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Card class: Hero • Category: Shipping & Courier

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At a glance

Count and aggregate value of EasyPost-managed claims currently open. EasyPost offers built-in shipping insurance; claims for damage and lost-in-transit on EasyPost-insured shipments are filed and adjudicated through EasyPost’s claims portal. The card tracks open exposure plus aged unresolved claims that need follow-up.
What it countsCOUNT(EasyPost insurance claims WHERE status IN ('Open', 'Under Review', 'Awaiting Information')) and SUM(insured_value) at read time. Closed-paid and closed-denied excluded.
EasyPost Insurance product0.50per0.50 per 100 declared value, configurable per-shipment via the insurance field at booking. Available across all major carriers EasyPost supports. Adjudication SLA: 5 to 10 business days, faster than USPS direct (14 to 21 days).
Eligible event typesLost in transit, damaged contents, missing contents (partial loss). Filing window: 60 days from ship date.
Pay-out ratesIndustry typical for well-documented EasyPost claims: 80 to 90% approval rate. Faster adjudication than USPS direct. Pay-out via ACH or cheque to merchant within 5 to 10 days of approval.
Carrier-direct claim alternativeThis card tracks EasyPost Insurance claims only. Merchants who skip EasyPost insurance and rely on carrier-direct insurance (USPS Insured Mail, FedEx Declared Value) need to track those separately on the carrier-specific Open Claims cards.
Time windowRT (real-time, refreshed daily)
Alert trigger>0 claims unresolved for >7 days
Rolesowner, operations, finance

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Calculation

Calculated automatically from your EasyPost data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.

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Worked example

A US DTC mid-market jewellery merchant via EasyPost with EasyPost Insurance enabled on every shipment. Reading taken on 12 Mar 26.
Claim typeOpen countAggregate valueMedian age (days)
Lost in transit8$1,4205
Damaged14$2,1804
Missing contents2$2603
Open total (this card)24$3,8604
The card reads 24 open claims totalling $3,860; alert at >0 unresolved >7d has not yet tripped (median 4 days). Five things to notice:
  1. EasyPost adjudication is faster than USPS direct. Median 4 days here vs 9 to 14 days typical for USPS Insured Mail. Insurance premium is similar (0.50per0.50 per 100 vs USPS Insured Mail at $2.95 minimum); the speed advantage on adjudication is the main reason DTC merchants prefer EasyPost insurance.
  2. **The 3,860expectedpay−outisroughly3,860 expected pay-out is roughly 3,100 to 3,500.∗∗EasyPostapprovalrateruns80to903,500.** EasyPost approval rate runs 80 to 90% for well-documented claims; this maps to 3,088 to $3,474 expected recovery.
  3. Damage claims dominate jewellery shippers. 14 of 24 claims are damage, typical for this category. Mitigations: better packing materials (jewellery boxes inside padded envelopes), insurance always-on, customer-side photo evidence collection workflow.
  4. 24 open across ~10K monthly shipments = 0.24% claim rate. Industry typical is 0.1 to 0.3%; this is on the higher end for jewellery (fragility plus high-value attractive-to-theft profile). Consider pickup-required for shipments above $500 declared value.
  5. Cash-flow forecast: ~$3,100 incoming over next 7 to 14 days. Useful for finance planning. Pair with Claim Value for total finance recovery feed including recently-paid.
Note: this card does not include carrier-direct insurance claims (USPS Insured Mail, FedEx Declared Value) the merchant may also have open. If the merchant uses both, reconcile with fedex.fed_open_claims and usps.usp_open_claims.

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Sibling cards merchants should reference together

CardWhy pair it with Open ClaimsWhat the combination tells you
Claim ValueThe dollar tail of this count card.Count plus value gives finance the exposure shape and average claim size.
Failed Delivery CountUpstream feeder.Failed deliveries that escalate to lost-in-transit drive lost-claim filings 5 to 14 days later.
Returned to SenderDisposition split.Some failed deliveries are recovered as RTS rather than becoming claims.
Exception RateLead indicator.Damage and lost exceptions in transit predict claim filings.
Cross-connector: fedex.fed_open_claimsCarrier-direct alternative.Merchants using EasyPost for booking but FedEx for insurance need both views.
Cross-connector: usps.usp_open_claimsSame for USPS.Same.

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Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard

Where to look in EasyPost’s own dashboard: EasyPost Dashboard → Claims. Lists every claim with status, declared value, file date, adjudication notes. Source of truth; the card mirrors operationally. Why our number may legitimately differ from EasyPost’s portal:
ReasonDirectionWhy
Status sync timingCard may show staleEasyPost claim status updates flow into the card daily; recently-resolved claims may show open for one extra day.
Filing-channel differenceEitherClaims filed via API appear immediately; web-portal claims appear within a few minutes.
Cross-connector reconciliation:
CardExpected relationshipWhat causes legitimate divergence
fedex.fed_open_claimsIndependent claim system.Merchants who use EasyPost insurance get faster adjudication; carrier-direct insurance lives on the carrier card.
usps.usp_open_claimsSame.Same.

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Known limitations / merchant FAQs

Should I use EasyPost Insurance or carrier-direct insurance? For DTC merchants, EasyPost Insurance is usually faster (5 to 10 days vs 14 to 21 USPS, 7 to 14 FedEx) and similarly priced (0.50per0.50 per 100 vs USPS $2.95 minimum). EasyPost wins on adjudication speed for typical DTC claim volume. Trade-off: EasyPost Insurance is offered by EasyPost’s underwriter (currently UPIC); carrier-direct claims involve the carrier’s own legal/process pipeline which can sometimes be more lenient on edge cases. A claim has been open >14 days, how do I escalate? Open the EasyPost claim in the dashboard, click “Send Update” with a polite request for status. Most aged claims resolve within a week of follow-up. If still unresolved at 30 days, contact your EasyPost CSM for direct escalation. My claim was denied. Can I appeal? Yes via the EasyPost Claims portal “Appeal” button. Add additional evidence (photos, customer-service emails, retail invoice). Appeal success rate is 30 to 50% with strong supporting documentation. What evidence does EasyPost want? For lost shipments: tracking number, declared value, proof of value (Shopify order, retail invoice). For damage: photos of damaged item AND damaged packaging (preferably before discarding), customer-statement, proof of value. Filing without these reduces approval rate significantly. How does EasyPost handle high-value shipments? EasyPost Insurance covers up to 100,000pershipment.Forshipmentsabove100,000 per shipment. For shipments above 5,000, EasyPost may require additional documentation upfront and may take longer to adjudicate. For shipments above $25,000, talk to EasyPost CSM for special handling. Can I auto-enable insurance on every shipment? Yes via account settings. Useful for high-value or fragile-goods merchants. Cost is the 0.50per0.50 per 100 premium on every parcel; budget against expected loss-rate. Most jewellery/luxury merchants find it net-positive. Q4 cash flow impact? Claim volume rises 30 to 80% in November-December (more shipments, more damage, more theft attempts during holiday delivery). Open-claim balances climb proportionally; expected pay-outs lag 5 to 21 days into January. Plan finance forecasts accordingly.

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Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

Open Claims is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across EasyPost and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. Start for free or book a demo to see this metric running on your own data.