What a Broker Actually Wants to See Before They'll Tender You a Load

You've got your MC number, your truck is inspected, and a broker has freight that needs to move. Then the load falls through, not because of your driving record or your equipment, but because your certificate of insurance didn't have the numbers they needed on it. This happens to owner-operators constantly, and it's almost always fixable before it costs you a load rather than after.

The federal floor is set by the FMCSA: $750,000 combined single limit for interstate general freight in a vehicle over 10,000 pounds. Hazmat commodities carry higher requirements, ranging from $1,000,000 up to $5,000,000 depending on exactly what's being hauled. But that federal number is a floor, not what actually gets you loads. Most brokers will not tender freight to a carrier without at least $1,000,000 in liability coverage on file, regardless of what the federal minimum technically allows. If you're only running the FMCSA minimum, you're already outside what a lot of brokers will work with before you've even quoted a rate.

Cargo coverage: the number brokers check first

Liability isn't the only line item a broker's compliance department looks at. Motor truck cargo coverage protects the freight itself while it's on your trailer, and most brokers won't tender a load without at least $100,000 of it on file. This trips people up because it feels like the shipper's problem, not yours. It isn't. The shipper's own policy protects the shipper, not the carrier hauling their freight, and liability for cargo in transit generally follows the bill of lading straight to whoever's hauling it. If a load shifts, catches fire, or gets damaged in a wreck, cargo coverage is what responds, and a broker isn't going to hand you a six-figure shipment without proof it's in place.

Texas intrastate hauls run under separate state-set limits that are often lower than the federal interstate numbers, which is exactly the kind of detail that gets missed when someone's running both intrastate and interstate freight under one policy that was only built around one of them. It's worth a direct conversation about which lanes you're actually running before assuming one certificate covers everything you do.

• FMCSA minimum: $750,000 combined single limit for interstate general freight over 10,000 lb
• Hazmat commodities: $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 depending on what's being hauled
• Most brokers require at least $1,000,000 liability and $100,000 motor truck cargo before they'll tender a load, regardless of the federal floor

Then there's the coverage that only matters when the truck isn't under dispatch: bobtail, sometimes called non-trucking liability. Your primary trucking liability policy is written around loaded, dispatched miles. It doesn't automatically extend to the truck being driven home empty after a drop, or to personal errands run in the same tractor. Bobtail coverage fills that specific gap, personal use and deadhead miles when you're not technically working a load. Owner-operators who skip it usually don't find out it's missing until exactly the wrong moment.

It's also worth separating what protects the freight from what protects the truck itself. Cargo coverage handles the load on the trailer. Physical damage coverage, sometimes bundled as collision and comprehensive for the tractor, is a different line item that protects the truck and trailer from a wreck, fire, theft, or weather damage regardless of whether freight is loaded at the time. An owner-operator who's financed a truck usually has a lender requiring physical damage coverage anyway, but even paid-off equipment is worth protecting given what a replacement tractor actually costs today.

Certificates of insurance are the document brokers actually check, and getting the wording wrong is its own way to lose a load before it starts. A certificate needs to match what the broker's contract requires, not a generic template, and once a policy is bound, a properly worded certificate can usually be issued the same business day. If you're setting up authority for the first time, adding a truck, or just not sure your current certificate would survive a broker's compliance check, it's worth having someone who writes this coverage daily look at exactly what's on file before the next load is on the line. See our trucking coverage page for the fuller breakdown, or get a quote for your specific operation. Questions about a current certificate? Contact us directly.