FMCSA cuts insurance reporting red tape
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has eased the insurance reporting burden on motor carriers with a recent regulation change.
In late June, the agency published a final rule in the Federal Register that eliminates the requirement for most for-hire common motor carriers and freight forwarders to maintain and file paperwork proving a minimum amount of cargo insurance. Household goods motor carriers and freight forwarders will still be subject to minimum insurance and reporting requirements.
The rule change is essentially a paperwork cleanup by the agency.
The agency has been transitioning to a world where the “common” and “contract” designations of motor carriers are to be eliminated. That transition officially began in 2007.
Effective Jan. 1, 2007, all for-hire motor carriers subject to the agency’s commercial jurisdiction under Title 49, United States Code, Subtitle IV, Part B, were required to be issued Motor Carrier Certificates of Registration, which no longer classified them as common or contract carriers.
With the elimination of the distinction between common and contract carriers for registration purposes, FMCSA had to determine whether the requirement for cargo insurance should be retained and extended to all carriers – including the 70,400 contract carriers currently exempt from the requirement – or eliminated for some or all of the 96,300 common carriers and 1,600 freight forwarders.
The agency noted that motor carriers typically have cargo insurance well in excess of the regulatory requirements – because many shippers require that insurance as a part of doing business.
So, the final rule 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 freight forwarders, will expire on the effective date of this final rule, March 21, 2011.
It will be up to motor carriers to continue to carry and provide proof of cargo insurance in the normal course of business with shippers and receivers. The agency will just no longer be keeping a record of minimum levels of insurance.
The agency will maintain information on its websites until March 2013 to keep a record of insurance policies in force before the deadline. The information will assist with any claims that may have arisen when the policies were still in effect.
