New-Authority Trucking Insurance:
First-Year Costs, the BMC-91 Sequence, and Why Most Standard Markets Decline
New-authority trucking insurance is the first-year program a motor carrier buys after applying for or receiving its own Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) operating authority — typically priced 25–50% above what the same operation will pay at year three, because the carrier has no Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) history, no own-name loss runs, and no track record under its own Motor Carrier (MC) number. A single-truck new-authority program for a clean, experienced driver in general for-hire freight typically prices between $14,000 and $30,000 in year one, drops 10–20% in year two as the first 12 months of CSA Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) build, and reaches the carrier's stable rate near month 24. The BMC-91 or BMC-91X liability filing must be on file with FMCSA before the agency grants active authority — meaning insurance has to be quoted, bound, and filed in the right sequence, not after the fact.
- New-authority motor carriers carry a 25–50% premium surcharge for the first 24 months because Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) — Unsafe Driving, Hours of Service, Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Vehicle Maintenance, Hazmat Compliance, and Crash Indicator — are scored on a 24-month rolling window and produce no insurance-relevant signal until ~12 months of own-authority operation accumulates on the Safety and Fitness Electronic Records (SAFER) profile.
- A first-year single-truck for-hire new-authority program typically totals $18,000–$44,000+ depending on segment: primary $1M auto liability ($10,000–$22,000), motor truck cargo (MTC) at $100,000 limit ($1,800–$4,500), physical damage on the tractor ($2,800–$5,500), trailer interchange ($400–$900), general liability ($700–$1,500), workers' compensation or occupational accident ($720–$3,500), and umbrella ($2,000–$6,000). Year-2 renewal typically drops 10–20% as CSA history builds; year-3 reaches the carrier's stable rate.
- Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) financial responsibility under 49 CFR Part 387 starts at $750,000 primary auto liability for general for-hire freight 10,001+ lb gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR), $1,000,000 for non-bulk hazmat, and $5,000,000 for bulk hazmat, oil, and certain explosives. Most shipper and broker contracts demand $1,000,000 — the FMCSA $750,000 baseline is rarely the contract floor.
- The BMC-91 or BMC-91X liability filing has to be on file with FMCSA before the 21-day public protest period expires, or the new authority will not be granted. Sequence the placement: quote and bind insurance first, then file BMC-91 (single insurer) or BMC-91X (multi-insurer) electronically through the carrier, then designate process agent via BOC-3, then complete MCS-150 motor carrier identification — not the reverse.
- Most admitted commercial auto carriers (Travelers, Liberty Mutual, Hartford, Zurich) decline new authorities outright. Placement runs through Progressive Commercial as the dominant new-authority writer, specialty trucking program markets (Berkshire Hathaway GUARD, Canal Insurance, Hudson Insurance, Knight Specialty, Carolina Casualty for select segments) for clean profiles, and the Excess & Surplus (E&S) market (Lloyd's syndicates, Lexington/AIG E&S, Markel Specialty, James River, Scottsdale/Nationwide E&S) for hazmat, heavy haul, or driver-experience deficits.
How underwriters price a motor carrier with no track record
A new authority is a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)-registered motor carrier in its first 24 months of operation under its own Motor Carrier (MC) number, and underwriters treat it as a fundamentally different class from an established carrier — even when the same driver has 20 years of clean experience under a previous lease. The reason is structural: the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) safety scoring system is calibrated to a 24-month rolling window, the carrier has no own-name loss runs, and there is no documented safety program track record under the new MC number. Insurance pricing is anchored to verifiable history; new authorities, by definition, have not produced any.
The first compounding factor is CSA invisibility. CSA's seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) — Unsafe Driving, Hours of Service Compliance, Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Vehicle Maintenance, Hazmat Compliance, and Crash Indicator — are scored from roadside inspection and crash data tied to the carrier's MC and US Department of Transportation (USDOT) numbers. The Safety and Fitness Electronic Records (SAFER) profile shows a public CSA score only after ~12 months of inspection volume accumulates under the new authority. For the first year, the carrier shows up in the FMCSA databases as "insufficient data" across the BASICs. Underwriters cannot price what they cannot see, so they default to a class-average risk plus a new-authority load factor.
