On an interstate move, released value pays by weight: 60 cents per pound, per article. Type one item to see what share of its replacement cost that returns, before you sign the valuation statement.
$0.60 / lbper article, the released value limitQuoted from Appendix A to 49 CFR Part 375, the codified FMCSA booklet "Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move", read on September 5, 2026.
The short answer
Released value pays at most 60 cents per pound, per article, whatever the item is worth. A 4 lb laptop that costs $900 to replace returns $2.40, or 0.27 percent.
A 30 lb television worth $700 returns $18. It costs nothing extra, but it is a signed waiver of full value protection, which is the default. Price full value protection before you sign.
Enter one item
Weight and replacement cost are required. Shipment weight and the quoted full value charge are optional and add two more lines. Nothing is emailed.
Rates quoted from Appendix A to 49 CFR Part 375, retrieved September 5, 2026. Ignores deductibles, depreciation, carrier tariff terms and your own insurance. Not a claim, not legal advice, not an insurance recommendation. HyreMover does not move household goods and sells no valuation.
Released value pays by weight, not by what things are worth
Settlement by weight is the entire mechanism. Everything else on this page is a consequence of it.
HyreMover calculation, illustrative inputs. The ordering is the finding. Released value works least badly on the heavy cheap things and worst on the light expensive ones — which is the opposite of how anyone would design a protection scheme if they were designing one now.HyreMover calculation from Appendix A to 49 CFR Part 375, retrieved September 5, 2026.
The rule, quoted. "Under this option, the mover assumes liability for no more than 60 cents per pound, per article."
That is released value protection, and the booklet is equally direct about why people take it: "Released Value is minimal protection; however, it is the most economical protection available as there is no charge to you."
The unit is the article. The unit is the article, not the shipment.
A 35 lb television and a 35 lb box of books are settled the same way under released value, which is why the released rate is punishing on dense electronics and close to irrelevant on a mattress.
Sixty cents multiplied by the weight of the thing that broke. Not by what it cost, not by what it is worth to you, not by what a replacement now sells for.
The booklet’s own example. "For example, if a 10-pound stereo component valued at $1,000 was lost or destroyed, the mover would be liable for no more than $6.00 (10 pounds × $.60)."
Note what the drafters chose to illustrate with: a light, expensive electronic object. They picked the worst case deliberately, because it is the ordinary case.
And here is the number this page exists to produce. A 4 lb laptop that costs $900 to replace is covered for $2.40. As a percentage of replacement, that is 0.27 percent. Nobody accepts 0.27 percent knowingly.
People accept it because it appeared as a pre-ticked line on a form they read at the same sitting as a mortgage document. HyreMover calculation from the 60-cent rate quoted above.
Why the ratio is so brutal on modern goods. Household objects have been getting lighter and more expensive for forty years.
A flat television weighs a fraction of the cabinet set it replaced and costs about the same.
Sixty cents per pound is a figure whose real purchasing power against a household inventory falls every year it is not revised.
HyreMover recommendation. Do not decide valuation from the total. Decide it from your three worst items — the lightest expensive things you own. Those three set the answer, and the rest of the shipment barely changes it.
What released value pays on common items
Every figure in the fourth and fifth columns was produced by running the engine that runs above, not typed by hand. Change one input, watch the coverage percentage move.
Item
Weight
Replacement cost
Released value pays
Coverage
Value per pound
Laptop
4 lb
$900
$2.40
0.27%
Above $100/lb — an article of extraordinary value
55-inch television
30 lb
$700
$18.00
2.6%
$23.33/lb
Six dining chairs
18 lb each
$220 each
$64.80
4.9%
$12.22/lb
King mattress
130 lb
$1,200
$78.00
6.5%
$9.23/lb
Three-seat sofa
200 lb
$1,800
$120.00
6.7%
$9.00/lb
Carton of books
40 lb
$300
$24.00
8.0%
$7.50/lb — the best ratio here
Wedding ring
0.1 lb
$4,000
$0.06
0.00%
Extraordinary value; list it or carry it
HyreMover calculation from the 60-cent-per-pound-per-article rate quoted in Appendix A to 49 CFR Part 375, retrieved September 5, 2026. Weights and replacement values are illustrative inputs, not surveyed prices — type your own. The point is the ratio, which holds whatever you type.
