If you run a small carrier, you have heard some version of this: the federal insurance minimum is about to jump to two million dollars. Or five million. Premiums are going to spike. Better lock in coverage now. The warning comes from insurance salespeople, forum threads, and the occasional headline, and it has been coming, in one form or another, for more than a decade.
Here is the part the warning leaves out: the minimum for general freight has been $750,000 since January 1, 1985 — and as of June 2026 it has not changed, and there is no pending FMCSA rule to change it. The proposed increases that make headlines have a near-perfect record of not becoming law. The $750,000 figure is older than most of the trucks on the road.
That doesn't mean the question is settled forever, and it doesn't mean $750,000 is all the coverage you should carry — those are two different issues, and we'll separate them. But for the decision in front of you today, the regulation is stable, and knowing exactly what's required (and what's merely proposed) keeps you from buying on a rumor.
What's actually required right now
The minimum levels of financial responsibility live in 49 CFR §387.9, in a table whose every dollar figure carries the same column header: January 1, 1985. For interstate for-hire carriers operating vehicles with a GVWR of 10,001 pounds or more, the minimums by cargo type are:
- General freight (non-hazardous): $750,000. This is the number that covers the overwhelming majority of small carriers and owner-operators.
- Oil and certain hazardous materials: $1,000,000.
- Bulk hazardous substances and certain bulk hazmat (specified explosives, bulk hazardous gases, highway-route-controlled-quantity radioactive material): $5,000,000.
Passenger carriers run on a separate schedule: $1,500,000 if the largest vehicle seats 15 or fewer passengers, $5,000,000 if it seats 16 or more.
A couple of practical edges worth knowing. Property carriers operating only vehicles under 10,001 pounds GVWR are generally outside this Part 387 requirement entirely — unless they haul the specified hazmat, in which case the hazmat tier reaches down to them. And the figures above were last touched by Federal Register amendments in 2021 and 2023 — but those restructured and renumbered the table; they did not raise the dollar amounts. As of June 2026, the general-freight floor is still $750,000, exactly as it was set in 1985.
The history of "it's going up" — and why it keeps not happening
The pressure to raise the minimum is real and long-running. Here's the honest status of every version of it, because the difference between "the law changed," "a rule is pending," and "a bill was introduced" is the difference between something you must act on and noise.
The 2014 attempt — withdrawn. In November 2014, FMCSA published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (79 FR 70839) exploring an increase. It took comments, studied the question, and in June 2017 withdrew it (82 FR 25754), stating it had insufficient data or information to support moving forward with a rulemaking proposal at this time. That withdrawal still stands. There is no open Part 387 rulemaking on minimum financial responsibility on FMCSA's docket today.
The 2020 "$2 million" — never became law. The figure you most often hear comes from the 2020 INVEST in America Act, where the House passed a version containing an amendment to raise the minimum from $750,000 to $2,000,000. It cleared committee. It did not become law. The "$2 million" everyone repeats is a dead provision from a five-year-old bill.
The current "$5 million" bill — introduced, not law. The live version is the Fair Compensation for Truck Crash Victims Act, H.R. 8218, reintroduced in April 2026. It would amend the underlying statute (49 U.S.C. 31139) by striking "$750,000" and inserting "$5,000,000," and would re-index the figure to medical-cost inflation every five years. The bill's own findings argue that the 1980-era $750,000, if it had been adjusted for medical-cost inflation, would equal roughly $5.8 million in 2025 dollars.
The bill's most telling feature is its history: the same sponsor introduced materially similar legislation in 2019, 2021, and 2023. As of June 2026, the 2026 version has been referred to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and sits at the first stage of the process — the same place its predecessors stalled. It is a proposal in committee, not a rule and not a law.
So the honest summary for your planning: an increase is not finalized, not a pending FMCSA rule, and not enacted legislation. It is a bill that keeps getting reintroduced by its supporters and keeps not advancing.
Why you keep hearing it anyway
If nothing has changed, why does the warning never go away? Because there is a real, ongoing argument on both sides, and it's worth understanding rather than dismissing.
Those who favor an increase — safety advocates, the trial bar, crash-victim groups, and the bills' sponsors — make the inflation point above: $750,000 was set in 1985 and has never been adjusted, and a single serious crash can produce damages that dwarf it. FMCSA itself, even while declining to raise the number, has acknowledged that in severe crashes the costs can exceed the minimum levels. That's not a fringe position; it's the premise of every bill listed above.
Those who oppose an increase — small-carrier groups and many owner-operators — argue that a jump to $2 million or $5 million would raise premiums sharply and push the smallest operators out of business, consolidating freight toward large fleets without a proportionate safety gain. For a one-truck operation, that's not an abstract policy debate; it's your premium.
We don't take a side on whether the minimum should change. The point for your purposes is narrower and factual: the disagreement is live, the advocacy is constant, and so far none of it has changed the number. Treat each new headline the same way — check whether it describes a passed law or published rule, or merely another introduced bill. So far it has always been the latter.
The floor and the coverage you actually carry are different questions
Here's the nuance that a pure "nothing has changed" answer would miss, and it matters more for a small carrier than the rumor does.
