What Is a BMC-34 Filing?
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BMC-34 is the Household Goods Motor Carrier Cargo Liability Certificate of Insurance. An insurer files it with FMCSA to show that a household goods carrier, a mover, has the cargo coverage the rules require. It covers the customer's belongings in the truck, not liability to the public. General freight carriers don't have to file one, even when they buy cargo insurance.
Who has to file a BMC-34
Under 49 CFR 387.303(c), household goods carriers must file evidence of cargo insurance with FMCSA. Movers hauling household goods across state lines therefore carry two filings: a BMC-91 or BMC-91X for BIPD liability and a BMC-34 for cargo. The form's current name and use come from a 2016 Federal Register notice.
A dry van, reefer or flatbed carrier with no BMC-34 on its record isn't missing anything. Its cargo policy, if it has one, is between the carrier, its insurer and the brokers that require it.
What it means if you sell to new carriers
Rookiefeed shows the liability insurer and BIPD amount from each new carrier's filings; cargo coverage isn't part of those filings. More in new venture trucking insurance leads.
- Insurance agents: a missing BMC-34 says nothing about whether a freight carrier has cargo coverage. Ask about it; brokers usually require it.
- Factoring reps: cargo claims can hold up broker payments, so a carrier with no cargo policy is a question worth raising early.
- Anyone filtering lists: household goods carriers are a small, distinct group with their own filing pattern.
Questions
- Is BMC-34 the same as cargo insurance?
- It's the proof of cargo insurance that household goods carriers must file with FMCSA. Other carriers can buy cargo insurance without any FMCSA filing, so for them no BMC-34 appears even when coverage exists. The BMC-34 itself is filed by the insurer, not the carrier.
Every newly granted carrier, by 7am
MC and USDOT numbers, owner name, phone, email, trucks, equipment and the insurer on file, for each carrier FMCSA authorized yesterday.
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Related terms
- BMC-91 and BMC-91X Certificates an insurer files with FMCSA proving a motor carrier carries the required bodily injury and property damage liability coverage.
- BIPD Bodily injury and property damage liability insurance, the public liability coverage FMCSA requires a for-hire carrier to keep on file.
- New venture Insurance term for a motor carrier with new operating authority and little or no history running its own trucks.
Sources: 49 CFR 387.303, security for the protection of the public · Federal Register (2016): BMC-34 cargo liability certificate