Every box you send, sheltered

Northgate Hub covers small and mid-sized shippers for the full value of what they send: a crate of stoneware to Portland, a pallet of jerseys to a Berlin store, a container of bike frames from Taichung into Oakland, a box of sauces to a deli across town. It is one policy, and it works with whichever carrier you like.

Packing-station worker wrapping ceramic bowls in paper before placing them in a box

Full invoice value, written into the policy

Most small shippers learn what “declared value” means the day a box of mugs arrives in pieces: the carrier owes a set amount per pound, and the carrier decides whether to pay it. Northgate Hub pays what your invoice says the goods were worth, and can add the freight and duty you spent getting them there.

Invoice value plus the freight and duty you paid, and up to 10% of expected margin, so a lost order does not also cost you the sale
Cover from your packing table to the customer’s doorstep, including the days a pallet waits in a forwarder’s warehouse or at the port
Breakage, crushing, wet cartons, and a parcel that never arrives are all paid losses under the standard wording

What full value means for you

Courier holding a stack of parcels beside a delivery van on a palm-lined street

When goods break or go missing

A kiln-fired vase does not care that the carton said Fragile. A pallet of frozen dumplings sits on a warm dock for an afternoon, or a carton of e-bike batteries is misrouted and never seen again. We write cover for those ordinary failures. A few hundred dollars at a time is where a small business loses money in transit.

All-risk cover by default, with a simpler named-perils option if you know your lane well and want a lower premium
Temperature cover for chilled and frozen food, from a single reefer pallet to a full container
Cross-border shipments from Asia into Oakland stay covered through customs holds, transhipment, port storage, and the inland leg to your warehouse

See what counts as a covered loss

Forklift driver moving a pallet while a colleague checks the manifest on a tablet

A claims desk that answers the phone

Ninety-five percent of our claims are settled within 30 days. The document list is short: photos, your invoice, the tracking number, and the carrier’s confirmation. One person handles your file, and we pay you before we go after the carrier for their share.

Loss line open around the clock, so a delivery that arrives damaged on Friday evening is reported on Friday evening
Photo-based assessment for parcel claims below a set threshold; a surveyor visits for pallets and containers
We pursue the carrier ourselves after paying you, so you are never waiting on their timetable

Walk through a claim

Ways to buy cover

Start small, add cover as you grow

Most Northgate Hub clients begin with one transit policy for the orders they ship each month. When the business adds a warehouse, an online checkout, a trade-show calendar, or a second country, the same terms stretch to cover it.

Your first container

For a first import from Asia: a single-shipment policy that covers the ocean leg, the terminal at the Port of Oakland, customs clearance, and the truck to your door, priced as a percentage of the invoice.

Monthly parcel plans

For shops sending 50 to 5,000 parcels a month. One flat rate per shipment and one statement at the end of it, with nothing to declare at the carrier counter.

Stock in storage

Goods sitting in a 3PL or your own back room between arrival and dispatch, covered under the same policy, so there is no gap between the truck and the shelf.

Protection at checkout

Let customers add protection to their order for a couple of dollars. Lost, stolen, crushed, or wet parcels are replaced from our line, and the refund emails stop arriving in your support inbox.

Annual open cover

For growing brands and food producers: a yearly policy priced on turnover, with every shipment covered automatically and no per-shipment paperwork.

Trade shows, samples & returns

Booth stock heading to a fair, samples going to a buyer, a repaired unit going back out, returns coming home from customers. Short, odd trips like these are the ones most transit policies leave out.

Why shippers stay

Cover written for the person doing the packing

Roots in a fishing harbour

Northgate Hub began in Trondheim in 2010, insuring small exporters along the fjord. We still price risk the way we did then: by asking what you ship and how it is packed.

Small print you can read in one sitting

Our policy fits on a few pages and says what it pays for in plain words. If a clause needs a lawyer, we rewrite it before it reaches you.

Paid within 30 days

95% of claims close inside a month of your documents arriving. You get one named handler and their direct line, and updates arrive without you having to ask.

The same people, quote to claim

The team that sets up your cover is the team that answers when a shipment goes wrong. We do not hand claims to an outside administrator.

16 offices on 120+ trade lanes

There is a Northgate Hub desk at the Port of Oakland and in Hamburg, and the original one in Trondheim. Each knows the customs officers and carriers on the routes small importers use.

Any carrier, any box size

USPS, UPS, a regional courier, an LTL pallet, or a shared container from Shenzhen. Pick whichever carrier is cheapest this month and the cover comes along.

Tell us about your next shipment

Share what you sell, roughly how much you ship each month, which carriers you use, and where it goes. We send back a plain-language quote, in most cases the same working day.

Get my quote