Steve Daines: “This April, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced that it would be moving forward with a rulemaking…”

“This April, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced that it would be moving forward with a rulemaking that would increase the amount of required liability coverage for truck and bus companies. This comes despite findings by the Department of Transportation that less than 0.2 percent of truck-involved accidents have property and injury damages that exceed the current minimum liability coverage requirements, which is $750,000. Current proposals regarding the insurance increase call for minimum levels to go up by more than 500 percent, and this would lead to a significant reduction in insurance availability for motor carriers, especially small businesses. The bottom line is this: the trial lawyers win, the small businesses lose. It is estimated that premiums could increase by more than four times the current levels, up to $20,000 per truck and even more per bus. Further, more than 40 percent of currently operating motor carriers could go out of business due to these new requirements. There is no evidence supporting higher insurance requirements or that coverage levels result in the improved safety performance of a motor carrier. DOT's own report argued that increasing minimum insurance levels is not the best way to meet the needs of catastrophic accident victims.…”