Where the booking's chain-of-custody record is complete — meaning (i) the pickup AR scan bundle was sealed with a valid HMAC signature, (ii) GPS pings were submitted at the contractual cadence throughout the active-delivery window without unexplained gaps exceeding thirty (30) minutes, (iii) the delivery AR scan bundle was sealed with a valid HMAC signature that matches the pickup seal's referenced angles, and (iv) all four delivery-confirmation artifacts in Terms §8 were captured, together with the recipient's §5 visible-condition attestation and the §4A acknowledged right to refuse a visibly damaged or tampered shipment, in the recipient's Delivery Acceptance and Release of Claims — that record shall constitute presumptive evidence that the item was delivered intact and in the condition shown in the delivery AR scans, and that no loss, damage, theft, or substitution occurred during GrailGuard's custody. Where the recipient elected to accept the item with documented exception under the Release's sign-with-exception path, this presumption applies to all claims OTHER than the specific defect or discrepancy described in the contemporaneous exception notes. A Shipper or assignee bringing a claim against such a record bears the burden of producing specific, particularized evidence rebutting the presumption (for example, EXIF-timestamped photographs taken at delivery showing damage not visible in the delivery AR scans, or third-party forensic evidence that the item was altered or substituted in transit). The presumption does not apply to claims of fraud, gross negligence, or willful misconduct, or to any liability that cannot be limited under California Civil Code §1668.

6. Reading this policy together with the Delivery Release

If a recipient signed a Delivery Acceptance and Release of Claims (the "Release") at delivery, the claim windows in that document govern claims falling within its scope (visible item-identity issues under its §6 — within 24 hours; concealed damage under its §9 — within 7 calendar days of signing). The windows in this Coverage Policy §5 govern Coverage Policy claims and all other claims. Where the same claim is potentially covered by both, the longer of the two applicable windows controls in favor of the Shipper. A Shipper is never worse off for having two layered documents.

7. Released Value formation (Hughes v. UPS four-part test)

The declared-value cap in §2 is offered to and accepted by the Shipper as a Released Value election under Hughes v. UPS (CD Cal. 2008) and progeny. Each of the four formation prongs is satisfied at booking time, and the Shipper acknowledges the same:

1. Fair opportunity to declare a higher value — the booking interface allows declared values from $1 up to the per-tier ceiling and the absolute $500,000 cap, with surcharges itemized in real time before payment;
2. Reasonable notice of the limit — the declared-value cap is displayed during the booking flow, restated in the Booking Acknowledgments and Limited Release (Ack #4, separately initialed), restated in the booking confirmation email, and is the subject of this section;
3. Reasonable opportunity to obtain higher coverage — declared values above the included amount add a coverage surcharge at checkout up to the tier ceiling, shipments above tier ceilings or above $500,000 are eligible for custom-quote review on request, and the Shipper may decline GrailGuard's coverage surcharge and independently arrange third-party transit insurance through the carrier of the Shipper's choice; GrailGuard does not condition acceptance of any booking on the Shipper electing GrailGuard's coverage and imposes no opt-out penalty (this opportunity is communicated to the Shipper at the declared-value entry field on the booking page, with a link to this section); and
4. Actual knowledge by the Shipper — Ack #4 of the Booking Acknowledgments and Limited Release is a separately initialed acknowledgment that the Shipper has read and understood the declared-value cap and the lesser-of-declared-value-or-$500,000 formulation. Ack #4 binds the Shipper to this Coverage Policy at the version-hash recorded on the booking record.

All four formation acts are timestamped, IP-stamped, user-agent-stamped, and persisted with the booking record for seven (7) years (three (3) years for Illinois-recipient shipments per the biometric retention schedule in our Privacy Policy; one (1) year for Texas-recipient shipments per Tex. Bus. & Com. Code §503.001).

8. Anti-stacking — election of exclusive remedy

For any single loss event during GrailGuard's custody, the Shipper's recovery from GrailGuard is limited to ONE of the following exclusive remedies, at the Shipper's election: (a) a payout under this Coverage Policy (declared-value cap, subject to the carve-outs), (b) a service credit under the SLA v1.0-2026-06-08, or (c) a recovery under the General Cap on all other claims in Terms §11. The Shipper may not stack two or more of (a)–(c) for the same loss event. Carve-outs. This anti-stacking rule (i) does not limit liability arising from GrailGuard's gross negligence, willful misconduct, or fraud (Cal. Civ. Code §1668); (ii) does not waive any defense GrailGuard would otherwise have to the elected remedy, including the Hughes four-part formation test in §7 and the exclusions in §3; (iii) does not affect remedies for separate, unrelated events; (iv) does not apply to pre-pickup cancellation refunds under Terms §9 (Cancellation and Refund Policy); and (v) does not waive or limit any right preserved in Terms §8 (FCBA, Regulation Z, card-network consumer protections, non-excludable statutory consumer rights); and (vi) does not apply to the service-fee refund for a total-loss or non-delivery shipment under Refund & Cancellation Policy §3. Service-fee refund for total loss / non-delivery is not stacking. Receiving the service-fee refund together with a declared-value coverage payment for the same total-loss or non-delivery shipment is permitted and is not stacking: the service-fee refund returns payment for the undelivered service while the coverage payment compensates the lost item. Where an item is delivered but damaged, the declared-value coverage payment applies and the service fee is retained, because the delivery was performed (see Refund & Cancellation Policy §3). Anti-stacking continues to bar collecting two remedies for the same harm. The election below is a choice among the overlapping remedies (a)–(c) for the same loss event; the service-fee refund and the coverage payment for a total loss are not overlapping remedies and are outside the election. Election procedure. Election is made in writing in the claim. Absent express written election, GrailGuard will (1) within ten (10) business days serve the Shipper with its scoring of each potentially-applicable remedy, (2) propose the largest-recovery remedy after caps and exclusions, and (3) treat the proposal as non-binding pending the Shipper's written confirmation (Shipper has 14 calendar days to confirm or elect different). Until the Shipper confirms in writing, no remedy is paid and no remedy is waived.

9. Claims process

File a claim using the form at grailguard.io/claim. GrailGuard targets investigation within 10 business days of a complete claim submission and, where a claim is approved, reimbursement within 15 business days of approval. Timelines may vary where additional information or third-party assessment is required. Required documentation is enumerated on the claim form.

10. Carve-outs (always preserved)

Nothing in this Coverage Policy limits or excludes GrailGuard's liability for (a) gross negligence, willful misconduct, or fraud, (b) personal injury or death caused by GrailGuard's negligence, or (c) any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded by applicable law (California Civil Code §1668; analogous non-waivable provisions of other applicable law). The Shipper's rights under the Fair Credit Billing Act, Regulation Z, applicable card-network consumer-protection rules, and any non-excludable consumer-protection statute are not waived by this Coverage Policy.

For questions about this Coverage Policy: support@grailguard.io · For Coverage Rider requests (declared value above $250,000): support@grailguard.io with "Coverage rider request" · For prior policy versions: legal@grailguard.io