USPS covers your posted envelopes and packages up to $5,000 with Insured Mail, which covers the cost of goods that are lost or damaged. Although the postal service does not automatically track all Insured Mail, customers can arrange to have it tracked or file a claim if a piece of mail has gone missing.

Tracking Items with Delivery Confirmation Numbers

Track your mail using Delivery Confirmation Services, which allows customers to know if and when a package has arrived at a given destination. You can access this service by filling out PS Form 152 and turning it in to your mail carrier or local post office. Then, once they have provided you with a barcoded label, attach it to the side of your shipment.

Checking Your Item on the Website

Once a shipment arrives at its final destination, the barcode attached to the shipment is scanned one last time. To find out if your shipment has arrived or is still in transit, log in to the account you've created on the USPS website. Enter the barcode number in the appropriate search space, marked "Label number." The website provides updates as the shipment travels from one location to the next.

Text Tracking

USPS offers a service called text tracking, in which customers can track an insured shipment by receiving SMS text alerts via phone. If you know the tracking number of your shipment, you can text 28777 -- 2USPS -- and receive a response from that number providing the most recent tracking information, along with the expected time of arrival. You can also arrange to receive text messages via phone by logging into your USPS website account on the tracking page.

Insuring Mail

USPS regulates the types of items that customers can insure. This includes shipments that would normally be shipped using Priority Mail, Standard Mail, or Package Services. However, USPS will not insure extremely fragile objects or unsolicited items being delivered to people with expectation of payment. If insurance has been bought at a post office, the person sending the insured mail must present it, in person, at a post office or hand it to a mail carrier. However, if insurance is bought online, the sender may place the mail in an authorized mail drop.