The second compounding factor is the absence of own-name loss runs. When an underwriter quotes an established carrier, the carrier provides 3–5 years of currently-valued loss runs from prior insurers — a paper trail that documents claim frequency, severity, and the carrier's own claims-handling discipline. A new authority has no loss runs. The driver may have a clean Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) for 15 years and may have been a leased-on operator under another carrier's MC number for a decade with zero crashes, but that history is filed under the lessor's MC number, not the new authority's. Some specialty markets (Hudson Insurance, Berkshire Hathaway GUARD, Canal Insurance) will give credit for the leased-on history if the new operator can produce written confirmation from the prior carrier — most admitted markets will not. We discuss the lease-vs-authority transition in detail in our owner-operator insurance guide.
The third compounding factor is the safety program gap. Established carriers run documented safety programs — written hours-of-service policies, driver qualification files compliant with 49 CFR Part 391, electronic logging device (ELD) protocols, post-accident drug-and-alcohol testing under 49 CFR Part 382, dashcam rollouts, formal corrective-action processes — and produce that documentation as part of the underwriting submission. A new authority typically has none of this in writing on day one. Specialty trucking program markets (the carriers that produce the cleanest new-authority pricing) require the carrier to commit in writing to specific safety-program elements before binding; a new authority that arrives at submission without a draft safety policy, a documented driver qualification file, and an ELD plan will be priced into the E&S market at materially higher rates than a new authority that arrives prepared. The full coverage inventory and operational risk-zone framework that ties these elements together is detailed in our commercial trucking insurance pillar guide; for the broader fleet-management context, see the commercial fleets industry hub.
BMC-91, BMC-91X, BOC-3, and MCS-150 — what to file in what order
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) authority is granted only after the agency confirms financial responsibility through a properly filed BMC-91 or BMC-91X liability filing — meaning insurance has to be quoted, bound, and filed electronically by the insurer (or a chosen agent) before the agency will activate the new Motor Carrier (MC) number for interstate for-hire operations. The most expensive new-authority mistake we see is sequencing in reverse: applying for authority first, hitting the BMC-91 deadline with no carrier willing to bind at the assumed rate, and being forced to take whatever quote is available to avoid losing the application.
BMC-91 vs. BMC-91X — which filing applies
Both forms are FMCSA proof-of-insurance filings tied to financial responsibility under 49 CFR Part 387. The choice between them is structural: BMC-91 is filed by a single insurer that writes the carrier's full minimum financial responsibility limit on a single policy. BMC-91X is filed when the limit is layered across multiple insurers (for example, a $750,000 primary auto liability plus a $250,000 excess from a different insurer to reach the $1,000,000 contract floor). Most single-truck and small-fleet new authorities will file BMC-91 because the entire FMCSA minimum sits on one policy. Multi-insurer layered programs — more common as fleets grow — file BMC-91X. Both are filed electronically by the insurer through the FMCSA Licensing & Insurance system; the carrier should never attempt to self-file.
The 21-day public protest period
FMCSA publishes new operating-authority applications in a weekly register and runs a 21-day protest period during which other parties (other carriers, regulators, plaintiffs' attorneys with open claims against affiliated entities) can object. Insurance has to be filed during this window. If the BMC-91 is not on file by the close of the protest period, the application moves to inactive or is dismissed depending on the timing, and the carrier has to refile and start the clock again. The practical implication: insurance shopping has to begin before or during the application phase, not after. We typically recommend that an operator transitioning to own authority obtain at least three written quotes 30–45 days before submitting the OP-1 application form.
The BOC-3 process agent designation
Separately from the BMC-91, the carrier must designate a process agent in every state in which the carrier operates by filing form BOC-3, "Designation of Process Agents." A process agent receives legal documents — service of process for lawsuits, FMCSA notices — on behalf of the carrier in each state. Most new authorities use a single nationwide process-agent service ($75–$200/year, per-state pricing in some states) rather than designating individual agents in each state. The BOC-3 must also be on file before authority is granted, but it is a low-friction step compared to the BMC-91 — a one-page form that the chosen process-agent service files on the carrier's behalf within a few business days.
