Moon Insurance Managers, Inc. · TDI license #5595
Motor Truck Cargo Insurance in Houston, TX
The truck and the load are two different insurance questions. Motor truck cargo starts with a carrier’s legal liability for covered customer freight in road transit — it does not insure the truck itself, and it is not automatically the right form for a manufacturer, wholesaler or retailer moving its own products.
What federal regulation actually requires
- On one motor vehicle
- $5,000
- Aggregate, one time and place
- $10,000
- General freight
- No federal cargo minimum
- Carrier liability
- Carmack, 49 U.S.C. § 14706
- Texas intrastate
- A TxDMV number
- 41years in Houston
- 20+markets compared
- Same dayDPS filing
- #5595TDI license
Four questions first
Whose goods, and which leg?
Before a submission is worth starting, four answers decide which product is even being discussed: whose goods are being moved, who has custody of them, which part of the trip creates the exposure, and what the highest value in one load is. Those answers separate motor truck cargo from a carrier’s own-goods transit, from an ocean shipment and from customer property held in a building.
- You haul customer freight by truck for a fee Motor truck cargo
- Motor truck cargo legal liability is the starting point. A carrier application typically asks about the goods of others in the insured’s vehicles, the carrier’s legal responsibility for them, commodities, load values, routes, equipment, contracts and losses. The form still controls: a policy called “cargo” does not prove that every commodity, loading arrangement, terminal stay or customer contract is covered.
- Your business moves its own stock Owned goods
- Owned goods create a financial-interest question rather than a liability one. An inland transportation form — sometimes called shipper’s-interest coverage — can be structured around the insured’s own covered property while it is in inland transit. That is a different starting point from a carrier’s legal liability for somebody else’s freight.
- The shipment includes an ocean or air leg Ocean and marine cargo
- Ocean and marine cargo addresses a buyer’s, a seller’s or another party’s financial interest across an international or multimode shipment. The sales contract and the point at which responsibility for loss transfers both matter, and neither is the same question as a road carrier’s legal-liability form.
- You hold customer goods for storage or work Bailee and warehouse
- Customer property kept in a warehouse, or held while a business performs work on it, can create a bailee or warehouse-liability exposure. Texas classifies those risks separately from ordinary domestic shipments, even where a particular form also addresses some transit.
- You arrange transport and another carrier hauls it Contingent cargo
- A freight broker’s contingent cargo question is not the operating carrier’s motor truck cargo policy. Say whether loads are brokered or subcontracted and whose authority moves them. One certificate does not answer for every participant in the movement.
Two of those branches have an owner on this site. If you make the goods, start with the operating picture on manufacturers insurance; if you buy and resell them, start with insurance for wholesalers and distributors. Inventory sitting still at an owned or leased location is a commercial property insurance question, and goods moving between your own locations need a transit review of their own.
We can help work out which of those the operation actually is. What we will not do is call all five of them “cargo insurance” and leave you to find out which one you bought.
Sources: TDI — adopted inland marine rules, 28 TAC §§5.5001–5.5008; NAIC — property/casualty product coding matrix. Verified .
Before the submission
Match the submission to what you actually haul
Cargo applications ask for the details that change the exposure, and vague answers produce terms that do not fit the operation:
- Exact commodities — and the share of loads each one represents. “General freight” is not enough information to compare a form against the operation.
- Average and maximum value in one load — and whether the two are far apart.
- The limits you are being asked for — per vehicle, and for catastrophe, refrigeration or terminal exposure.
- Radius — local, regional and long-haul, with the rough split between them.
- Equipment — dry van, flatbed, refrigerated, auto-hauling, tanker or something else.
- Loaded vehicles left unattended — and the security used while they sit.
- Goods held at a terminal — or at a temporary location between legs.
- Loading and unloading responsibility — who does it, and under whose supervision.
- Loads brokered or subcontracted — to another carrier, and how often.
- Prior cargo losses — in the recent loss period.
Occasional loads count. If one contract sometimes puts a value in the trailer far above the normal shipment, disclose that peak rather than quoting from an average that cannot represent it.
Choosing a limit
Let the contract and the maximum load drive the limit
For interstate transportation subject to the Carmack Amendment, receiving and delivering carriers can be liable for actual loss or injury to the property. Failure to issue a receipt or a bill of lading does not, by itself, erase that statutory liability. For non-household-goods shipments, a shipper’s written or electronic declaration, or a written agreement, can establish a reasonable limited value in qualifying circumstances.
That makes the paperwork material. The documents that shape the exposure are:
- the bill of lading or shipping receipt;
- the rate confirmation;
- the carrier, shipper, broker or customer agreement;
- the declared or released value; and
- any contractual cargo limit.
Insurance and legal liability are related questions, but they are not the same question. A certificate showing a limit does not prove that every commodity or every contractual obligation is insured. Compare the form against the highest load and against the agreements governing it.
There is no defensible universal “standard” answer to borrow. The useful number is the maximum value the carrier accepts, tested against the contract and against the policy’s own limit, valuation, deductible, exclusions and conditions.
A separate and much smaller matter: if Moon already writes the policy and a broker or customer is asking for proof of it, that is a service request rather than a quote — the certificate of insurance request is the right desk for it, and a certificate never creates coverage that the policy does not already provide.
Source: 49 U.S.C. §14706 — Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Verified .
A correction worth making
Cargo is not a universal federal filing for every carrier
FMCSA’s current filing chart does not impose a federal cargo-insurance filing minimum on ordinary for-hire property carriers. The federal cargo filing requirement remains for household-goods motor carriers and household-goods freight forwarders. Public-liability requirements are a separate subject and belong with the vehicle and operating-authority conversation, not this one.
