Shipping work within the US:
I have used www.itransport4u.com and highly recommend them. They will arrive at your location, and you only need to have minimal protection for your work – corners affixed and perhaps a nice double ply sheet of cardboard on the front/back of your work (they sell special heavy duty corners; you may want to order these ahead of time). The driver will come to pick up your work at a designated time which you can track online on their website - so you will always know where they are. When they arrive, you meet them and hand over your work. They will carefully load your work into a large van with a very high level of TLC (tender loving care) and, because this company collects several artists’ work on each trip, it keeps the costs down for each individual artist. I highly recommend this service!
I have also used PM Transport (https://www.pmtransport.us/) and they have a climate controlled vehicle that comes right to your door and carries your work from your studio to their vehicle. Miniimal packaging is necessary since it is white glove service (but not that expensive!). I used them to ship 10 large works to a gallery in CA and the gallery and I split the cost so just $600 each to transport 10 large works.
I have also shipped UPS - and yes, they MUST pack it if you want to insure over $100. For price comparison, I also recently shipped a large work to MA, and using UPS, this one piece alone was also around $600 to ship (good thing the customer was paying!).
Fedex is fine for International since you can't insure it anyway due to high tariffs on the receiving end and chance of getting stuck in customs. BUT, if you wish to insure the art, do NOT use Fedex as the most they will insure it for is like $100 or something very low!
For international shipping, check out www.ArtGlobalTransport.com!