Released value vs full value protection
Federal law requires an interstate mover to offer both. It does not require anyone to explain the difference at the moment you sign.
Full value protection — the standard level, chargeable
"Your shipment will be transported at this level of liability unless you waive Full Value Protection." Read that carefully: the shipment moves at full value unless you waive it. Released value is not the background default in the regulation’s structure — it is a waiver you sign.
What it obliges the mover to do: repair the article, replace it with one of like kind and quality, or pay you what either costs (Appendix A to Part 375).
"Full Value Protection will increase the cost of your move above the basic transportation cost." And "The exact cost for your shipment, including Full Value Protection, may vary by mover and may be further subject to various deductible levels." — so a quoted full value price without a stated deductible is an incomplete quote.
The valuation cannot be set arbitrarily low either: "The minimum valuation level for determining the cost of Full Value Protection of your shipment is $6.00 per pound times the weight of your shipment." A 7,000 lb shipment therefore carries a minimum declared value of $42,000. HyreMover calculation from the $6.00/lb minimum.
Released value — 60 cents a pound, no charge, signed for
"Under this option, the mover assumes liability for no more than 60 cents per pound, per article." And "Released Value is minimal protection; however, it is the most economical protection available as there is no charge to you."
The trade-off is stated honestly by the regulator and then, very often, presented on paper as a formality. It is not a formality. It is the single largest financial decision in the moving file after the estimate itself.
The unit is the article, not the shipment. A 35 lb television and a 35 lb box of books are settled the same way under released value, which is why the released rate is punishing on dense electronics and close to irrelevant on a mattress.
Choosing it is legitimate. Choosing it without having multiplied your own worst item by 60 cents a pound is not a choice, it is a default you accepted.
What is an article of extraordinary value?
There is a second limitation stacked on top of the first, and it applies to full value protection too.
The threshold is $100 per pound
"Under this option, movers are permitted to limit their liability for loss or damage to articles of extraordinary value, unless you specifically list these articles on the shipping documents. An article of extraordinary value is any item whose value exceeds $100 per pound (for example, jewelry, silverware, china, furs, antiques, oriental rugs, and computer software)."
Divide value by weight. If the answer is above $100, the item is in this category whatever it happens to be.
The list in the regulation — jewelry, silverware, china, furs, antiques, oriental rugs, computer software — reads as though it were written before consumer electronics existed, and the arithmetic has since swept a great deal more into the definition.
A $900 laptop at 4 lb is $225 per pound
It is therefore an article of extraordinary value under the definition, more than twice over, and it looks nothing like a fur coat. HyreMover calculation: $900 ÷ 4 lb.
Most phones, tablets, cameras, lenses, hearing aids, small musical instruments and a great deal of jewelry clear $100 a pound without difficulty. The calculator on this page flags it for you, because almost nobody thinks to do the division.
The remedy is listing, and it is your job
The regulation permits the mover to limit liability on these items "unless you specifically list these articles on the shipping documents." The high-value inventory form exists for this. An item you did not list is an item you did not protect, regardless of which valuation option you chose.
Ask for the form by name before load day, complete it yourself, and keep your copy. Doing it in the hallway while a crew is carrying boxes past you is how items get missed.
Or do not ship them at all
Jewelry, passports, deeds, medication, laptops and small heirlooms fit in a car. The best available protection on an irreplaceable light object is not a valuation election; it is the back seat.
This is the same advice the moving checklist gives at the load-day stage, and it is on both pages because it is the one recommendation that costs nothing and removes the risk entirely.
Neither option is insurance
Calling valuation something other than insurance is not pedantry about vocabulary. The distinction changes who you complain to, what law applies, and how long you have.
HyreMover calculation. The $18 bar is there. It is simply too small to see at the scale of the thing it is meant to replace, which is the most honest chart on this site.HyreMover calculation from Appendix A to 49 CFR Part 375, retrieved September 5, 2026.
What valuation actually is. Neither option is insurance. Both are the carrier’s own liability under its tariff. Insurance is a separate product sold by an insurer, and a mover that calls valuation "insurance" is describing its own liability limit in someone else’s vocabulary.
