The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced today, June 22, it is eliminating 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 requirement. The final rule, published today in the Federal Register, is effective March 21, 2011. To view the rule, go to www.regulations.gov and search docket number FMCSA-2010-0189.
When jurisdiction over motor carrier and freight forwarder cargo insurance was transferred to FMCSA following enactment of the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999, FMCSA continued to register carriers as either common or contract under the transition rule because the agency had not yet implemented the new unified registration system. In the May 2005 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking designed to implement this new system, FMCSA proposed to eliminate the cargo insurance requirement for all motor carriers and freight forwarders except those involved in the transportation of household goods for individual shippers.
