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EmailTrying to find information about a motor carrier’s insurance company or its coverage?
LOOK NO FURTHER!
You’ve found a click-by-click guide that provides you with the insurance coverage details for any interstate trucking company and commercial motor vehicles.
On any given day, Mills & Associates fields a wide variety of questions about trucking insurance defense law. A number of these calls concern the insurance companies and types of coverage provided for commercial trucks. We thought our readers might benefit from a tutorial on how to access the wealth of motor carrier insurance information collected and retained by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. These error-proof steps provide a direct path to the name and specific contact details for any motor carrier and it insurance company and limits, current or past.
Enough talking. Let’s get to work.
Step 1:
Click on this link: http://www.safersys.org/CompanySnapshot.aspx. It takes you to the Company Snapshot page on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Safety and Fitness Electronic Records System website (universally referred to by its acronym, SAFER):
Step 2:
As you can see from the example search page posted above, you can conduct a search using the carrier’s DOT Number, MC/MX number, or company name in the Enter Value field. Be certain to select the category that corresponds to your entry (just above the Enter Value field).
DOT Number search:
If possible, search by the carrier’s DOT number. It provides a direct link to the Company Snapshot. If you want to try a search by DOT number, enter 428823 (Knight Transportation’s DOT No.) in the Enter Value field and select “USDOT Number” as the category then click Search to be taken directly to the full Company Snapshot:
NAME SEARCH:
If you are doing a name search, type the name into the Enter Value field. Your response will be a list of matches that include the search terms. Here is an example of the search by name results for Knight Transportation Inc.
As you can see, the name search produces a variety of companies with the words Knight, Transportation and Inc in the company name. From here, to access Knight Transportation’s full Company Snapshot, click the carrier’s name on the left side of the screen.
STEP 3:
Whether you searched for your carrier by name or DOT number, SAFER will direct you to the carrier’s SAFER Company Snapshot. Here is the Snapshot for Knight Transportation, DOT No. 428823. :
On the Company’s Snapshot webpage, find the company name and DOT Number in the upper right hand corner. Click the Licensing & Insurance link, located in the Other Information for this Carrier box located just below the company’s name and number. This will open a new page specifically about this carrier.
STEP 4:
When that next page opens, you will see a table that includes the USDOT Number and Legal Name of the company.
Scan across the table headings until you find “View Details”. Click the Report button. Your browser will then open a PDF document that provides detailed information regarding the carrier’s contact and licensing information, like this:
Scroll down to find the company’s Active / Pending Insurance policies, usually near the bottom of the first page. The Knight Transportation report reveals that it is self-insured with respect to the first $1,000,000 in bodily injury and property damage liability coverage. However, Knight currently carries an excess policy with National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh, PA that provides coverage over and above the first $1,000,000 up to $5,000,000 per occurrence.
The second page of the report says that Lexington Insurance Company provides Knight with cargo insurance. It names Edward T. Fox as the point of contact at Lexington and provides his telephone and facsimile number:
As you continue through a company’s insurance report, it will provide historic insurance information. For example, Knight’s report details the company’s former bodily injury/property damage and cargo insurance carriers for as far back as 1990.
