Insurance and damage: questions and answers

Usually the carrier's cargo limit, if the certificate and the contract state one. It is not the large public-liability number on a federal screen, and it is not automatically your personal auto policy. An extra plan sold at booking is a third contract. Read the document that names a dollar limit for your car. 49 USC 13906 allows the Secretary to require security for a shipper's property. It does not publish a cargo limit for a car.

They must have public liability before they operate. For many for-hire haulers of nonhazardous property in a vehicle rated 10,001 pounds or more, 49 CFR 387.9 lists $750,000. That security is for injury and for damage from operating the truck. It is not cargo insurance on your car. FMCSA's authority rules do not require a cargo filing for a property carrier that is not a household-goods carrier. Ask for the cargo certificate. Match the limit to the contract. A broker's $75,000 bond is not that certificate either.

It depends on two contracts, and this page will not merge them. Ask the carrier what they require before pickup, and get that in writing. Ask your auto insurer whether your policy has to stay active while the car is on a truck. There is no sentence on this page that says federal law demands a personal policy for the haul. The carrier's cargo limit, if any, is a different document. Read it.

Maybe. This page will not say your insurer allows a lapse, and it will not say the carrier's cargo cover fills the gap. Some carriers ask for proof of your policy and some do not. That is their rule, in the contract, not a national waiver. Your road policy applies only if that policy says so. Ask the insurer in writing. Read the cargo certificate before you decide to let a policy lapse. Do not treat a federal liability filing as your collision coverage.

There is no single price. The cargo limit is the number on the certificate and in the contract, and the premium for an extra plan is whatever that seller quotes. This page does not copy a rate sheet. Do not use the household-goods figures in 49 CFR 387.303, which states $5,000 for household goods on any one motor vehicle and $10,000 for household goods at any one time and place. The same page says that section was suspended indefinitely. It is not a car-shipping cargo limit. Read the offer in front of you, including the deductible and the exclusions.

Read the certificate. It should name the limit, the deductible, and what is excluded, such as personal items or mechanical failure that was already there. 49 USC 14706(c) allows a written limit on liability for property other than certain household goods, when the value is reasonable under the circumstances. The number you initial is the number you are accepting. This page does not say a claim will be paid. A claim still has to be filed in writing for a specific amount.

Open transport is the ordinary way a daily driver moves, on a shared trailer with no roof. Rain and road grit reach the car the way they do on a highway. That is a damage risk, not a prediction that the car will be harmed. Whether a chip is paid for is the bill of lading and the cargo terms, not a slogan. Enclosed transport keeps weather off the car and costs more. It is still not a promise of zero damage. Inspect before you sign at both ends.

Safe here means you understand the risk and the contract, not that the car cannot be scratched. The car sits outside. Road grit matters more than rain for most paint arguments. This page has no count of how often chips happen, so it will not invent one. Note existing marks at pickup. At delivery, write new ones before you sign. The public-liability schedule in 49 CFR 387.9 does not set a cargo limit for the paint. The cargo number is on the certificate.

A child seat left in the car is a personal item. The carrier's contract says whether it may stay, and cargo cover often excludes personal items. List it on the bill of lading if it stays. This page does not say the seat is still fit to buckle a child into after the trip. That question belongs to the seat maker and to NHTSA's car-seat guidance, not to a coverage opinion. If the contract forbids loose items, take the seat with you.

For a household, passenger rail with a car means Amtrak's Auto Train, Lorton, Virginia, to Sanford, Florida, and you ride the same train. It is not a highway carrier and not a truck estimate. Amtrak's requirements page says it accepts responsibility for damage only if you report it to an authorized representative before you leave the terminal, and that person finds the damage happened in Amtrak's custody. Items left in the car are your responsibility. This page does not call the train safe or unsafe as a blanket.

This page will not say the add-on is worth it. U-Haul's options are on U-Haul's current contract, which is not copied here. A trailer you tow is not a motor carrier's cargo policy. Ask what is excluded, what the deductible is, and whether the cover applies to the car on the trailer. Ask your own insurer, in writing, whether your auto policy applies while you tow. Compare that pair of answers with a carrier's cargo certificate if you hire a truck instead. They are different products.

Ask two companies, and do not let either answer for the other. Ask your auto insurer whether the road policy applies while the car is on a ship. Ask the ocean line you book what damage terms they actually write. Matson and Pasha publish their own vehicle rules, including limits on electric cars. A highway cargo certificate does not automatically cover the voyage. This page does not state a coverage result.

The day you see it, photograph it and write an exception on the delivery bill before you sign. Do not wash the panel first. Then file a written claim with the carrier for a specific amount, inside the deadline in your contract. A note on the bill is not the claim by itself under 49 CFR 370.3. The cargo certificate tells you the limit. It does not promise payment. Notify the carrier named on the bill of lading, not only the broker who arranged the quote.