I nest the drums when shipping a drum set. I also take off the floor tom legs, bass drum mount and both heads of the bass drum.
I have not had a problem shipping that way. I also make it a practice, thanks to TommyP to always put the drum in a plastic garbage bag.
I never ship a drum that is not protected with plastic. You just never know what can happen and water damage is a factor no matter where you live or ship to.
One other thing I do is always add insurance, even if the buyer does not want it. Add it anyway. You will be glad you did if something does happen.
In regards to which shipper is the best and which shipper does not give any money for instruments if they are damaged I leave that up to personal preference.
What I do know is that if something is packed well and the label is properly affixed to the box you should not have a problem. There are rare cases of course where things do get lost or damaged.
There are plenty of shipping gripes about damaged drums, but in most cases they were not packed correctly. I have shipped some very rare drums across the country and I double box and make sure there is plenty of room for the drum to get hit from any side.
David