Which regulator. A dispute about carrier liability on an interstate household goods move runs through the carrier’s claims process and then, if you choose, its arbitration program — not through a state insurance commissioner.
If someone sold you a genuine insurance policy, that is a separate contract with a separate complaint route, and it should have arrived with an insurer’s name on it.
The clock. "You have 9 months from the date of delivery (or in the event of loss for the entire shipment, from the date your shipment should have been delivered) to file your claim."
After you submit your claim, your mover has 30 days to acknowledge receipt of it. The mover then has 120 days to provide you with a disposition. Those windows are the carrier-liability windows. A household policy will have its own, usually shorter, notification requirement.
Arbitration is the cheap forum. "If you request arbitration for a claim for $10,000 or less, the mover must agree to arbitration and the arbitrator’s decision is binding on the parties."
All movers are required to participate in an arbitration program. For a loss under $10,000 — which is most household damage claims — this is the mechanism that makes a claim worth pursuing at all.
And settlement is not always replacement. For household goods, 49 CFR 370.9 describes settlement as taking replacement cost as the base and then applying depreciation to reach current actual value.
That matters when comparing the two options: full value protection obliges repair, replacement or the cost to replace; the general claims framework contemplates depreciation. Ask, in writing, which basis your quote is written on.
Your own policy might cover the move, and might not. Household and renters policies vary on goods in transit: some cover them, some cover them only against named perils, some exclude professional-carrier transit entirely, and many cap jewelry and electronics separately.
HyreMover holds no dataset of policy wordings and will not tell you what yours says.
Telephone your insurer, ask specifically about a household goods move by a common carrier, and get the answer in writing before you decline full value protection on the assumption you are already covered.
How to choose valuation in about twenty minutes
Before the valuation statement is in front of you, not while it is.
1
List your ten lightest expensive things
Not your most valuable things — your worst ratios. Laptops, phones, tablets, cameras and lenses, a games console, hearing aids, jewelry, a laptop-sized musical instrument, small art. These decide the answer.
2
Put a weight and a replacement cost against each
Weight comes off the manufacturer spec sheet or a bathroom scale. Replacement cost is what an equivalent sells for today, not what you paid in 2019 and not a depreciated book value.
3
Run each one through the calculator above
Read the coverage percentage rather than the dollar figure. The dollar figure is small enough to shrug at item by item; the percentage is what makes the pattern visible.
4
Add the shortfalls up
That total is what you are absorbing if the truck is lost or the load shifts. Compare it against one number and one number only: the price the mover quotes for full value protection.
5
Ask for the full value price in writing, with the deductible
"The exact cost for your shipment, including Full Value Protection, may vary by mover and may be further subject to various deductible levels." A quote without a stated deductible cannot be compared against another mover’s quote. Ask both for the same deductible level.
6
Divide value by weight and flag anything over $100 a pound
Those items go on the high-value inventory form regardless of which option you elect, or they travel in your car. This step is free and it is the one most often skipped.
7
Telephone your own insurer before you decline
Ask whether the policy covers household goods in transit with a professional carrier, what the sub-limits on jewelry and electronics are, and what the notification window is. Get it in writing. "I think we are covered" is not a finding.
8
Photograph everything expensive before it is wrapped
Date-stamped photographs and receipts are what convert a claim from an argument into a document. This is worth more than the valuation election in practice, because most claims fail on evidence rather than on liability level.
Common valuation mistakes, in the order they happen
All of these are ordinary. None of them require a dishonest mover.
Reading the valuation line as a formality
It arrives among a stack of documents on a day when you are also dealing with a house. It looks like a checkbox. It is the second largest financial term in the file after the estimate.
Assuming "free" means "included at a sensible level"
It is free because it is worth very little. The regulator says so plainly: minimal protection, most economical, no charge to you. Those three phrases are describing the same trade-off.
Calling it insurance and stopping there
It is the carrier’s own liability under its tariff, not an insurance policy from an insurer. If the word insurance was used in the sales conversation, ask what the product actually is and who underwrites it.
Deciding from the shipment total instead of the worst item
A 7,000 lb shipment settles at $4,200 under released value, which sounds survivable until you notice it is distributed by weight — so the mattress is well covered and the laptop is not. HyreMover calculation from the 60-cent rate.
