The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) wants to raise the minimum level of liability insurance for trucking companies. The potential change has raised the ire of the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), which plans to protest it.
Increasingly higher awards are being handed down by juries in trucking accidents. As such, the FMCSA considers the current $750,000 minimum for carrier liability insurance insufficient for accident costs.
But a study by the FMCSA showed that less than 1 percent of trucking accidents go over the $750,000 ceiling — a statistic that has prompted smaller trucking companies to question the call for higher insurance coverage. If the statistics show such a low rate of payout in accidents, why does the FMCSA want to raise insurance rates? Some smaller trucking companies suspect the call for higher premiums is a self-motivated push to garner more funds for large carriers.
In the meantime, the FMCSA has created a rulemaking team to figure out the best minimum level of insurance for carriers.
Those involved in an accident with a big rig may soon find that there is more insurance money on the table to claim for life-altering injuries or wrongful death claims.
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About The Author
Kenneth "Tray" Gober III, J.D., is the Managing Partner of Lee, Gober & Reyna, PLLC in Austin, Texas. A 2005 magna cum laude graduate of Texas A&M University and an honors graduate of Baylor Law School, Tray is admitted to the State Bars of Texas (Bar No. 300408), Colorado, and Pennsylvania, and to the Bar of the United States Supreme Court. He represents personal injury clients across Texas in car accidents, truck accidents, autonomous vehicle claims, wrongful death, drunk driving collisions, premises liability, and product liability matters. He is one of Texas's most frequently quoted legal voices on the law surrounding autonomous vehicles and AI-driven transportation. Tray also serves as an adjunct professor of Paralegal Studies at the University of Texas School of Law.