Shippers count on a $750,000 federal filing to protect their freight, but that required minimum only pays for public harm [1]. The only cargo number in the whole rulebook is a $5,000 floor just for household movers [2]. A freight broker’s $75,000 bond is even narrower. Federal law ties that bond to unpaid freight bills, not to goods that arrive damaged or short [3]. Your carrier’s $750,000 doesn’t cover cargo; it covers crashes on the highway, not your missing pallets.

The big picture:

Three distinct federal papers answer three different questions, and only the optional one covers your freight [3][4].

My read is that the confusion comes from how the rules are built, not from carelessness. Public limits exist to pay for what a heavy truck does to other people and their property on the road [1]. That explains why the federal schedule prices risk by hazard class rather than by the value of the freight [1]. The goods inside the trailer sit in a separate paragraph of the law, which says the regulator “may require” security for damage to property in the carrier’s hands [3]. A choice to allow it is not a rule to force it.

Part 387 of title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) forces cargo cover in exactly one place, and it leaves out general freight. Household-goods carriers must file security that compensates individual shippers for all property belonging to them [6]. The amounts are $5,000 for a loss on one truck and $10,000 for losses at any one time and place [2]. That makes up the whole cargo minimum in the federal rulebook, and it exists because a moving van holds a family’s entire life.

The weight limit shapes the risk just as much as the dollar amounts. The whole federal section leaves out trucks running under a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,001 pounds [5]. Fast vans and local sprinters sit right below that line [5]. A shipper routing urgent freight through those smaller trucks works wholly outside the federal floor. Nothing in the normal carrier paperwork says so.

By the numbers

  • 150 times — Liability gap: The public minimum is 150 times larger than the only stated cargo figure, showing how far apart the two papers sit [1][2].
  • 2.5% — Required cover: A family losing a $200,000 household load against the $5,000 per-truck amount is covered for a fortieth of the loss [2].
  • 60 days — Claim window: When a broker fails financially, its surety must advertise for claims for 60 days from the published cancellation notice and pay the ones it validates [3][4].
  • 30 days — Notice clock: A broker bond needs 30 days of notice before it can end, and a surety must answer a claim by the 30th day after it arrives [3][4].

What I’d watch:

  • The insurance certificate: What a risk team really needs is an insurance paper showing a clear cargo limit and a policy number [1][6]. The federal filing proves public cover, but it says nothing at all about the freight.
  • The broker-security updates: The property-broker bond section carries its own currency note, “effective January 16, 2026” [5]. That is the clearest sign this corner of the rulebook moves fast. A shipper holding a 2024 copy is reading a dead set of rules.
  • Unpaid freight claims: The claims a broker bond really pays come from carriers that hauled a load and never got their money [3][4]. A double-brokering dispute is exactly where the bond earns its keep. A shipper’s damaged-goods claim needs a different path.
  • Small-vehicle capacity: Fast and local van networks run below the exact weight rating that triggers the federal floor [5]. The freight they carry is often the highest-value load in the whole network.

The catch

Cargo cover exists as a product, and plenty of carriers buy it. What binds a policy to a specific load is a contract term and a policy schedule, not a public filing [1][3]. That is the part I keep circling. The rules tell a shipper what the counterparty must file, and that paper protects the highway public rather than the freight.

Two strict limits apply to the math. The household amounts are a floor under a regulated moving market, not a market rate [2]. The gap shows a gap in mandate, not a benchmark of what cover costs. This piece carries no price data, because none was sourced. It only shows where the duty lives: the contract and the policy schedule.

The practical shape is less stark than the worst-case fear. Most freight moves without a loss, and most real losses settle between insurers. The exposure is narrower. It is the load that fails on a broker’s lane just after the carrier’s policy ends, with nothing behind it but a bond written for somebody else’s unpaid invoice [4].

The filing clock still rules the claim itself. A shipper with the right counterparty and the wrong paperwork loses on rules rather than on cover see the freight claim filing window.

At a glance

  • The Big Shift: The federal numbers shippers quote at each other measure public harm, broker honesty and household cargo. None of them measures cover for general freight.
  • Why It Matters: A shipper who reads a carrier’s record as proof the load is safe relies on a paper written for the highway public. The loss then lands on a contract clause and an insurance schedule instead.
  • What I’d Watch: Whether cargo limits start appearing on the insurance paper rather than being assumed from the public record, and how the broker bond section reads after its next update.
  • Public liability: The schedule that pays people and property harmed by a truck on the road, priced by hazard class.
  • Broker security: The bond that pays carriers and shippers when a middleman keeps freight money it collected.
  • Cargo liability: The separate cover that pays for the goods themselves, forced by federal rule only for household moves.
  • The Catch: Nothing here prices a cargo policy or measures how often carriers carry one. The household amounts are a regulated floor, not a market benchmark, so readers finish the arithmetic with their own contracts.

Related reading

Sources

[1] eCFR — 49 CFR 387.9, “Financial responsibility, minimum levels”, Table 1 “Schedule of Limits—Public Liability” (title 49, current as of 10/27/2026) — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-387/subpart-A/section-387.9 [2] eCFR — 49 CFR 387.303T(c), “Security for the protection of the public: Minimum limits — Household goods motor carriers: Cargo liability” — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-387/subpart-C/section-387.303T [3] Cornell Law School LII — 49 U.S.C. § 13906, “Security of motor carriers, motor private carriers, brokers, and freight forwarders” — https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/49/13906 [4] govinfo.gov — United States Code, 2023 edition, title 49, § 13906 — https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2023-title49/html/USCODE-2023-title49-subtitleIV-partB-chap139-sec13906.htm [5] eCFR — 49 CFR Part 387, “Minimum levels of financial responsibility for motor carriers” (including § 387.1 purpose, § 387.3 applicability and exception, and § 387.307) — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-387 [6] eCFR — 49 CFR 387.301T(b), “Surety bond, certificate of insurance, or other securities — Household goods motor carriers-cargo insurance” — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-387/subpart-C/section-387.301T