Quoting a new-venture motor carrier

On Sept. 14, 2026, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s public carrier data showed 21,783 pending applications for operating authority. Of those, 20,375, or 93.5%, had no liability insurance filing on record. I track that queue in a data column for Commercial Carrier Journal.

That number includes brokers and freight forwarders, which generally satisfy different financial-responsibility requirements. Remove 1,108 brokers and 468 freight forwarders, and 18,799 motor-carrier applications remained without a liability filing.

FMCSA will not grant operating authority until the required financial-responsibility filing is on record. For many for-hire nonhazardous property carriers, the federal minimum is $750,000 for vehicles rated at 10,001 pounds or more. FMCSA’s current chart also lists a $300,000 minimum for certain nonhazardous property fleets made up only of vehicles under 10,001 pounds.

For an agent, the useful question is not how many are waiting. It is which ones are ready to quote.

1. Check the company record first.

Start with FMCSA, not the insurance application.

The public SAFER Company Snapshot shows the legal name, addresses, MCS-150 form date, power units, drivers, operating classification and cargo carried. FMCSA’s public Carrier table on Data.Transportation.gov also combines authority, census and insurance information.

Compare those records with what the applicant tells you. If the unit count, cargo or business information does not match, resolve the difference before sending the account to a market.

A mismatch is not automatically a decline everywhere. The point is to keep an underwriter from discovering a basic conflict after submission.

2. Treat the company and driver as separate gates.

A clean company record does not make the driver acceptable.

Ask where the truck is garaged, where the company operates, where the driver is licensed and which states the operation will enter. Then compare those facts with the specific market’s rules.

Do not assume the policy state, garaging state and license state must always match. That is not a universal federal rule.

Verify the driver separately. Get the current license, class, motor vehicle record and actual commercial-driving experience. Some markets care about total CDL experience. Others care about experience with the equipment being insured.

There is no universal federal two-year commercial drivers license rule for quoting a new venture.

3. Put the loss history on paper.

A true new venture may have no business loss runs because the authority is new.

But “new venture” does not always mean new to trucking. If the business had prior commercial auto coverage, get loss runs. If the owner or driver operated elsewhere, ask what history the market requires.

An open claim is not automatically a decline across the industry. It may change the decision, trigger questions or delay a quote.

Do not describe the loss picture from memory. Document it.

4. Put the operation in the right box.

Trucking is not one class.

A dry-van carrier, auto hauler, hot shot operator, refrigerated carrier and cargo-van business can present different exposures and fit different markets.

Ask what the vehicle hauls, the equipment used, gross vehicle weight rating, operating radius, garaging location and trailer details.

Weight also matters under federal rules. Certain nonhazardous property fleets under 10,001 pounds have a $300,000 federal minimum, while many nonhazardous property carriers at 10,001 pounds or more have a $750,000 minimum. Passenger and hazardous-material operations have different requirements.

5. Check the federal clock.

Insurance is only one filing.

FMCSA also requires the process-agent designation, Form BOC-3, before authority is granted. Under the current process, an applicant that has not completed required filings within 20 days after publication receives a decision giving another 60 days before dismissal.

The public Motus record can be used to track registration status, including the section labeled “Process Agent (BOC-3) Details.” The FMCSA Register provides the publication record used for timing.

Do not tell the client a filing is complete because someone says it was sent. Confirm that FMCSA shows it.

The sequence is simple: clean the company record, clear the driver, document losses, classify the operation correctly, then confirm the federal filings and timing.

There are two gates in every new-venture account.

The company has to make sense.

The driver has to make sense.

When both do, the submission is easier to place and easier for an underwriter to understand.

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Dmitry Borovoy, a New Jersey-licensed property and casualty insurance producer with SafeBridge Insurance, founded TruckerNavi and wrote Safety Manager: From Zero to Expert. Contact him at dmitry.borovoy@innfeedback.com.