$750,000 is a legal floor — the minimum that keeps you operating-legal and audit-legal. It is not, for most carriers, the amount of coverage actually in force. Two reasons. First, the commercial reality: many brokers and shippers contractually require $1,000,000 in auto liability before they'll tender you a load, so a large share of small carriers carry a million regardless of what the regulation says, because the freight requires it. Second, the protective reality that drives the bills above: a serious injury or fatality crash can generate liability well beyond $750,000, and coverage at the legal floor leaves the carrier personally exposed for the gap.
We're a recordkeeping company, not an insurance broker, so we won't tell you a number to buy — that's a conversation for a licensed agent who knows your operation. But keep the two questions separate in your own head. What does the regulation require? — $750,000 for general freight, stable, not changing soon. What coverage actually protects my operation and satisfies my customers? — frequently more, and decided by your lanes, your brokers, and your risk tolerance, not by the federal minimum. Don't let either question get answered by a rumor about the other.
How the filing works now — after MC numbers went away
Carrying the insurance isn't enough; FMCSA has to have proof of it on file before you operate. The proof is a certificate of insurance filed by your insurer — not by you.
For property carriers, the filing is the BMC-91 or BMC-91X. The difference is mechanical: a BMC-91 is used when a single insurer carries your full required limit; a BMC-91X is used when the required coverage is split across more than one insurer. Either way, your insurance company files it electronically with FMCSA — FMCSA doesn't furnish copies, and a carrier generally can't self-file. Cargo-insurance filings (for the carriers that need them, primarily household-goods movers) ride on the BMC-34/BMC-83.
What changed recently is the plumbing, not the requirement. FMCSA has moved to USDOT-number-only identification — the separate MC number is being retired — and paper transactions ended in September 2025. FMCSA's new registration system, MOTUS, began a phased rollout in December 2025 and is expanding through 2026; until it's fully live, insurers continue filing through FMCSA's existing Licensing & Insurance system via the FMCSA Portal. For a one-truck carrier the net effect is small: the identifier your coverage is filed against is your USDOT number, the filing is electronic, and the thing you're responsible for is making sure your insurer actually filed — and refiled on renewal — so the federal record never shows a gap.
That last point is where carriers get hurt. There's a lag between when your insurer files and when the FMCSA database reflects it, and operating in the gap — even by a day on the day your policy renews — can show you as uninsured. Renew well ahead of expiration, and confirm the federal record shows current coverage rather than assuming it does.
What it costs you to get this wrong
Operating without the required financial responsibility isn't a paperwork ding. §387.7 prohibits operating a CMV until the carrier has the required coverage in effect, and for a new carrier the stakes are sharp: operating without the required minimum insurance is one of the automatic-failure items on the new-entrant safety audit under 49 CFR §385.321(b). A single such finding fails the audit outright — it doesn't get averaged against everything you did right. (Our deeper write-up of the prohibition lives on the §387.7 violation page.)
So the compliance task isn't complicated, but it's unforgiving: have the right coverage for your commodity, make sure your insurer has filed it against your USDOT number, and never let it lapse — especially in your first 18 months, when the audit is coming and a coverage gap is an auto-fail waiting in plain sight.
A note on the other filings you might hear about
Two adjacent numbers, briefly, because they get tangled into the same conversation:
Brokers and freight forwarders carry a $75,000 financial-security requirement (the BMC-84 surety bond or BMC-85 trust), set by federal statute in 2012 and still current in 2026. If you're a carrier, this isn't yours — but if you're thinking about getting your broker authority, know that FMCSA's broker financial-responsibility rule tightened in January 2026, limiting what assets can back a BMC-85 trust and who can serve as trustee. That's a different post, and a different requirement from your auto-liability minimum.
Cargo insurance (the BMC-34) applies mainly to household-goods carriers and is a separate requirement from the auto-liability minimum that's been the subject of this post — don't confuse the two, and if you're an HHG mover, verify your specific cargo figures with your agent.
Where Roadworthy HQ fits
The insurance requirement is simple to state and easy to let slip — the failure mode is almost always a lapse or a filing gap nobody was watching, not a misunderstanding of the rule.
Roadworthy HQ tracks your insurance certificate with its expiration date and surfaces the renewal in your dashboard alert window at 60 and 30 days out — so the renewal that protects your operating authority doesn't depend on you remembering it. When the audit binder assembles, your current coverage documentation is in it, in the place an auditor looks. We don't sell you insurance and we don't tell you how much to carry; we make sure the coverage you do carry is documented, current, and never quietly expired on the day it mattered.
If you'd rather track it on a calendar, the discipline is the same: a reminder 60 days before your policy expires, a confirmation that your insurer refiled against your USDOT number, and a copy of the current certificate where you can produce it in two minutes. The regulation doesn't require software. It requires the coverage to exist, to be filed, and to never lapse.
This article is general guidance, not legal or insurance advice — for the right coverage for your specific operation, talk to a licensed agent. The figures here are current as of June 2026: the $750,000 general-freight minimum remains in force and unchanged since 1985, the proposed increases described above are introduced legislation rather than law or pending rule, and 49 CFR §387.9 and FMCSA's registration and insurance pages are the authoritative sources to check if you want to confirm the number hasn't moved.