MCS-150 motor carrier identification
The MCS-150 form ("Motor Carrier Identification Report") is the carrier's biennial registration with FMCSA. New authorities file the initial MCS-150 with the OP-1 application; the form has to be updated within 30 days of any change in operations, address, or fleet size. The MCS-150 also drives USDOT number assignment if the carrier doesn't already have one. The form is free and self-filed, but the data on it (estimated mileage, power-unit count, driver count, commodities hauled) feeds directly into the carrier's CSA exposure calculations on SAFER. Underestimating mileage on the MCS-150 to lower CSA-projected exposure is a documented audit trigger; estimate honestly.
Sequencing the placement
The clean sequence: (1) decide on operating model (interstate for-hire general freight, intrastate, hazmat, household goods — the model determines the FMCSA authority type and the financial responsibility minimum), (2) prepare the underwriting submission package — driver MVR, prior carrier safety verification letter, equipment list with VINs, intended commodity, geography, and anticipated annual mileage, (3) obtain three written insurance quotes (Anvo recommends specialty trucking program markets first, then Progressive Commercial, then E&S as fallback), (4) bind the chosen program effective the date the OP-1 is filed, (5) submit OP-1, BMC-91 (filed by the insurer immediately on bind), and BOC-3 (filed by the process-agent service), (6) the 21-day protest period runs, (7) FMCSA grants authority, (8) MCS-150 confirms registration and the USDOT number activates. Total elapsed time from quote-shop to active authority is typically 6–10 weeks for clean profiles; longer for hazmat or driver-experience-deficit cases that fall to the E&S market. Our trucking insurance requirements by state article walks through the FMCSA filing context in more depth.
What new-authority trucking insurance actually costs in year one
A new-authority single-truck for-hire general-freight program in 2026 typically prices between $18,000 and $44,000 in total first-year premium across the seven core lines — primary auto liability, motor truck cargo (MTC), physical damage, trailer interchange, general liability, workers' compensation or occupational accident, and umbrella. The single largest line is primary $1M auto liability at $10,000–$22,000, and the largest year-one premium driver after that is the new-authority surcharge layered into every line. Year two typically drops 10–20% on a clean record; year three reaches the carrier's stable rate.
The cost ranges below assume a clean profile: a driver with a 5-year clean Motor Vehicle Record (MVR), at least 2 years of verifiable Class A commercial driving experience in the same equipment class, dry-van or refrigerated general freight (no hazmat, no auto-hauling, no heavy haul), and continuous radius operations within the lower 48 states. New authorities outside this profile — driver under 25, hazmat, heavy haul, household goods, hot-shot specialty work, or coastal-only operations — price at the upper end or above the ranges shown.
| Coverage line | Typical limit / structure | First-year premium range (single truck) | What drives the variance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary auto liability | $1,000,000 Combined Single Limit (CSL) | $10,000–$22,000 | Driver MVR, age (under 25 or over 65 surcharges), radius, commodity, prior leased-on history, garaging state |
| Motor truck cargo (MTC) | $100,000 limit, $1,000–$2,500 deductible | $1,800–$4,500 | Commodity (refrigerated +20–30%, electronics +30–50%), routes, prior cargo claims, shipper contract minimums (often $100K–$250K) |
| Physical damage on tractor | Stated value or agreed value, $1,000–$2,500 deductible | $2,800–$5,500 | Tractor age, value, financing requirements (lenders demand stated/agreed value), garaging, theft history of model |
| Trailer interchange / non-owned trailer | $25,000–$50,000 limit | $400–$900 | Whether the operation pulls interchange trailers (drop-and-hook freight requires this), trailer value |
| General liability (GL) | $1,000,000 / $2,000,000 aggregate | $700–$1,500 | Premises (yard or terminal vs. home-based), customer COI requirements, additional-insured endorsement count |
| Workers' compensation OR occupational accident | WC: per state; Occ-acc: $250K AD&D, $5K weekly disability typical | $720–$3,500 (occ-acc) / $3,000–$8,400 (WC, NCCI 7228/7231) | Sole-proprietor exemption rules vary by state — KS/MO permit owner-operator opt-out; NY/CA do not. Occ-acc is typically chosen when WC is not legally required. |