For household-goods operations, federal regulation currently uses $5,000 for property carried on one vehicle and $10,000 for aggregate loss at one time and place. TxDMV likewise publishes $5,000 for total cargo on one motor vehicle and $10,000 for aggregate loss involving multiple shippers on one vehicle, with Forms H and I used as proof in Texas.
Those are regulatory filing amounts as of 28 July 2026, not a recommendation for the limit a particular household-goods contract or load needs. They are a floor for a filing, and a floor is rarely the right answer for a business with something to lose.
Every other carrier can still face a cargo requirement — in a shipper, broker, customer, lease or carrier agreement. That is a contractual requirement, and it is worth reading carefully, but it is not a universal federal mandate and nobody should sell it to you as one.
Sources: FMCSA — insurance filing requirements; FMCSA — who is required to carry cargo insurance; 49 CFR §387.303 (eCFR); TxDMV — TxDMV number and insurance requirements. Verified .
Where this page stops
The truck is commercial auto; the load is cargo
Motor truck cargo addresses covered freight. It does not repair the insured truck after a collision, and it does not answer for injury or damage the truck causes to other people. Those are commercial auto insurance questions, and that page owns them — vehicles, drivers, limits and the rest. A trailer belonging to somebody else can also need a coverage review of its own.
The truck is auto. The load is cargo.
Most operations need both conversations. They are still two conversations, and running them together is how a carrier ends up insured for the tractor and surprised about the freight.
Ask by name
Coverage details to check in the actual form
Cargo policies and endorsements differ. Ask how the proposed form treats:
- refrigeration breakdown, driver error and temperature change
- loading and unloading
- terminal exposure and temporary storage
- unattended loaded vehicles and the theft protections required
- wetness, rust, corrosion, contamination or spoilage
- debris removal and earned freight
- commodities that attract theft, and high-value loads
- property transferred to another carrier
- brokered and subcontracted loads
These are review points, not a list of automatic inclusions. A reefer trailer does not create refrigeration coverage by itself, and a commodity appearing on a bill of lading does not override a policy exclusion.
Have these ready
What to have ready for the first conversation
You do not need to send a full motor-carrier application through a website message. Start with:
- the business’s primary role — for-hire carrier, owner-operator, private carrier, broker, manufacturer, distributor, warehouse or something else
- whether the goods belong to customers or to the business
- the main commodities hauled
- average and maximum value in one load
- local, regional, multistate or another operating pattern
- the number and broad type of trucks and trailers
- any refrigerated, auto-hauling, flatbed or otherwise specialized operation
- whether goods stay in loaded vehicles or at a terminal
- whether loads are brokered or subcontracted
- whether a contract specifies a cargo limit
- whether cargo losses occurred recently
- the effective date you are working toward
Do not send authority records, contracts, bills of lading, driver or vehicle schedules, policy copies, loss runs, financial records or detailed security information through an ordinary website message. If we need documents, call (281) 484-8320 so staff can give you an approved way to send them.
Cargo questions carriers actually ask
What does motor truck cargo insurance address?
Generally, a carrier’s legal liability for covered customer freight in road transit. The property, causes of loss, locations, values, exclusions and extensions all depend on the actual policy and on the shipping arrangement behind it.
Is cargo insurance federally required for every trucker?
No. FMCSA’s current filing chart shows no federal cargo filing minimum for ordinary for-hire property carriers. Household-goods motor carriers and household-goods freight forwarders do retain federal cargo filing requirements. Everyone else can still be required to carry cargo cover by a shipper, broker, customer or lease agreement — a contract requirement rather than a federal one.
What does Texas require?
TxDMV currently publishes household-goods cargo requirements of $5,000 for total cargo on one motor vehicle and $10,000 for aggregate loss involving multiple shippers on one vehicle, with Forms H and I used as proof. Those regulatory amounts do not tell a carrier what its customer contracts or its highest-valued load require.
Does cargo insurance cover the truck or trailer?
Motor truck cargo does not insure the truck itself. The insured truck is a commercial-auto physical-damage question, and a trailer belonging to somebody else can need its own coverage review.
What if the business transports its own products?
Owned goods may call for shipper’s-interest or inland-transportation coverage rather than a carrier-liability form. Start with who owns the goods and which party carries the financial risk while they are moving.
Is reefer breakdown automatically included?
No. Refrigeration breakdown, driver error and temperature-change coverage are form-specific and can require separate terms. Confirm them before you accept a temperature-sensitive load, not after.
How should a carrier choose a cargo limit?
Start with the maximum value in any one load, occasional peak loads included, and compare it with the customer, shipper, broker, lease and carrier agreements you have signed. Then read the form’s valuation, deductible, exclusions and conditions against that number. There is no defensible universal answer to borrow instead.
Is ocean cargo the same coverage?
No. Ocean and marine cargo answers a different mode and a different financial-interest question, and depending on the policy it can take in related inland or storage legs. Motor truck cargo starts with the road carrier’s liability for customer freight.
No obligation
Start with the load you cannot afford to misunderstand
Tell us your role, whose goods you move, the commodities, the maximum value in one load, where the trucks travel and what the contract asks for. We can help determine which information belongs in the right submission, without pretending every cargo question uses the same form.
Monday to Thursday, 9:00 to 5:00; Friday, 9:00 to 4:00. Our Houston office is at 360 FM 1959, Houston, TX 77034. Carriers based elsewhere in Texas are welcome — you do not have to be local.