Insurance Market Census

What this census can and can't tell you

Current filings only

Each motor carrier's insurance on file with FMCSA today: 341,195 motor carriers with a primary auto liability filing, covering 3,157,617 reported power units, written by 700 insurer groups. Past policies are not charted.

Two FMCSA records

FMCSA moved to a new registration system on May 14, 2026 and so far publishes only the dockets it has processed since. 63% of today's auto filings come from the legacy record frozen that day; spot checks against FMCSA's live lookup found them still on file, but a change since May 14 would not show here.

The paper, not the program

The insurer named is the one that issued the filing. Specialty and excess-and-surplus insurers often front for program administrators, MGAs or wholesalers; their names are not on FMCSA's record. Insurer groups combine filing companies under a known parent (for example Progressive's filing companies); smaller insurers are grouped by name, so a few related companies may appear separately.

Who is missing

Only motor carriers with interstate operating authority must file their insurance with FMCSA. Private fleets, exempt-commodity haulers and intrastate-only motor carriers keep proof at their own office, and motor carriers whose filing has lapsed are not here. Passenger motor carriers appear only where they hold motor-carrier authority.

Required filings only

Each line is a filing FMCSA requires of a defined group, so it is complete for that group: primary auto liability for every for-hire motor carrier with authority, cargo for household-goods movers, and a bond or trust fund for brokers and freight forwarders. Excess layers and other motor carriers' cargo policies are voluntary: the few that reach FMCSA are a thin and mostly old slice, so they are left out.

Power units

Fleet size is what the motor carrier reported on its MCS-150, which can be out of date. The largest 1% of motor carriers hold 50% of all power units (one fleet reports 34,955), so a power-unit ranking is driven by a few big accounts and 32 self-insured giants. Rank by motor carriers to see who writes small fleets. 9,589 motor carriers report no power units and count only as motor carriers.

Filed limits

The limit shown is what the insurer certified to FMCSA, usually the federal minimum ($750,000 for general freight, $1,000,000 for oil and some hazmat). The policy's actual limits can be higher.

Household-goods cargo

FMCSA requires a cargo filing (BMC-34, $5,000) only of household-goods movers. The cargo line shows the 5,528 movers FMCSA requires to keep one, with active or pending authority. 5% of their filings began before 2011. 9,968 other motor carriers with a cargo filing on record are left out: FMCSA doesn't require theirs, and most of those filings are years old.

Broker bonds

Brokers and freight forwarders must keep a $75,000 surety bond (BMC-84) or trust fund (BMC-85) on file: 25,677 with active or pending authority have one. Spot checks against FMCSA's live lookup found these bonds on file. A trust fund's "insurer" is its trustee. Brokers report no power units, so this line ranks by the number of filers and only a broker that also runs trucks has a fleet size. 3,489 filers whose only bond sits on authority that is no longer active are left out: most hold the $10,000 bond brokers filed before October 2013.

Growing and shrinking (12 months)

Each insurer's book today against its book on Nov 2, 2025. It gained a motor carrier that moved to it from another insurer, is new to FMCSA's record or came back after a lapse; it lost one that moved to another insurer or has nothing on file today (closed, revoked or lapsed). A change of filing company inside one insurer group is not a move, and a renewal is not a gain. Across auto liability, 344,247 motor carriers had a filing a year ago and 341,195 today: 62,123 changed insurer, 54,204 are new or back, and 57,256 have nothing on file. Fleet size is today's MCS-150 figure in both years, so a motor carrier adding trucks doesn't grow its insurer's book.

What the 12-month change can miss

A motor carrier whose USDOT number FMCSA has inactivated but whose filing was never cancelled counts in neither year: most such filings have been dormant for years, but a motor carrier that closed this year without a cancellation is a loss this census can't see. 7,641 of the losses rest on a cancellation FMCSA's legacy record scheduled after May 14, 2026 that its new system has not confirmed. When a program administrator moves its business to another insurer's paper, all of its motor carriers move at once, so a fronting insurer's swing can be a single program.

New paper and programs on the move

The insurer on a filing is the paper; a program administrator (MGA) can move its whole book to another insurer's paper, and FMCSA's record never names the program. Insurers number policies in series, and a program's business gets its own series on the paper it writes on. When at least 30% of one insurer's series (25 motor carriers or more) moved within the year to a single series at another insurer, and they make up at least 5% of it, the census lists it as a program that appears to have changed paper (auto liability). Ordinary shopping scatters a series: the largest ordinary flows took 1 to 7% of theirs to any one insurer. It can't name the program, can miss one that moved slowly or whose insurer renumbered, and an insurer reorganising its own paper can look the same. "New paper" is an insurer with at least 50 motor carriers in the slice today and at most a tenth as many (or five) a year ago.

Grades of its motor carriers

The FRED grades of the motor carriers each insurer insures, among motor carriers with enough record to grade (about one in eight insured motor carriers, mostly larger fleets). It describes the motor carriers, not the insurer, and says nothing about pricing or claims handling.

No premiums, appetite guides or underwriting rules are in FMCSA's record; this census shows only who is on file today. Source: FMCSA Licensing & Insurance files (legacy record and FMCSA's new registration system) and FMCSA census data, rebuilt weekly. Not part of the FRED Score. Not an endorsement of any insurer.