| Commercial umbrella | $1,000,000–$5,000,000 | $2,000–$6,000 | Underlying limits, contract requirements, nuclear-verdict-driven rate trends — average fatal-truck verdict $22.3M per ATRI 2023 nuclear verdict report |
| Total first-year program (single truck) | — | $18,000–$44,000+ | Bottom of range = clean OTR dry-van; top of range = reefer or specialty + experience or MVR deficits |
Year-2 and year-3 repricing
The 25–50% new-authority surcharge does not vanish at month 13 — it drops gradually as CSA history accumulates and own-name loss runs become available. Most underwriters reduce the surcharge by half at the first renewal (month 12) if the CSA BASIC profile is showing favorably and there are no chargeable incidents, and remove the remaining surcharge at the second renewal (month 24) when the carrier has 24 months of CSA-relevant data. Year-2 premiums on a clean profile typically drop 10–20% from year-one; year-3 reaches the carrier's stable rate, which for our typical clean single-truck for-hire OTR account lands at $11,000–$15,000 in primary liability and $14,000–$25,000 total program — substantially below the $18,000–$44,000+ year-one range. The full cost trajectory is detailed in our 2026 commercial trucking insurance cost guide.
Why the first-year cost is not a surcharge problem to "manage"
A common misconception we see at submission time is that the new-authority surcharge can be negotiated down with a tighter submission, a higher deductible, or a lower limit. It cannot. The surcharge is a structural underwriting load tied to the absence of CSA data and own-name loss runs — both of which only resolve with time. The two things that actually reduce first-year cost are (1) selecting the right market — Progressive Commercial and certain specialty program markets price new authorities materially better than admitted standard markets that decline most new authorities outright — and (2) producing a complete, professional submission package that documents driver experience, prior carrier verification, intended safety program, and equipment rather than a bare-minimum submission that defaults to class-average pricing. The structure and limit considerations on the primary-auto line itself are covered on our commercial auto coverage page. We discuss market selection below.
Six profile factors that push a new authority out of admitted and program markets
Even Progressive Commercial — the dominant new-authority writer in the United States — has firm declination criteria, and the specialty trucking program markets that price clean new authorities most competitively run a tighter set of red lines. A new-authority operator who hits any of these factors should expect the program to fall to the Excess & Surplus (E&S) market, with corresponding premium increases of 30–80% versus the clean-profile ranges in the table above.
- Driver under 23 years old or under 2 years of Class A experience. Most program markets require a primary driver who is 23 or older and has at least 2 years of verifiable Class A commercial driving experience in the same equipment class. Progressive will sometimes write 21- and 22-year-olds in regional applications, but national OTR new authorities under 23 with no verifiable lease-on history are routinely declined or quoted at $25,000+ for the primary auto line alone. Intercity Lines and the OEM auto-hauler captives have similar age floors.
- MVR violations on the primary driver in the past 3 years. A single major violation (DUI, reckless driving, careless driving causing injury, hit-and-run, suspended license event) within the prior 3–5 years moves the application to E&S regardless of how clean the rest of the profile is. Two minor violations (speeding 15+ mph over, following too close, lane violation) in the prior 36 months also push the program out of admitted markets. Pull a current MVR before submission so there are no surprises at quote time.
- Hazmat or heavy haul on day one. A new authority that intends to haul hazmat (placardable shipments, bulk fuel, anhydrous ammonia) faces the $1M non-bulk or $5M bulk financial responsibility under 49 CFR 387 from day one, plus the MCS-90 endorsement. Most program markets will not write hazmat on a new authority — placement runs through E&S specialty hazmat carriers with materially higher pricing. The same applies to heavy haul (oversize/overweight permit work) and household goods (HHG authority is its own filing path under 49 CFR Part 375 with separate cargo and consumer-protection requirements). Our food distribution hazmat article covers the underlying financial responsibility math in detail.
