DOT Removes Cargo Insurance Requirement for Most Motor Carriers, Freight Forwarders

(World Trade Interactive)

The Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has issued a final rule that, effective March 21, 2011, will eliminate the requirement for most for-hire motor common carriers of property and freight forwarders to maintain cargo insurance in prescribed minimum amounts and file evidence of this insurance with FMCSA. Household goods motor carriers and household goods freight forwarders will continue to be subject to the cargo insurance requirement.

FMCSA states that all BMC-32 endorsements and BMC-34 certificates of insurance that insurers have issued to motor carriers and freight forwarders, except household goods motor carriers and household goods freight forwarders, will expire March 21, 2011. However, insurance companies will not need to cancel any previous FMCSA filings. In addition, FMCSA will not remove the names of insurance companies and the appropriate policy numbers from its Web sites and any other FMCSA distribution methods until March 18, 2013, to facilitate the identification of insurance coverage for claims arising from transportation occurring while the policies were in effect.