The Dovetail: The Mystery of Motor Carrier Filings

By Traci Barber, AVP – Customer Service

Motor carrier requests can be complex and confusing at times. There are numerous reasons that can contribute to the confusion. For example, is the needed filing required due to interstate or intrastate transporting? Is the filing required by your local state agency or a federal government agency? Or possibly both? Those questions are just a few that can make obtaining a motor carrier filing a daunting task. Here is some information to assist you and your clients in requesting a motor carrier filing:

1. Who is requiring the motor carrier filing, state or federal agency? Is there a required application that needs to be completed for the agency to accept the filing from the insurance carrier?
   This information can be obtained from the state or federal agency website or by contacting them directly. Examples of federal commercial motor carrier auto filings are BMC-32, BMC-34, and BMC-91/91X. If you have a request for these filings, the insurance carrier will be submitting the filings to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. If your request is for a Form E, Form F, or Form H, these are state commercial motor carrier auto filings, so filings will be filed with the state agency.
2. Can the insurance carrier complete the required application needed for the motor carrier to be registered for interstate and intrastate transporting?
   Any required application must be completed by the motor carrier. Once that application is approved the insurance carrier must submit the required filings based upon requests received from either the broker or insured.
3. What information is needed by the insurance carrier to complete the motor carrier filing request?
   The answer to this question varies depending on the type of filing that is needed. For most state filing requests, it is standard information such as policy number, policy limit, and effective date. Federal filings require the motor carrier’s USDOT number or the federal motor carrier number, policy number, policy limit and effective date. What applies to both filings is that the motor carrier name must match exactly with the name the agency has on file based on the required paperwork that the motor carrier submitted to the agency. In addition, the named insured needs to be listed on the auto policy as a named insured. A motor carrier filing that does not have the correct name insured on the filing will delay the acceptance process by either the state or federal agency.
4. How long will it take for the motor carrier filing to be completed?
   A motor carrier filing will be submitted to the appropriate agency within 48 hours of receipt. The requestor will be notified as soon as acceptance is received from that agency. The acceptance or rejection of a filing is sent from the state or federal agency. We must wait for the agency to notify us on the status of the filing. If for some reason a filing is rejected by an agency, the requestor will be notified of the rejection with the reason why and what additional information is needed to resubmit the filing.

Motor carrier filings provide the state and/or federal agencies the proof that your client has the required insurance to be an interstate/intrastate motor carrier. If a motor carrier filing is needed, the sooner we get the request the better. That will ensure that if there are any issues with the filing, they can be fixed quickly to get the filing accepted and that the insured will be in compliance with the motor carrier requirements. Motor carrier filing requests can be submitted to motorcarrierfilings@plmins.com. Any questions regarding motor carrier filings can be sent to that email or you can contact our Customer Service Department at 800-752-1895.