- Single equipment loan with no down payment or cosigner. Underwriters check equipment financing to confirm the operator has financial skin in the game — both because financed-only operators tend to skip preventive maintenance under cash pressure and because lender additional-insured-and-loss-payee requirements force stated-value or agreed-value physical damage at limits the operator may not have budgeted. New authorities financed at 100% loan-to-value through a sale-leaseback or "lease-purchase" arrangement with a freight broker or carrier (rather than an arm's-length lender) are particularly difficult to place — underwriters treat these as financially fragile and price accordingly.
- "Chameleon carrier" red flags. An operator who recently surrendered a different MC number, or who shares ownership, garaging, or driver overlap with a recently deactivated or out-of-service carrier, triggers FMCSA's chameleon-carrier review under the agency's Vetting and Sustainable Compliance program. Any indicator that a new authority is a re-fronted version of a prior problem carrier — same address, same driver pool, same equipment, same DOT registrant pattern — moves the application straight to E&S, often with named carrier exclusions and elevated deductibles. Ownership disclosures on the OP-1 should match the underwriting submission exactly; mismatches read as evasion.
- Customer concentration above 50% on a single contract. A new authority that is functionally dependent on a single shipper or freight broker (more than 50% of projected revenue from one customer in year one) reads as financially fragile and as having limited operational diversity. If the single customer is a freight broker (rather than a direct shipper), the program is also exposed to the broker's bond and contract structure. Specialty markets will still write these accounts, but they price 15–25% higher and often add a customer-concentration endorsement that limits indemnification scope.
None of these factors are individually disqualifying for placement — every new authority gets coverage somewhere — but each one is a material premium driver and most cluster together. An applicant who hits two or three should plan for an E&S placement, a longer placement timeline (8–12 weeks rather than 4–6), and a year-one program total at the upper end or above the $18,000–$44,000 range.
Which insurers actually write new-authority trucking, and where each one fits
The new-authority trucking market is not a single market — it is three distinct tiers of insurers, with very different appetite, pricing, and submission expectations. Understanding which tier a given new authority belongs in before submission is the single highest-leverage decision a broker makes for a new-authority client. Submitting to the wrong tier wastes 2–4 weeks of placement time and produces declinations that can themselves become a soft underwriting signal at the next attempt.
Tier 1 — Progressive Commercial, the dominant new-authority writer
Progressive Commercial is the largest writer of new-authority for-hire trucking insurance in the United States by both account count and direct premium written, with appetite for single-truck through small-fleet new authorities across most general-freight commodity classes. Progressive's pricing on a clean new-authority single-truck dry-van OTR profile is typically the most competitive admitted-market quote available, and Progressive will file BMC-91 same-day on bind. Limitations: Progressive declines hazmat new authorities, declines most owner-operator new authorities under 23, and prices reefer and specialty work materially higher than dry van. Progressive is the default first stop for any new authority with a clean profile — start there, then comparison-shop to the program markets.
Tier 2 — Specialty trucking program markets
The specialty trucking program tier writes new authorities selectively but produces the strongest pricing for clean profiles when they will write. Berkshire Hathaway GUARD writes new authorities in the small-fleet space (3–10 trucks more often than single-truck), with strong appetite for owner-operators transitioning from established lease-on relationships and the ability to credit prior leased-on history. Canal Insurance has decades of for-hire trucking specialty experience and will write clean new authorities with verifiable driver history. Hudson Insurance and Carolina Casualty fit the mid-size new authority where a defined safety program is in place. Knight Specialty (part of Knight-Swift) writes selectively and tends to focus on owner-operators with verifiable Knight-Swift lease history. Great West Casualty writes selective new authorities, typically in agricultural or regional dry-van work. The advantage of the specialty tier: when these markets quote, they quote on form and limit terms that match the contract requirements (additional-insured endorsements, waiver of subrogation, primary-and-non-contributory wording) without the friction Progressive sometimes has on contract-specific endorsements.
