How Much Insurance Do Trucking Companies Have to Carry?

Car accident claims and truck accident claims look similar on paper. They are not.

The difference comes down to insurance. Federal law requires commercial trucking companies to carry far more liability coverage than any passenger vehicle driver does.

We look at this question first in nearly every truck crash case we handle. Knowing the minimums, and how they actually work once a claim is filed, tells you what compensation might realistically be on the table.

This article covers general legal information about Illinois and federal law. If you are dealing with a specific case, talk to a licensed Illinois attorney about your situation.

Federal Minimum Insurance Requirements Under 49 CFR 387.9

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the FMCSA, sets the minimum insurance a commercial motor carrier has to carry. The rule lives in 49 CFR Section 387.9, and it traces back to the Motor Carrier Act of 1980.

The number is not one flat figure. It changes based on what the truck is hauling:

• $750,000 for general freight carriers, the most common type of commercial truck
• $1,000,000 for carriers transporting oil by truck
• $5,000,000 for carriers hauling the highest-hazard materials, explosives, poison-inhalation-hazard cargo, and certain radioactive shipments
• $300,000 for smaller non-hazardous cargo trucks under 10,001 pounds gross vehicle weight

Treat these numbers as a floor, not a ceiling. Plenty of large carriers, especially ones hauling high-value freight or working under shipper contracts, carry policies well above the minimum. It is common to see $1,000,000 or more in coverage even for standard general freight.

Here is the part that matters for your claim: the federal minimum is not a cap. It just guarantees a baseline. If the carrier that hit you carries a bigger policy, that is what is available to you.

Illinois Intrastate Requirements: 625 ILCS 5/18c

Not every truck on Illinois roads is governed by federal rules. A truck that never leaves the state, one that runs a route entirely within Illinois, falls under state law instead: the Illinois Commercial Transportation Law, 625 ILCS 5/18c.

For the most part, Illinois mirrors the federal FMCSA minimums for these intrastate carriers. The Illinois Commerce Commission can also layer on additional requirements for carriers operating under its authority. If the truck is big enough to require a commercial driver’s license and it is running commercial loads inside Illinois, this law applies.

In practice, most of the freight moving through Chicago crosses state lines. A truck coming in from Indiana or Wisconsin, which describes a large share of the trucks on our interstates, falls under the federal FMCSA rules in 49 CFR Part 387 instead.

The MCS-90 Endorsement: A Critical Victim Protection Mechanism

There is a piece of this most people never hear about until they need it: the MCS-90 endorsement.

Federal law requires every motor carrier covered by 49 CFR Part 387 to attach an MCS-90 endorsement to its primary liability policy. It is not a separate insurance policy. It is a mandatory add-on that changes how the existing policy behaves in one specific, important way.

Here is what it actually does. The insurer agrees to pay a judgment against the carrier up to the federal minimum, even if something in the carrier’s own policy would normally let the insurer walk away.

Say the driver was using the truck for a trip the policy did not cover, or the carrier never disclosed the route it was actually running. Normally, that kind of exclusion is exactly what an insurance company uses to deny a claim. The MCS-90 takes that option off the table when a third party, the injured victim, is the one asking to get paid.

This is not a favor to the carrier. It exists so a crash victim never loses a case simply because the trucking company broke a rule buried in its own policy.

Understanding liability in truck accidents means accounting for every layer of coverage: the carrier’s primary policy, any MCS-90 obligations sitting on top of it, umbrella or excess policies, and the insurance carried by anyone else who might share the blame, like a freight broker or the company that loaded the cargo.

Why Truck Accident Claims Are Fundamentally Different from Car Accident Claims

Start with the baseline. Illinois requires drivers to carry at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per occurrence in bodily injury liability coverage, under 625 ILCS 5/7-203. A single serious injury can burn through that entire policy in one hospital stay.

Trucking insurance is not that same coverage scaled up. It is a different category entirely.

A $750,000 federal minimum is thirty times that car insurance floor. A $5,000,000 hazmat policy is two hundred times it.

Sit with that gap for a second. It is not a rounding difference. It is the difference between a policy sized for an ER visit and a policy sized for a wrongful death claim.

That gap exists for a reason. Truck crashes tend to produce the kind of injuries that do not have a ceiling: traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, amputations, wrongful death. The economic losses in cases like these routinely blow past what any car insurance policy was ever built to handle.

Congress set the higher federal minimums because a fully loaded commercial truck does more damage than a passenger car, full stop. That is also why we tell clients a truck accident claim deserves a real investigation. When the coverage behind a crash can run into the millions, it is worth finding out exactly what is there.

What Happens When the Carrier Is Underinsured or Uninsured?

Federal requirements do not guarantee compliance. Smaller or newer carriers sometimes let a policy lapse, and it is not always caught right away.

When that happens, the MCS-90 endorsement is the first line of defense. It obligates the insurer to pay victims even if the carrier failed to keep continuous coverage in place.

If there is truly no insurance behind the carrier, the case does not necessarily end there. You may have claims against the freight broker who hired the carrier, the shipper who arranged the load, or the company that owned the cargo. Your own uninsured motorist coverage under Illinois law may also come into play, depending on the facts.

Talk to a Chicago Truck Accident Lawyer for a Free Consultation

Identifying all available insurance coverage after a truck crash requires pulling policy declarations, reviewing MCS-90 endorsements, investigating whether the carrier had umbrella or excess coverage, and examining whether any other parties contributed to the crash and carry their own insurance. These are tasks that require access to information carriers and insurers do not volunteer.

Phillips Law Offices represents truck accident victims throughout the Chicago area. Our attorneys understand the federal insurance requirements that apply to commercial carriers and how to pursue every available source of coverage. Call (312) 346-4262 or visit our free consultation page to discuss your case at no cost.

This article has been prepared for general informational purposes and is subject to attorney review. It does not constitute legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship.