When ever sending anything look at the paper work you sign, if it has some where on there that the company is a "common carrier" then most likely you are sending at you own risk, if it goes missing or gets damaged then bad luck!
Cant repeat enough the early comments about packaging things right, a lot of freight the company i work for gets is stuff going to country regions, a lot of the time we get it from interstate and other courier companys so by the time we get it, it has been handled by quite a few ppl, once we send it on to the country areas it gets handled by quite a few more, if you have someone fragile, pack it, play footy with it and then open it and see if its ok, if it is then it "should" be safe.
Another option if you have multiple things is to find a pallet and strap and wrap everything onto a pallet and try to pack it so another pallet wont sit on top with out falling off, atleast then it dosnt get kicked around as much as cartons do.
I am not going to mention the company i work for as unless i am sending something to a melb metro area or sending something on a pallet that cannot get damaged then i dont trust them.