Tier 3 — Excess & Surplus (E&S) market for harder profiles
When the new authority is hazmat, heavy haul, household goods, has driver-experience deficits, has prior-MC chameleon flags, or operates a niche equipment class, placement runs to the Excess & Surplus market: Lloyd's of London syndicates accessed through wholesale brokers (RT Specialty, Amwins, CRC), Lexington/AIG E&S, Markel Specialty, James River, Scottsdale/Nationwide E&S, United Specialty (Atlantic Specialty / Old Republic), and Hudson E&S. E&S premium for a new-authority hazmat single-truck program typically runs $35,000–$70,000+ in year one — substantially above the clean OTR ranges — but the trade is binding capacity for risks that admitted markets simply will not write. E&S placements also typically come with named-driver schedules, agreed-value-only physical damage forms, and per-occurrence deductibles in the $2,500–$5,000 range. Our commercial trucking carrier market guide covers the broader admitted vs. program vs. E&S placement framework in detail.
Markets that decline new authorities outright
Most admitted standard-market commercial auto carriers — Travelers, Liberty Mutual, The Hartford, Zurich, Cincinnati, Auto-Owners — decline new authorities outright as a matter of underwriting policy. They are not bad carriers; they simply do not write the class until the carrier has 24+ months of CSA history and own-name loss runs. A new authority shopping these carriers directly (as opposed to through an independent broker who knows the appetite map) wastes time and signals to the standard market that the operator does not have specialist representation. Wait until year three to approach this tier; by then the operation looks like an established carrier and pricing reflects it.
When the FMCSA application went in before the insurance shopping began
An owner-operator with 11 years of clean lease-on history under a Midwest regional carrier transitioned to his own FMCSA authority in early 2025. Confident in his record, he filed the OP-1 first and began calling insurance carriers afterward, planning to bind at the regional rate his lease-on carrier had been quoting (~$8,500/year for primary auto liability under the lessor's program). When Progressive Commercial quoted him at $16,200 — a 90% premium step over what he had assumed he would pay, driven by the new-authority surcharge plus a routine reefer-commodity load factor — he tried to comparison-shop without recognizing that the 21-day FMCSA protest period was already ticking. With seven days left on the protest period and only one usable quote in hand, he bound with Progressive at the quoted rate to avoid losing the application, layered a $1M umbrella from a separate insurer at $4,800, and added MTC, physical damage, GL, and occ-acc through Progressive for a total first-year program of $33,400.
The recoverable mistake was sequencing. Had he engaged a specialist broker 30 days before filing the OP-1, the same operator's profile would have been shopped to Berkshire Hathaway GUARD, Canal Insurance, and Hudson alongside Progressive. We re-shopped at his first renewal: Canal quoted the primary auto line at $11,900 and the program total at $24,600 — a $8,800 first-year-renewal savings — and committed to drop another 10–15% at month 24 if loss runs and CSA stayed clean. The lesson the operator now passes along to other owner-operators considering own-authority transitions: the BMC-91 deadline is not the moment to begin shopping. Insurance is the dominant cost line of year one and has to be quoted, compared, and selected before the clock starts running.
Details anonymized and generalized to protect client confidentiality.
Frequently asked questions about new-authority trucking insurance
A "new authority" is a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)-registered motor carrier in its first 24 months of operation under its own Motor Carrier (MC) number. Underwriters treat new authorities as a separate class because the carrier has no own-name loss runs, no Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) history visible on the Safety and Fitness Electronic Records (SAFER) profile, and typically no documented safety program track record under the new MC number. The result is a 25–50% premium surcharge in year one that reduces by half at the year-2 renewal and resolves at year-3 once the carrier has 24 months of CSA-relevant data.
Always before. FMCSA grants operating authority only after a properly filed BMC-91 (single-insurer) or BMC-91X (multi-insurer) liability filing is on file during the 21-day public protest period that follows the OP-1 application. If insurance is not bound and filed in time, the application moves to inactive and the carrier has to refile. We recommend obtaining at least three written insurance quotes 30–45 days before submitting the OP-1 application — that produces enough lead time to compare specialty trucking program markets, Progressive Commercial, and (if needed) Excess & Surplus options before binding.