Not listing articles of extraordinary value
Above $100 a pound the mover may limit liability further unless the item is specifically listed on the shipping documents. This applies under full value protection too. Listing is your job.
Assuming the household policy covers goods in transit
Some do, some do not, many cover only named perils and nearly all sub-limit jewelry and electronics. Telephone and get the answer in writing before you decline the paid option on that assumption.
Shipping the irreplaceable things at all
No valuation election replaces a photograph album. Light, irreplaceable and valuable objects belong in the car, and this is the only advice on this page that eliminates rather than prices the risk.
Running the numbers before the estimate is signed
The right time. You have leverage, you have two or three quotes, and you can ask each mover for a full value price at the same deductible level. Twenty minutes, and it is the cheapest twenty minutes in the whole move.
Photographing and receipting the expensive items
Do this while packing. Claims are won on evidence far more often than on liability level, and evidence collected after the damage is evidence you are arguing about.
Reading the whole valuation statement and keeping your copy
Both parties sign it. Ask for your dated copy at the time, the same way you should for the estimate under 49 CFR 375.401(h).
What changes the answer most?
Two of the five inputs decide almost everything. The rest are context.
HyreMover calculation. One ratio explains the entire tool. If you remember nothing else, remember to divide.HyreMover calculation from Appendix A to 49 CFR Part 375, retrieved September 5, 2026.
1. Value per pound, by an enormous margin. The coverage percentage is nothing more than 0.60 divided by the item’s value per pound.
Everything else on this page is commentary on that single ratio. At $6 a pound you recover 10 percent; at $60 a pound, 1 percent; at $600 a pound, a tenth of one percent. HyreMover calculation.
2. Which items you choose to test. Testing the sofa produces a reassuring 6.7 percent. Testing the laptop produces 0.27 percent. Both are true. The shipment contains both, and your exposure is concentrated in the second kind, so a decision made from the first kind is a decision made from the wrong sample.
3. The quoted price of full value protection. If you type it in, the tool tells you what multiple of that price your shortfall on a single item already is.
It is an input rather than a default because it varies by mover, by declared value and by deductible, and HyreMover holds no tariff data. We will not invent an average.
4. Shipment weight, but only for the floor. It sets the $6.00-per-pound minimum declared value under full value protection. It does not change the released-value arithmetic on any individual item, which is why it is optional here.
5. Quantity, which is linear and therefore boring. Six identical chairs have the same coverage percentage as one chair. The field exists so you can total a set, not because it changes the finding.
What is deliberately absent, and why. There is no default full value price, because we hold no tariff.
There is no depreciation schedule, because 49 CFR 370.9 leaves the schedule to the settlement rather than publishing one.
There is no deductible model, because deductible levels vary by mover and the regulation says so explicitly. There is no insurance-policy comparison, because we do not hold policy wordings and would be guessing.
Each of those is a blank field rather than a plausible invented number, which is the trade we make everywhere on this site.
Where is the valuation choice in the paperwork?
Knowing which document it is on is most of knowing when to look at it.
It is a signed statement, not a checkbox on the estimate. Waiving full value protection is done in writing on a valuation statement. If you cannot point at the document you signed, you do not yet know which option you are traveling under — ask for a copy today rather than after delivery.
It sits alongside the survey and the estimate. 49 CFR 375.401(a): "You must conduct a physical survey of the household goods to be transported and provide the prospective individual shipper with a written estimate, based on the physical survey, of the charges for the transportation and all related services."
Both parties must sign the estimate and the shipper gets a dated copy immediately (49 CFR 375.401(h)). The valuation decision is best made in the same sitting, because that is when you still have competing quotes and leverage.
Use the document checker to confirm the mover handed over the full 49 CFR 375.213 packet, which is where the booklet quoted throughout this page is supposed to reach you.
The inventory is the evidence base. "Your mover must prepare an inventory of your shipment. This is usually done at the time the mover loads your shipment. The mover is required to list any damage or unusual wear to any items."
And at the other end: "At the time your shipment is delivered, it is your responsibility to check the items delivered against the items listed on your inventory. If new damage is discovered, make a record of it on the inventory form."
