This report from FMCSA is prepared every four years. (Mohamad Faizal Bin Ramli/Getty Images)
March 4, 2026 2:20 PM, EST
Key Takeaways:
- FMCSA told Congress current federal insurance minimums no longer cover catastrophic trucking losses due to rising medical costs.
- The agency said medical inflation has eroded coverage value and severe crash costs can exceed $1 million.
- The report, issued every four years, positions Congress to consider updates to financial responsibility requirements for carriers, brokers and freight forwarders.
Current federal minimum insurance levels in the trucking industry fail to adequately cover fleet risk for catastrophic losses as a result of spiraling medical costs across the past four decades, according to a new report to Congress.
The Federal Motor Carrier Administration in its 14-page report titled “Examining the Appropriateness of the Current Financial Responsibility and Security Requirements for Motor Carriers, Brokers and Freight Forwarders — Report to Congress” briefed lawmakers about current minimum financial responsibility requirements for motor carriers of property and passengers as well as current bond and insurance requirements for freight forwarders and brokers. Brokers are defined as those paid to arrange or offer to arrange the transport of property by an authorized motor carrier. The report is prepared every four years.
“The decreasing real value of the current minimum levels of financial responsibility is effectively removing the function of insurance in covering catastrophic crashes,” the report stated. The agency found that current insurance limits do not adequately cover catastrophic crashes largely because of higher medical costs.
PERSPECTIVE: Why Fleets Need UM, UIM Insurance Coverage
“Costs for severe and critical injury crashes can easily exceed $1 million,” the agency said, but it acknowledged that catastrophic motor carrier-related crashes generally are rare. FMCSA also noted the skyrocketing monetary amounts placed on mortality risk statistics, which are known as a recommended value of a statistical life (VSL). An analysis conducted 13 years ago had $6.2 million for the VSL compared with the Department of Transportation’s last recommended VSL of $13.2 million, assessed in 2024.
As of January, the FMCSA requires brokers and freight forwarders to have a surety bond or trust fund of $75,000 in effect.
Insurance Report to Congress
Required minimum levels of financial responsibility for bodily injury and property insurance for fleets are:
- $300,000: for-hire general freight carriers for commercial vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating under 10,001 pounds
- $750,000: for-hire interstate general freight carriers
- $1 million: for-hire and private carriers of oil and some hazardous materials
- $5 million: for-hire and private carriers of other hazardous materials
These minimum financial responsibility levels date to 1985.
“The landscape of crash costs in excess of the current minimum insurance levels, particularly medical expenses, has evolved, leading to a disparity between current minimums and the actual costs incurred in some fatal and severe/critical injury incidents,” the report stated.
Traffic on a foggy, rainy stretch of Interstate 5 in Los Angeles. Minimum financial responsibility levels for fleets date to 1985. (Trevor Srednick/Getty Images)
According to FMCSA, the average yearly medical consumer price index of 4.21% rose faster than the core inflation rate of 2.8% from 1985 to 2024 — eroding the real value of required minimum insurance coverage for the trucking industry.
PERSPECTIVE: Helping Contract Drivers With Insurance Claims
“As a result, insurance is increasingly failing to serve its core purpose in severe crashes. Adjusted for inflation, general freight coverage would equal about $2.2 million using core consumer price index, or roughly $3.7 million using medical CPI,” the report stated.
The trucking industry moves some 12 billion tons of freight annually. FMCSA records as of December listed 456,227 for-hire property carriers required to file proof of financial responsibility with FMCSA. Also, it had registrations for 1,875 freight forwarders and 25,127 registered brokers.
