How many trucking companies have no insurance on file with the FMCSA?

Of 328,575 carriers with active for-hire operating authority, 16,938 (5.2%) have no liability (BIPD) insurance amount recorded in the public authority register. This is a filing-record signal — filings can lag, so a blank amount is not proof a carrier is uninsured or operating unlawfully.

Are U.S. trucking companies usually uninsured?

No. Among U.S.-domiciled for-hire carriers, only 0.6% (1,838) have no liability amount on file. The no-file gap is concentrated in cross-border carriers, which make up 89.1% of it.

Do FMCSA BASIC scores affect a carrier's insurance?

BASIC percentiles and insurance filings are two separate public signals. BASIC percentiles rank a carrier's roadside-inspection record against peers; the insurance figure here is simply whether a liability amount is on file. HaulReport publishes reconstructed BASIC percentile estimates, but this study does not assert a measured statistical link between the two — they are reported as distinct indicators, not a cause-and-effect relationship.

Where does this insurance data come from?

The public FMCSA Licensing & Insurance (L&I) authority register (dataset 6eyk-hxee), which records each carrier's operating-authority status and the insurance amounts filed on their behalf. HaulReport aggregates it; we do not set or verify the filings themselves.

The Trucking Insurance Gap Is a Cross-Border Story

Every carrier with active for-hire FMCSA operating authority is supposed to keep liability insurance on file. 16,938 of 328,575 (5.2%) have no liability (BIPD) amount recorded in the public authority register. The headline number sounds alarming — until you ask who those carriers are. They are overwhelmingly not U.S. trucking companies.

How to read these numbers. A blank insurance-on-file amount is a filing-record signal, not proof a carrier has no coverage or is operating illegally. Insurance filings lag and data entry varies. We report what is recorded — not a compliance or safety judgement.

The headline numbers

5.2%

Of all for-hire authorities: no amount on file

0.6%

Of U.S. for-hire carriers: no amount on file

89.1%

Of the gap is cross-border carriers

15,100

Cross-border carriers with no amount on file

The overall 5.2% gap collapses to just 0.6% once you isolate U.S.-domiciled for-hire carriers. The difference is almost entirely cross-border authorities.

Who actually makes up the “no insurance on file” gap

Of the 16,938 for-hire authorities with no liability amount on file, 15,100 (89.1%) are cross-border carriers and only 1,838 (10.9%) are U.S.-domiciled. The “uninsured trucker” story is, in the data, mostly a cross-border filing-coverage story — non-U.S. authorities frequently carry their insurance through different filing channels that the L&I register may not record the same way.

The small U.S. slice, by state

Show data table

U.S. for-hire carriers with no liability amount on file — top 12 states
State	Carriers
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

Even within the 1,838 U.S. carriers with no amount on file, the counts are small and track the largest trucking states by raw carrier population — not a sign that any state's carriers are unusually likely to operate without coverage.

Insurance and safety are two different signals

It is tempting to read “no insurance on file” as “unsafe.” The public record does not support that leap. A carrier’s liability filing and its BASIC percentile estimates (HaulReport’s reconstructed peer-rank of a carrier’s roadside-inspection record) are independent indicators measuring different things — one is a financial-responsibility filing, the other a safety-history rank. We publish both, clearly labeled, and we deliberately do not claim a measured statistical link between them here. When you vet a carrier, read each signal on its own terms.

Why you can’t find this elsewhere

SAFER and other lookups show one carrier’s insurance status at a time. Because HaulReport aggregates the entire authority register and keeps a daily history, we can answer the population-level question — who actually makes up the no-file gap — and watch it move. See the full counts in carrier insurance statistics, the state breakdown in carriers without insurance by state, and the live movement on our daily authority change feed.

Frequently asked questions

How many trucking companies have no insurance on file with the FMCSA?: Of 328,575 carriers with active for-hire operating authority, 16,938 (5.2%) have no liability (BIPD) insurance amount recorded in the public authority register. This is a filing-record signal — filings can lag, so a blank amount is not proof a carrier is uninsured or operating unlawfully.
Are U.S. trucking companies usually uninsured?: No. Among U.S.-domiciled for-hire carriers, only 0.6% (1,838) have no liability amount on file. The no-file gap is concentrated in cross-border carriers, which make up 89.1% of it.
Do FMCSA BASIC scores affect a carrier's insurance?: BASIC percentiles and insurance filings are two separate public signals. BASIC percentiles rank a carrier's roadside-inspection record against peers; the insurance figure here is simply whether a liability amount is on file. HaulReport publishes reconstructed BASIC percentile estimates, but this study does not assert a measured statistical link between the two — they are reported as distinct indicators, not a cause-and-effect relationship.
Where does this insurance data come from?: The public FMCSA Licensing & Insurance (L&I) authority register (dataset 6eyk-hxee), which records each carrier's operating-authority status and the insurance amounts filed on their behalf. HaulReport aggregates it; we do not set or verify the filings themselves.

Data: public FMCSA Licensing & Insurance authority register (dataset 6eyk-hxee), compiled 2026-06-23; 1,860,604 authority records analyzed. Insurance filing status as recorded in the public register — not a determination of actual coverage, compliance, or safety, and not an official FMCSA statistic. BASIC percentile estimates are independent reconstructions, not official FMCSA/CSA scores. See methodology and data sources.