Reading FMCSA insurance filings

L&I is the insurance system of record

SAFER and QCMobile snapshots can lag or omit filing detail. Licensing & Insurance shows form type, amount, insurer or surety, and cancellation notices. Authority decisions that depend on insurance belong on L&I, not on a load-board badge and not on a PDF in email.

Open the carrier by USDOT or docket. Read the insurance section and the authority section together. A company can show Active authority on a stale board while a cancellation is already pending on L&I.

Save a dated screen. The file is what you checked, not what the dispatcher remembers. If QCMobile is up and L&I is down, you do not have an insurance pass. Wait or use a carrier whose last L&I check is still fresh.

BMC-91 and BMC-91X

BMC-91 is the insurer filing for motor-carrier public liability — bodily injury and property damage. BMC-91X is the endorsement used when the filing covers additional or related named entities. Both are BI&PD. Neither is cargo.

Match the named insured on the filing to the motor carrier you are dispatching. A 91X that lists a holding company does not automatically cover a differently named operating LLC on your rate con. If the names diverge, stop and read who is actually on the form.

The dollar amount on the BMC-91/91X is what was filed with FMCSA. Compare it to 49 CFR 387.9 for this commodity and equipment, not to the number on a certificate that has not been filed.

BMC-82, cargo forms, and broker forms

BMC-82 is a trust fund in lieu of public-liability insurance for some motor-carrier cases. It can satisfy the BI&PD filing requirement. It is still not cargo. Read it as a substitute for BMC-91, not as extra coverage.

BMC-34 is a motor-carrier cargo liability filing. BMC-83 is a cargo surety bond. FMCSA does not require cargo insurance for most ordinary property carriers. Brokers require cargo by contract. Many legitimate carriers have a commercial cargo policy and no BMC-34 on L&I. Ask for the policy when you need cargo. Do not invent a federal cargo minimum that is not in 387.9.

BMC-84 is a broker surety bond. BMC-85 is a broker trust fund. Those filings speak to broker financial responsibility, not to whether a motor carrier may haul. Seeing a BMC-84 on a docket that also has broker authority does not insure your freight.

• BMC-91 / BMC-91X — motor-carrier BI&PD from an insurer.
• BMC-82 — motor-carrier public-liability trust fund.
• BMC-34 / BMC-83 — cargo filing or cargo surety; often absent; not the 387.9 number.
• BMC-84 / BMC-85 — broker surety or trust; irrelevant to a truck’s right to haul.
• BOC-3 — process agents under 49 CFR Part 366; not insurance; still a fail-closed field on L&I.

BOC-3 sits on the same screen

L&I treats a missing BOC-3 as a failure state even though it is not an insurance form. 49 CFR Part 366 is the rule. No designation of process agents, no complete operating file.

Do not skip BOC-3 because you came to the page for BMC-91. The revocation path for a missing BOC-3 is real. If the designation is rejected or blank, do not cover.

pending cancellation

Insurers and sureties must give FMCSA written notice before a filing cancels. L&I will show a cancellation pending with an effective date while the filing is still technically on file. That is the window where a pickup tomorrow is a problem.

“On file” plus a cancellation date before pickup is not current coverage for your load. Do not cover until a replacement BMC-91/91X (or BMC-82) is effective. A producer saying “we are rewriting it” is not a filing.

After a new filing posts, read the effective date. A gap between the old cancellation and the new effective date is a lapse. What moved in the gap is a claims problem. See the lapse guide for reinstatement after a gap.

387.9 amounts are BI&PD, not cargo

49 CFR 387.9 is a table of public-liability minimums. For-hire interstate property, non-hazardous, in vehicles of 10,001 pounds GVWR or more: $750,000. Certain hazardous materials: $1,000,000. Specified bulk hazardous substances, certain explosives, and highway-route-controlled Class 7, among others: $5,000,000. Read the table for the UN number and quantity. Do not recite $750,000 as a universal.

Those dollars are for bodily injury and property damage to the public. They do not pay for a burned load of electronics. Calling them “cargo insurance” on a shipper call is a false statement.

If this shipment is hazmat, map 387.9 before you talk about “hazmat insurance.” Census cargo code Chemicals is not a permit and not a $5,000,000 filing by itself.

named insured

The motor carrier on the dispatch must be the named insured on the filing you are relying on. DBA-only certificates, driver names, and dispatch-company LLCs are the usual misses.

A cargo certificate from an agent is not a substitute for the named insured matching the MC. If the PDF says Ridgeway Logistics Inc and L&I says Ridgeway Logistics LLC, you have the same Inc/LLC problem as a rate con mismatch.

Producer contact information on a certificate is useful for a callback. It does not override L&I. Call the producer from a number you look up, not only from the PDF letterhead, if the names already disagree.

worked desk: PDF said $1M, L&I was cancelling $750k

The inbox attached a certificate: $1,000,000 auto liability, $100,000 cargo, named insured “Harbor West,” producer dated last month. The dispatcher marked insurance complete.

L&I showed BMC-91 at $750,000, cancellation pending, effective the morning of pickup. No BMC-34. The certificate named a DBA that was not on SAFER. 387.9 for this dry van of general freight is $750,000 BI&PD. The $1M on the PDF did not override the pending cancel.

Meaning: the federal filing was ending before the truck was to arrive. Cargo on the PDF was contractual evidence only, and the named insured did not match. Do not dispatch. Wait for a new BMC-91/91X effective before pickup, then re-read named insured and amount.

what this is not

Reading L&I is not a claims-handling opinion. It is not an MCS-90 lecture. It is not a finding that cargo is adequate for the load value.

A BMC-84 on a broker docket is not motor-carrier insurance. A clean cargo PDF is not a BMC-91. BOC-3 is not a policy.

A census lookup does not replace the L&I insurance pane. Open it. The snapshot will not show pending cancellation the way L&I does.

desk checklist

• L&I opened today for this docket, not only a QCMobile snapshot.
• BMC-91/91X or BMC-82 on file; amount compared to 49 CFR 387.9 for this commodity.
• No cancellation effective before pickup.
• Named insured matches the motor carrier on the rate con (entity type included).
• BMC-34/83 not treated as required federal cargo for ordinary property; cargo handled by contract if you need it.
• BMC-84/85 ignored when the question is whether the truck may haul.
• BOC-3 on file.

what belongs in the load file

• Dated L&I insurance pane: form, amount, insurer/surety, cancellation fields.
• L&I authority and BOC-3 status from the same session.
• Certificate PDF only as a supplement, with a note that L&I controls.
• 387.9 mapping for this commodity (especially if hazmat).
• Named-insured comparison: rate con versus filing versus any cargo cert.

fail closed

• Required BMC-91/91X or BMC-82 missing.
• Cancellation pending with a date on or before pickup.
• Filed amount below 387.9 for this shipment.
• Named insured is a different legal entity than the MC on the dispatch.
• You only have an emailed certificate and cannot see L&I.

common questions