A claim under either valuation option is argued against that inventory, so annotating it at delivery matters more than which option you elected.
None of this suspends the payment ceiling. On a non-binding estimate, "Under a non-binding estimate, the mover cannot require you to pay more than 110 percent of the non-binding estimate at the time of delivery."
A valuation dispute is not a reason for anyone to withhold your goods: Withholding a shipment after the shipper has offered proper payment is a failure to transport with reasonable dispatch and exposes the carrier to liability for the delay (49 CFR 375.407(b)).
If it happens anyway, "If your mover refuses to deliver your shipment unless you pay an amount the mover is not entitled to charge, contact FMCSA immediately at (888) 368-7238."
HyreMover recommendation. Ask for three documents by name before load day: the valuation statement, the high-value inventory form, and the written full value price with its deductible. A mover that produces all three quickly is telling you something useful about how the rest of the job will run.
What this calculator cannot do
Stated plainly, because the gaps matter as much as the arithmetic.
It does not price full value protection. That charge varies by mover, by declared value and by deductible, and we hold no tariff data. The field is an input you fill from a written quote. We publish no average because we have none.
It does not model deductibles or depreciation. The regulation says full value cost "may be further subject to various deductible levels" without publishing them, and 49 CFR 370.9 contemplates depreciation in settlement without a published schedule. Both would be invention.
It does not know your insurance. Whether your household or renters policy covers goods in transit with a professional carrier, and at what sub-limits, is a question for your insurer. We hold no policy wordings.
It is federal, and most moves are not. Appendix A to 49 CFR Part 375 governs interstate household goods moves. A move inside one state is governed by that state’s rules, and the valuation regime may differ. Check with the jurisdiction tool before assuming the 60-cent figure applies to your move at all.
It is not a claim, and not legal advice. It does not settle anything, does not bind any carrier, and is not a substitute for reading the valuation statement you were given.
And we sell nothing. HyreMover does not move household goods, does not sell valuation or insurance, does not rank movers and takes no referral fee. There is no version of this page where the answer benefits us.
Numbers to know before you choose valuation
$0.60per pound, per article — the released value ceilingAppendix A to 49 CFR Part 375, retrieved September 5, 2026
$6.00per pound of shipment weight — the minimum full value declarationAppendix A to 49 CFR Part 375, retrieved September 5, 2026
$100per pound — above this an item is an article of extraordinary value and must be listedAppendix A to 49 CFR Part 375, retrieved September 5, 2026
0.27%of replacement cost returned on a 4 lb, $900 laptopHyreMover calculation from the 60-cent rate
9 monthsto file a loss or damage claim from the date of deliveryAppendix A to 49 CFR Part 375, retrieved September 5, 2026
30 daysfor the mover to acknowledge your claimAppendix A to 49 CFR Part 375, retrieved September 5, 2026
120 daysfor the mover to pay, decline or make a written offer49 CFR 370.9, retrieved September 5, 2026
$10,000or less: the mover must agree to arbitration if you askAppendix A to 49 CFR Part 375, retrieved September 5, 2026
How this calculator works
The whole tool is one multiplication and one division, and the formula published here is the formula that runs:
Substitute and the coverage line collapses to something worth memorizing: coverage % = 0.60 ÷ valuePerPound × 100. Quantity cancels out entirely. Weight and value never matter separately — only their ratio does.
The 0.60 is quoted: "Under this option, the mover assumes liability for no more than 60 cents per pound, per article."
The 6.00 is quoted: "The minimum valuation level for determining the cost of Full Value Protection of your shipment is $6.00 per pound times the weight of your shipment." The 100 is quoted: "An article of extraordinary value is any item whose value exceeds $100 per pound."
Nothing else is added, assumed or averaged. There is deliberately no default price for full value protection, because "The exact cost for your shipment, including Full Value Protection, may vary by mover and may be further subject to various deductible levels." — a national average we cannot retrieve is a number we will not print.
What each input means
Inputs on this tool, in the order they appear on the form.
