Trucking Industry Insurance Minimums

Often times when a catastrophic truck accident badly injures a family, the financial costs can be staggering, often times in the millions of dollars.  Currently, the federal laws relating to how much insurance a semi truck must carry is not sufficient to take care of those expenses in a tragedy.

In 1980 Congress passed the Motor Carrier Act of 1908 and gave the United States Secretary of Transportation the authority to set the minimum level of insurance for tractor trailers, but the limit could not be less than $750,000 for property carrying trucking companies.  The idea was that since congress was erasing many of the protections that had been present under the old laws, the public deserved greater protections from negligent trucking companies.  In place of more strict legislative oversight, Congress called for higher insurance minimums, thinking that the insurance underwriters would not insure companies unless they were in fact safe.

The legislature said: 

” The carrier who wants to maintain high safety levels will be under pressure to cut his costs to meet the prices of his competitors will be under pressure to cut his costs by operating in violation of minimum safety standards…. Insurance companies are equipped to evaluate the performance of the motor carriers. The premiums they assess are in direct relation to the risks they assume. Therefore, an unsafe carrier will have an increased premium, and a totally unsafe carrier may not be able to obtain the insurance necessary to operate, or at best will be at an insurance cost disadvantage.”

It has been estimated there are currently over 750,000 trucking companies operating in the United States today.

It has been many years since the minimum insurance limit for trucking companies was increased.  as a result of this injustice, many victims of an interstate tradgedy have had their lives ruined by catastrophic trucking accident injuries, only to spend the remainder of their days fighting off bill collectors and desperately trying to obtain much needed medical attention.  

Clearly it is time that the minimum limits be raised. 

To learn more about the trucking industry, contact Texas Truck Accident Attorneys  O’Hanlon, McCollom & Demerath.

Disclaimer:  We are licensed Texas attorneys, and generally base our writings on Texas law.  This information is current and accurate at the time of posting.  We do not update previous posts if/when the laws change.  This blog does not constitute legal advice.