FMCSA insurance requirements by operation type

FMCSA does not tell carriers which insurer to use or how much coverage is sensible. It sets floors: the minimum public liability a motor carrier must carry, depending on what it hauls and in what. Those floors are in 49 CFR Part 387. Here is how they break down, and what each one means when you are quoting.

Property carriers

The schedule in 49 CFR 387.9 covers vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,001 pounds or more:

Operation	Federal minimum
For-hire, interstate, non-hazardous property	$750,000
Oil, hazardous waste, and hazardous materials listed in 49 CFR 172.101 (for-hire or private; interstate in any quantity, intrastate in bulk only)	$1,000,000
Certain bulk hazardous materials: bulk explosives in Divisions 1.1 to 1.3, bulk Division 2.3 Hazard Zone A, bulk Division 6.1 Packing Group I Hazard Zone A, bulk Division 2.1 or 2.2 and other listed substances in bulk tanks or hoppers, and highway route controlled quantities of Class 7 radioactive material	$5,000,000

The $5,000,000 tier for the most dangerous bulk materials and route-controlled radioactive material also applies to vehicles under 10,001 pounds. For lighter for-hire vehicles hauling non-hazardous property, the minimum is $300,000 (49 CFR 387.303).

Private carriers hauling their own non-hazardous goods have no federal minimum under Part 387. State law, leases and customers may still require coverage.

Passenger carriers

For-hire passenger carriers follow 49 CFR 387.33:

Vehicle seating, including the driver	Federal minimum
16 or more	$5,000,000
15 or fewer	$1,500,000

Household goods movers

Movers of household goods need liability coverage like any property carrier, plus cargo coverage of at least $5,000 per vehicle and $10,000 per occurrence (49 CFR 387.303(c)).

How the coverage is proven

For a for-hire carrier with operating authority, the insurer files proof with FMCSA, usually on Form BMC-91 or BMC-91X. The authority does not become active until that filing is on record, and if the insurer later cancels, it must notify FMCSA in advance. That cancellation notice is a public signal that the carrier needs a new policy (how to find them).

Carriers that must meet a minimum but do not file with FMCSA, such as private hazmat carriers, keep proof at their principal place of business, typically the MCS-90 endorsement on their policy (49 CFR 387.7).

Minimum is not the same as enough

The federal amounts are floors written into regulation, and freight brokers, shippers and lessors often set their own requirements above them. Treat the minimum as the legal starting point of a conversation, not the recommendation. A carrier that bought the cheapest compliant policy to get its authority active is often the one most open to a better-structured program at renewal.

Find the minimum for a specific operation with our FMCSA minimum insurance finder.