Input
What it is actually asking
Weight of one article
The item’s own shipping weight in pounds. Find it on the manufacturer’s spec sheet (search the model number plus "weight"), on the box if you still have it, or by standing on a bathroom scale holding it and subtracting. Guess high rather than low if you must — a high guess flatters released value, so if the percentage still looks bad on a generous weight, it is bad.
Replacement cost today
What an equivalent item sells for now. Not the price you paid, not a depreciated value, not an insurance schedule figure. Full value protection is written around repair, replacement or the cost to replace, so replacement cost is the right basis for the comparison.
Quantity
How many identical articles. Useful for sets — six dining chairs, a pair of bicycles. It scales the dollars and leaves the percentage untouched, which is itself worth seeing once.
Total shipment weight (optional)
The estimated weight of the whole move, from a mover’s written estimate or from the volume estimator converted at your carrier’s own factor. Used only to show the $6.00-per-pound minimum declared value under full value protection. Leave at 0 if you do not have it.
Quoted full value charge (optional)
The dollar price a mover quoted, in writing, for full value protection — and ask for the deductible in the same sentence, because the regulation says the cost "may be further subject to various deductible levels". This is an input rather than a default: we hold no tariff and will not invent an average.
Worked examples
Including one where the naive answer misleads, which is the example most calculators leave out.
A 4 lb laptop worth $900 — the case that makes the point
Weight 4, replacement $900, quantity 1. Released value pays $2.40. The shortfall is $897.60. Coverage is 0.27 percent.
The tool also reports $225.00 per pound, which is more than twice the $100/lb threshold, so this is an article of extraordinary value and the carrier may limit liability further unless it is specifically listed on the shipping documents.
Two findings from one item: the free option is worthless here, and the item needs listing regardless of which option you elect. HyreMover calculation, engine output.
A 30 lb television worth $700, on a 7,000 lb shipment, with $450 quoted for full value
Released value pays $18.00 against $700 — 2.6 percent — leaving a $682 shortfall.
Because the shipment weight is filled in, the tool also shows the minimum full value declaration: $42,000 at $6.00 per pound.
And because the quoted charge is filled in, it reports that the shortfall on this single television is already 1.5× the $450 being asked for full value protection on the entire shipment.
One item has justified the paid option, and there are twenty more rooms behind it. HyreMover calculation, engine output.
The one where the naive answer misleads: a 200 lb sofa worth $1,800
Released value pays $120.00, coverage 6.7 percent — the best result of any ordinary furniture item, and a carton of books does better still at 8.0 percent. Test your valuation decision on the sofa and you will conclude that released value returns something meaningful.
That conclusion is an artefact of the sample. The shipment also contains the laptop at 0.27 percent, a phone, a camera and a wedding ring that settles for six cents.
Released value is not uniformly bad; it is bad in a pattern, and the pattern lands precisely on the objects you would most want paid for. Decide from your worst three ratios, never from the average and never from the furniture. HyreMover calculation, engine output.
What changes the result
One thing moves the answer: value per pound. Coverage is 0.60 divided by that ratio, so at $6/lb you recover 10 percent, at $60/lb one percent, at $600/lb a tenth of one percent. Weight alone tells you nothing. Value alone tells you nothing.
Which items you test is the second driver, and it is a driver of your conclusion rather than of the arithmetic. Furniture flatters released value. Electronics and jewelry destroy it. Test the second kind.
The quoted full value charge only enters if you type it, and then it converts the shortfall into a ratio you can act on. Shipment weight changes nothing about released value; it only sets the $6.00/lb minimum declaration on the paid option. Quantity is linear and leaves the percentage exactly where it was.
Deliberately absent: any default full value price, any deductible schedule, any depreciation curve, any statement about what your own policy covers. We could not retrieve any of the four from a primary source, so each is a blank field or an open question rather than a plausible invented number.
Local considerations
There is no local layer here and we will not manufacture one. Appendix A to 49 CFR Part 375 is federal and applies to interstate household goods moves; the 60-cent rate does not vary by state.
What does vary is whether it applies to you at all — an intrastate move is governed by that state’s own rules and its own valuation regime, and HyreMover has not built a fifty-state table of those and will not publish one it has not verified.
Do not use this to value a claim you have already filed. Settlement runs through the carrier’s claims process, may involve depreciation under 49 CFR 370.9, and turns on the inventory and your evidence rather than on a browser calculation.
