Why Your FMCSA Insurance Filing Shows $750,000 When Your Policy Says $1,000,000

Your Policy Limit and Your FMCSA Filing Are Two Different Things

When you get your operating authority, your insurance company files a BMC-91X with FMCSA. That filing certifies that you carry at least the minimum financial responsibility federal law requires for your type of operation, and it’s backed by an MCS-90 endorsement on your policy.

Pull up your USDOT number in Motus (or in the old Licensing & Insurance lookup, which still shows legacy data) and you’ll see two lines under BIPD (bodily injury and property damage): Insurance Required, which is what FMCSA says you must carry based on what you told them you haul, and Insurance on File, which is what your insurance company filed. For most for-hire carriers, both say $750,000.

What FMCSA Actually Requires

The federal minimums live in 49 CFR 387.9 and haven’t changed since 1985. They’re based on what you haul and the weight of your equipment, not on what you think a serious accident costs today. For a standard for-hire dry van, reefer, or flatbed operation, the minimum is $750,000.

Notice what’s not on that list: general freight at $1,000,000. Federal law has never required a standard freight carrier to file at $1,000,000. The $1,000,000 you see everywhere in trucking comes from the market, not from FMCSA. Brokers, shippers, and load boards want it, so that’s what most carriers buy. That’s a smart decision, and it’s why the vast majority of policies we help our clients place carry a $1,000,000 auto liability limit. It just has nothing to do with the filing.

Why the Filing Posts at $750,000 and Not $1,000,000

Here’s the part that trips people up. The BMC-91X filing and the MCS-90 endorsement behind it are a promise to the public, not a copy of your policy. Under federal rules, once an insurance company files for you, it can be required to pay a member of the public up to the filed amount in certain situations the policy itself would not cover. The insurance company can then come back to you for reimbursement, but the public gets paid first.

Because that promise reaches beyond the four corners of the policy, insurance companies file at the amount the law requires, which is $750,000 for most operations. Filing at $1,000,000 would extend that public guarantee by another $250,000 for no regulatory reason. Some insurance companies do file at the full policy limit, so you’ll occasionally see $1,000,000 on file, but the common practice across the industry is to file at the minimum.

If a broker or shipper tells you they need to see $1,000,000, they’re talking about your certificate of insurance, not your FMCSA record. Send the certificate. It shows the policy limit, and that’s what their compliance team is checking. If you’re unsure what your certificate should show, this guide to reading your trucking insurance policy walks through it line by line.

Why You Shouldn’t Change the Insurance Required Amount on Your FMCSA Record

Every few weeks we hear from a carrier who tried to solve the mismatch by asking FMCSA to raise their required insurance to $1,000,000, usually by submitting an updated MCS-150 along with the request. It feels logical. In practice, it starts a chain of events that can take a healthy authority and knock it inactive.

1. 1
   

   You raise the requirement

   Whether you do it through a ticket to FMCSA or by changing your cargo classification in Motus, your Insurance Required line changes from $750,000 to $1,000,000. That part happens quickly, usually within a couple of business days.

2. 2
   

   Your filing no longer matches

   Your insurance company’s BMC-91X is still on file at $750,000, because that’s what your operation requires under the regulations. Your record now shows a shortfall: required $1,000,000, on file $750,000. Changing the requirement doesn’t cause a new filing to appear, and most insurance companies won’t refile at a higher amount for a standard freight operation.

3. 3
   

   FMCSA starts the clock

   Once the record shows insufficient insurance, FMCSA issues a notice and gives you 30 days to get a compliant filing on file. If that doesn’t happen, your operating authority is revoked and your status flips to “not authorized.” Brokers see that the moment they run your MC number.

4. 4
   

   You pay to get it back, and you don’t get the time back

   Reinstating a revoked authority means a reinstatement fee to FMCSA (currently $80), a filing that satisfies the record, and days of waiting while the status updates. You’re parked the whole time. Just as painful, many brokers and factoring companies look at a revocation as a break in your authority history. A carrier that’s been running clean for eighteen months can suddenly look like a brand-new venture to the people deciding whether to give them a load.

When $1,000,000 (or More) Really Is the Filing Requirement

There are operations where the higher filing is required, and in those cases your Insurance Required line should reflect it and your insurance company needs to know so the filing matches. The main ones:

• Hazardous materials. Oil, hazardous waste, and most placarded hazmat require a $1,000,000 filing. Explosives, poison gas, and highway-route-controlled radioactive materials require $5,000,000.
• Passenger carriers. $1,500,000 for vehicles seating 15 or fewer, $5,000,000 for 16 or more.
• Contract requirements that go beyond the regulations. Some freight comes with its own rules. Auto haulers moving vehicles for auctions and dealerships, for example, are routinely required by those customers to carry $1,000,000, and some customers ask to see it on file. That’s a contract requirement rather than a federal one, but it changes what your filing needs to show.

If you’re adding hazmat, changing what you haul, or signing a contract with a specific filing requirement, the order of operations matters: talk to your agent first, get the policy and filing lined up, and then update your FMCSA record. Doing it in the other order is how carriers end up in the 30-day window described above. Our MCS-150 requirements guide covers the rest of what has to stay current on that form.

What Changed With Motus in 2026 (and Why It Matters Here)

In May 2026, FMCSA moved motor carrier registration into a new system called Motus. It replaced the parts of URS and the Licensing & Insurance system that carriers and insurance companies used day to day. If you haven’t logged in yet, you’ll need to claim your USDOT number in Motus with the same Login.gov email tied to your FMCSA Portal account, verify your identity with a government ID and a facial scan, and confirm your company information. Your MC number isn’t going anywhere, and the biennial MCS-150 update still exists; it just happens inside Motus now.

Two things about Motus matter for this post. First, insurance companies now submit BMC-91X filings through Motus rather than the old L&I portal, so a new filing or a replacement filing can take longer to show up while everyone gets used to the system. If your filing looks like it’s missing, ask your agent to confirm the insurance company’s submission was accepted before you assume anything is wrong.

Second, and more important: the migration changed the Insurance Required amount on a lot of carrier records. Industry analysis reported in September 2026 found that Motus raised the requirement for more than 150,000 carriers and lowered it for tens of thousands more, and roughly 27,000 carriers who were properly filed before now appear underinsured, some jumping from a $750,000 requirement to $5,000,000 with no change to their operation. If your record suddenly shows a required amount that doesn’t match what you haul, that is very likely a data problem on FMCSA’s side, not a coverage problem on yours.

New Authority? Get the Filing Right the First Time

Most of the calls we get about this come from carriers in their first year, because the FMCSA record is new to them and every number on it feels important. It is important. It just doesn’t mean what it looks like it means. Insurance is usually the biggest line item for a new carrier, so it also helps to know what the whole picture costs before you sign a lease. These three will get you most of the way there:

You’ll also want our insurance and compliance checklist for starting a trucking company, a rundown of the coverages a new authority actually needs, and more plain-English guides like this one in our resource library.

Filings, certificates, and FMCSA records are the kind of thing that should just work in the background. If yours isn’t, or you want a second set of eyes on your coverage before your next renewal, our team is available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern, at (833) RING-MIG, and we’re happy to help.

Frequently Asked Questions