BMC filings (BMC-91, 91X, 34, 83, 84, 85)
The insurance section of the federal carrier record is built from BMC forms filed with FMCSA. Knowing the handful of codes makes the record legible:
- BMC-91 / BMC-91X: public liability (BIPD) coverage. BMC-91 is filed for the full required limit. BMC-91X can also be filed for full coverage, and it is the form used when several insurers each cover part of the total. Either is ordinary, not a warning sign.
- BMC-34 / BMC-83: cargo coverage, today required as a filing only of household-goods carriers and household-goods freight forwarders.
- BMC-84 / BMC-85: a broker's $75,000 surety bond (84) or trust fund (85), the financial-responsibility requirement for freight brokers.
Why the form codes matter
Misreading a form code produces confident nonsense: treating a 91X filing as a cancellation, or reading a missing cargo form as a violation for a general-freight carrier. The form code tells you which obligation a filing satisfies, and each entity type has its own required set (carriers need liability; brokers need the bond; household-goods carriers need cargo too).
What fleetfax does with them
fleetfax classifies every filing by form code and evaluates each requirement separately, so a carrier-broker shows the state of both its liability coverage and its bond, labeled in plain English ("Liability (BMC-91)", "Broker surety bond (BMC-84)"). Absence is only flagged where that entity type actually requires the filing.
fleetfax reads public FMCSA data and is not affiliated with FMCSA or the U.S. Department of Transportation. This page explains terminology; it is not legal advice.
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