Commercial truck insurance, explained

The coverage a trucking business is built on

• Primary auto liability — injury and damage you cause to others. Required by federal and state law; see the owner-operator guide for the minimums.
• Motor truck cargo — the freight in your care. Required for movers, and contracts can require it. Cargo guide.
• Physical damage — collision and comprehensive for your own truck and trailer; a lender with a lien will require it.
• General liability — claims that don’t come from driving, such as at docks, yards and customer sites.
• Non-trucking liability / bobtail — for owner-operators leased on to a carrier, when the truck isn’t working for it.
• Occupational accident — injury coverage for owner-operator drivers; Texas requires workers’ compensation or accident coverage from certain for-hire carriers.
• Trailer interchange — damage to other companies’ trailers you pull under an interchange agreement.
• Workers’ compensation — for employees, under your state’s law.

Filings, in plain English

MCS-90

An endorsement attached to your liability policy — not issued per truck. It guarantees payment of final judgments for public liability up to the federal minimum, and you pay the insurer back for anything it pays only because of the endorsement.

BMC-91 / BMC-91X

The filing your insurance company makes with FMCSA to prove your liability coverage. FMCSA won’t grant operating authority without it.

BMC-34 / BMC-83

Cargo filings for household goods carriers.

BOC-3

Your designation of process agents — people who can accept court papers for you. Process-agent (“blanket”) companies file it with FMCSA.

Form E / Form H

The state-level liability (E) and cargo (H) filings for intrastate authority — used in Texas, Ohio, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Washington and South Carolina.

MC 65 M

California’s certificate of insurance for the Motor Carrier Permit.

Guides by operation

• Owner-operator truck insurance — leased on vs. your own authority.
• New authority truck insurance — filings, deadlines and the first-year audit.
• Hot shot insurance — the weight lines for CDL, IFTA and liability limits.
• Box truck insurance — non-CDL trucks, movers and cargo filings.
• Dump truck insurance — for-hire vs. private hauling and state rules.
• Motor truck cargo insurance — when it’s required and what you owe for damaged freight.
• Truck insurance cost — what moves the premium and how to lower it.

Guides by state

• Texas — TxDMV number for trucks over 26,000 lbs; $500,000 intrastate minimum.
• California — Motor Carrier Permit and CA number; $750,000 for private and for-hire carriers.
• Ohio — PUCO certificate for for-hire hauling; $750,000; per-truck PUCO tax.
• North Carolina — $750,000 for commercial vehicle owners; “USDOT … NC” marking.
• South Carolina — Certificate of Compliance, E-L or E-LC; $750,000 or $300,000.
• Missouri — MoDOT intrastate authority; $100,000 / $300,000 / $50,000.
• Pennsylvania — PUC certificate; $750,000 and $5,000 cargo.
• Oregon — $750,000 over 26,000 lbs; weight-mile tax changes in 2027 and 2029.
• Washington — UTC permit; $750,000; USDOT at 16,001 lbs.

How to get quotes faster

1. Your numbers: USDOT, MC and any state authority numbers — or where your application stands.
2. Drivers: everyone who will drive, with license details and years of experience.
3. Equipment: VIN, year, make, model, GVWR and the value to insure for every truck and trailer.
4. Operation: what you haul, the states or radius you run, and the limits your contracts require.
5. History: loss runs from each recent insurer, and your current declarations page.

With that in hand, a licensed agent can send one clean file to every market that writes your kind of trucking.