Do not use it to decide against full value protection on the strength of one heavy cheap item. That is the failure mode the third worked example exists to demonstrate.
Do not treat the absence of a full value price here as a suggestion that it is cheap. We do not know what it costs. Get the number and the deductible in writing from each mover you are comparing.
Do not assume your household or renters policy fills the gap. Telephone the insurer, ask specifically about goods in transit with a professional carrier, and get the answer in writing.
Do not read anything here as legal advice or as an insurance recommendation. HyreMover does not move household goods, does not sell valuation or insurance, does not rank movers and takes no referral fee.
Moving estimatesThe valuation statement belongs in the same sitting as the estimate.
What a move costsFull value protection is a priced line, not a free extra.
Questions this calculator answers
What is released value protection?
It is the no-charge liability level on an interstate household goods move. "Under this option, the mover assumes liability for no more than 60 cents per pound, per article." It pays by weight and ignores what the item is worth. You get it by waiving full value protection in writing.
Is released value really only 60 cents a pound?
Yes. The federal booklet gives its own example: "For example, if a 10-pound stereo component valued at $1,000 was lost or destroyed, the mover would be liable for no more than $6.00 (10 pounds × $.60)." That is a $1,000 item settling for $6. This calculator runs the same math on what you type.
Is released value the default, or is full value the default?
Full value protection is the default. Appendix A says: "Your shipment will be transported at this level of liability unless you waive Full Value Protection." Released value costs nothing, but it is a waiver you sign on the valuation statement. If you cannot find what you signed, ask the mover for a copy.
What is full value protection and how does it differ?
The mover must repair a lost or damaged item, replace it with one of like kind and quality, or pay you what either costs. It is not a weight calculation. It costs extra, and the price may come with a deductible, so ask for both together.
Is either of these insurance?
No. Both are the mover’s own liability under its tariff. Insurance is a separate product sold by an insurer. So a dispute runs through the mover’s claims process and its arbitration program, not through a state insurance regulator.
Does my home or renters policy cover goods in transit?
It might. Some policies cover belongings in transit, some cover only named perils, some exclude professional movers, and many cap jewelry and electronics. We hold no policy wordings. Call your insurer, ask about a household goods move by a mover, and get the answer in writing.
What is an article of extraordinary value?
Any item worth more than $100 per pound, under Appendix A. Movers may limit liability for these unless you list them on the shipping documents. A $900 laptop at 4 lb is $225 a pound, so list it. The calculator flags this for you.
Is there a minimum declared value under full value protection?
Yes. "The minimum valuation level for determining the cost of Full Value Protection of your shipment is $6.00 per pound times the weight of your shipment." A 7,000 lb shipment therefore carries a minimum declared value of $42,000. HyreMover calculation from the $6.00 per pound figure.
How long do I have to file a claim?
9 months from delivery. The mover then has 30 days to acknowledge the claim and 120 days to respond. For a claim of $10,000 or less, the mover must agree to arbitration if you ask, and the decision is binding.
Does any of this apply to a move inside one state?
Not necessarily. Appendix A to 49 CFR Part 375 governs interstate moves. An in-state move follows that state’s rules, and the valuation options may differ. Check which rules apply with the local vs long-distance tool first.
Does HyreMover sell valuation or insurance?
No. HyreMover does not move household goods, sell valuation or insurance, rank movers or take referral fees. No answer on this page benefits us.
Protect Your Move — valuation and consumer guidance (FMCSA, retrieved 2026-09-05. The federal consumer program. fmcsa.dot.gov returned HTTP 403 to automated retrieval on September 5, 2026, so we read the booklet it distributes as codified in Appendix A above.)
49 CFR 370.9 — processing of claims (eCFR via Cornell LII, retrieved 2026-09-05. The 30-day acknowledgement and 120-day disposition duties, the 60-day status updates beyond that, and the description of settlement taking replacement cost as a base and applying depreciation.)
49 CFR 375.401 — estimates and the physical survey (eCFR via Cornell LII, retrieved 2026-09-05. Why the valuation decision belongs in the same sitting as the survey and the signed estimate, and why both parties sign and you keep a dated copy.)