HaulTrucking Companies Without Insurance on File — by State
A widely-cited statistic says roughly 5.2% of for-hire carriers have no liability insurance amount on file with the FMCSA. That number is real — but it is misleading without context. 89.1% of those carriers are cross-border (non-U.S.) carriers whose coverage is filed differently. Among 303,067 U.S. for-hire carriers, only 1,838 — about 0.6% — have no amount on file. A blank field is a public filing-record signal, not proof a carrier is uninsured or operating unlawfully.
The headline numbers
The same gap that looks large for the whole register nearly disappears once you separate U.S. carriers from cross-border ones.
Who are the carriers with no amount on file?
- Cross-border (non-U.S.) carriers
- U.S. carriers
Of every active for-hire authority with no liability amount on file, 15,100 (89.1%) belong to cross-border carriers and only 1,838 to U.S. carriers — which is why a national rate built on the whole register overstates the picture for domestic trucking companies.
Show data table
| Carrier origin | No amount on file |
|---|---|
| Cross-border (non-U.S.) | 15,100 |
| U.S. carriers | 1,838 |
U.S. carriers with no insurance on file, by state
U.S. carriers only, ranked by registered state. The numbers are small everywhere — even the leading state is a few hundred carriers — and broadly track each state’s overall carrier base rather than pointing to a regional compliance problem.
Show data table
| State | Carriers with no amount on file |
|---|---|
| California | 266 |
| Texas | 209 |
| Florida | 141 |
| Ohio | 88 |
| Georgia | 86 |
| Illinois | 80 |
| North Carolina | 78 |
| New Jersey | 71 |
| Pennsylvania | 63 |
| Indiana | 59 |
| Maryland | 46 |
| Virginia | 41 |
| Wisconsin | 35 |
| Tennessee | 35 |
| Washington | 35 |
Related reading
For the national filing-gap breakdown across coverage types (cargo, bond, revocation-pending), see our carrier insurance statistics. For the active-carrier universe these rates sit inside, see trucking industry statistics, and for live insurance filing activity, the daily insurance activity feed.
Frequently asked questions
- How many trucking companies operate without insurance on file?
- In the public FMCSA authority register, 16,938 carriers with active for-hire (common) authority have no liability (BIPD) amount on file. But that headline hides who they are: 15,100 of them (89.1%) are cross-border, non-U.S. carriers whose coverage is filed differently. Only 1,838 are U.S. carriers. A blank amount is a filing-record signal, not proof a carrier is uninsured.
- What share of U.S. trucking companies have no insurance on file?
- Among 303,067 U.S. carriers with active for-hire authority, just 1,838 — about 0.6% — have no liability amount on file. So the often-quoted ~5.2% figure is driven almost entirely by cross-border carriers, not domestic ones. For U.S. trucking companies, a missing insurance filing is rare.
- Why do so many cross-border carriers show no insurance on file?
- Mexico-domiciled carriers operating in the U.S. register for FMCSA authority, but their insurance is often filed through different mechanisms and may not populate the BIPD amount field the same way a domestic policy does. The blank field reflects how the filing is recorded, not a finding that the carrier lacks coverage.
- Which U.S. state has the most carriers with no insurance on file?
- California has the most U.S. carriers with active for-hire authority and no liability amount on file (266), followed by Texas (209) and Florida (141). The counts are small everywhere and broadly track each state's overall carrier base.