No, you file one or the other based on how the financial responsibility limit is structured. BMC-91 is filed when a single insurer writes the entire FMCSA minimum on one policy — most single-truck and small-fleet new authorities use BMC-91 because the entire $750,000 (general freight) or $1,000,000 (non-bulk hazmat) sits on one primary auto policy. BMC-91X is filed when the limit is layered across multiple insurers — for example, a $750,000 primary plus $250,000 excess from a different carrier to reach a $1M contract floor. Both are filed electronically by the insurer through the FMCSA Licensing & Insurance system, not by the carrier directly.
A clean-profile new-authority single-truck for-hire general-freight program typically totals $18,000–$44,000 in first-year premium across primary $1M auto liability ($10,000–$22,000), motor truck cargo at $100,000 limit ($1,800–$4,500), physical damage on the tractor ($2,800–$5,500), trailer interchange ($400–$900), general liability ($700–$1,500), workers' compensation or occupational accident ($720–$3,500), and umbrella ($2,000–$6,000). Reefer commodity, hazmat, heavy haul, or driver-experience deficits push the program to the upper end or above the range. Year-2 renewal typically drops 10–20% on a clean record; year-3 reaches the carrier's stable rate, usually $14,000–$25,000 total program for the same operation.
Progressive Commercial has the largest new-authority appetite among admitted U.S. commercial auto insurers because the company is structurally calibrated to underwrite limited-history risk — single-truck and small-fleet for-hire trucking is its core book. Progressive will quote a clean new-authority single-truck dry-van OTR profile same-day in most cases, files BMC-91 same-day on bind, and prices the new-authority surcharge at the lower end of the market range. Progressive's limitations: it declines hazmat new authorities, declines most owner-operator new authorities under age 23, and prices reefer and specialty work materially higher than dry van. Progressive is the default first stop for clean profiles, but it is not the only stop — specialty program markets (Berkshire Hathaway GUARD, Canal Insurance, Hudson) often beat Progressive on form quality and contract endorsements when they will write.
It is not automatic and does not come off all at once. Most underwriters reduce the new-authority surcharge by roughly half at the first renewal (month 12) if Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) on the Safety and Fitness Electronic Records (SAFER) profile are showing favorably and there are no chargeable incidents, then remove the remaining surcharge at the second renewal (month 24). Year-2 premium typically drops 10–20% from year-one on a clean profile; year-3 reaches the carrier's stable rate. Carriers that experience a reportable crash, a roadside out-of-service order, or a driver MVR violation in year one usually do not see the year-2 reduction at all.
No — the surcharge is tied to the new MC number, not the driver. The driver's clean Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) and lease-on history reduce the surcharge but do not eliminate it, because the underwriter has no own-name loss runs and no own-name CSA BASICs to score the new authority on. Specialty trucking program markets (Berkshire Hathaway GUARD, Canal Insurance, Hudson) will give meaningful credit for documented prior leased-on experience if the operator can produce a written verification letter from the prior carrier — most admitted markets will not. The fastest path to standard-market pricing is to operate the new authority cleanly through the 24-month CSA build window, then re-shop the program in year 3.
It depends on the state and on whether the owner-operator is the only person performing services for the new authority. Kansas and Missouri permit sole-proprietor owner-operators to elect out of workers' compensation coverage; New York, California, and Pennsylvania generally do not, and require workers' compensation on every employee or treat owner-operators as employees of the motor carrier in many circumstances. Most single-truck new authorities purchase occupational accident insurance ($720–$1,440 per year for a $250K AD&D / $5K weekly disability structure) in lieu of workers' compensation when state law permits, then transition to full workers' compensation when they hire their first driver. Our trucking insurance requirements by state article covers the state-by-state thresholds in detail.
Transitioning to your own FMCSA authority?
Ask the assistant to walk through the BMC-91 sequence, the year-one cost stack, or which specialty markets fit your profile.
Get a new-authority quote before you file the OP-1
The BMC-91 deadline is not the moment to start shopping. We quote new-authority programs across Progressive Commercial, the specialty trucking program markets, and the E&S market — typically 30–45 days before your FMCSA application — so you bind on the right form, with the right limits, at the best available year-one rate.