Moving company insurance means commercial auto, cargo, and general liability coverage at a minimum, and for interstate movers it also means meeting the federal requirement of $750,000 in public liability plus cargo insurance of $5,000 per vehicle and $10,000 per occurrence, proven to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration with an MCS-90 endorsement. A small local mover with one truck and two employees typically pays somewhere between $15,000 and $26,000 a year for the full stack, with the swing driven mostly by your state, your drivers’ records, and your payroll. This is written for the operator running or starting a one-to-two-truck moving company, not the customer buying coverage for a single move. Below is what is legally required, what is just smart to carry, and what the real bill looks like before you call a broker. Treat every figure here as a planning baseline, not legal or insurance advice: your state and your operation set the actual requirements, and a licensed broker confirms them.
- Interstate movers must meet the FMCSA minimum: $750,000 in public liability (filed on Form BMC-91), cargo insurance of $5,000 per vehicle and $10,000 per occurrence (filed on Form BMC-34), and an MCS-90 endorsement as proof.
- Local, in-state-only movers are governed by state rules, not the federal FMCSA minimum, which usually means commercial auto at the state limit plus workers’ compensation once you have employees.
- The BMC-84 you may have read about is a $75,000 freight-broker surety bond. It applies to a mover only if you also broker loads, not to running your own trucks.
- A one-truck, two-employee operation runs roughly $15,000 to $26,000 a year across commercial auto, cargo, general liability, and workers’ comp. Commercial auto and workers’ comp are the two biggest line items.
- Cargo insurance is the single most reputation-critical coverage in the trade. One damaged household shipment without it can end a small company.
What insurance does a moving company legally need?
A moving company legally needs different coverage depending on whether it crosses state lines, and the split matters because interstate movers answer to the federal FMCSA while local movers answer only to their state. An interstate household goods mover must carry a minimum of $750,000 in public liability coverage, filed with FMCSA on Form BMC-91, under 49 CFR 387.303. It must also carry cargo insurance of at least $5,000 for loss or damage to goods on any one vehicle and $10,000 per occurrence, filed on Form BMC-34, and prove financial responsibility with the MCS-90 endorsement attached to its auto policy.
One point of confusion worth clearing up: the BMC-84 bond that turns up in a lot of moving-company searches is a $75,000 freight-broker surety bond. It applies to you only if you broker loads to other carriers, not for running your own trucks. A mover hauling its own jobs does not file a BMC-84.
A local, intrastate mover is a different case. There is no FMCSA filing for a company that never crosses a state line. Your state sets the rules, and they usually come down to commercial auto insurance at the state minimum and workers’ compensation once you have employees. Our guide on how to start a moving company covers where the state authority and USDOT numbers fit, and our moving company license guide walks the exact filings in order.
How much does moving company insurance cost?
Moving company insurance costs a one-truck, two-employee operation roughly $15,000 to $26,000 a year across the full stack, with commercial auto and workers’ compensation making up most of the bill. The numbers below are national averages, and your state, claims history, and payroll move them more than anything else. MoneyGeek’s 2026 analysis of roughly six million standardized pricing estimates puts the per-category averages for movers as follows, and the total assembles from there.
| Coverage | Typical annual cost | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial auto | $8,000 to $11,700 | Your trucks: liability and physical damage on the road |
| Workers’ compensation | $5,000 to $10,000 (two employees) | Employee injury, required in most states once you hire |
| Cargo insurance | $1,200 to $2,500 | Customer belongings in transit |
| General liability | $1,100 to $1,450 | Third-party injury and property damage off the truck |
Add the low end of each line and a lean local operation lands near $15,000 a year. Add the high end, in a costly state with a young fleet and two full-payroll movers, and you approach $26,000. Cargo is the one line here we estimate from typical market quotes rather than the MoneyGeek dataset, which does not break it out separately. Commercial auto is the single largest and most volatile piece, averaging around $876 a month for movers and climbing fast with at-fault accidents or young drivers. Workers’ comp is next, and it tracks your payroll and your state’s rates directly. For context on where that bill sits against your revenue, our breakdown of what movers actually charge puts the hourly and per-crew numbers next to it.
What is cargo insurance and do you need it?
Cargo insurance covers the customer’s belongings while they are in your possession during a move, and it is separate from the auto liability that covers your truck on the road. Federal law requires it for interstate household goods movers at $5,000 per vehicle and $10,000 per occurrence, and while a purely local mover may not be legally required to carry it in every state, it is the coverage you least want to skip. A single dropped armoire or a water-damaged load can produce a claim that a one-truck company cannot absorb out of pocket.
Cargo is also the coverage that protects the promise in your paperwork. The valuation and liability language in a solid moving contract only means something if there is a policy behind it. Movers who cut cargo coverage to save $1,500 a year are one bad job away from a claim that costs many times that, which is why nearly every experienced operator treats it as non-optional regardless of what the state technically demands.
What to do next
Shop the full stack before you commit to any single policy, because the mover who buys commercial auto, cargo, general liability, and workers’ comp as separate line items from four carriers usually pays more than the one who bundles where it makes sense. Ask a broker who writes trucking and moving risk specifically, not a generalist, since moving is a specialized class and a generalist will often misprice cargo or the FMCSA filings. Bring your USDOT status, your fleet details, and your payroll to the first call so the quote reflects your real operation. The FMCSA financial-responsibility rules live in 49 CFR 387.303, and a licensed broker or agent confirms exactly what your state and route mix require.
Insurance is one fixed cost among many when you are building a moving company, and the operations side is the part you can set up fastest. Service Anchor is the lead-to-paid pipeline that books, quotes, and chases each move automatically, preloaded for moving, and founding members lock in $29 a month, everything included. It handles the office and the trucks on one board so you are not stitching together a booking tool, a dispatch board, and an invoicing app while you also sort out coverage. It does not sell or manage insurance, and it does not replace your broker. That is still your call to make with a licensed agent. If you are marketing the company while you get the paperwork in order, our guide on how movers actually book jobs covers the channels that pay off first, and the coverage stack here is the same one every mover should carry across the trades.
FAQ
Does a moving company need FMCSA insurance?
An interstate moving company needs FMCSA insurance filings, but a local, in-state-only mover does not. If you cross state lines carrying household goods, FMCSA requires a minimum of $750,000 in public liability filed on Form BMC-91, cargo insurance of $5,000 per vehicle and $10,000 per occurrence on Form BMC-34, and an MCS-90 endorsement. If every job stays inside one state, your state sets the requirements instead, and there is no FMCSA filing.
How much does moving company insurance cost per month?
Moving company insurance costs a small operator roughly $1,300 to $2,150 a month for the full stack of commercial auto, workers’ compensation, cargo, and general liability, or about $15,000 to $26,000 a year. Commercial auto is the largest single piece, averaging around $876 a month for movers, and workers’ compensation is the next largest and tracks your payroll. Your state, your drivers’ records, and your fleet age move the number more than anything else.
What is the MCS-90 endorsement?
The MCS-90 is an endorsement attached to a for-hire motor carrier’s auto liability policy that guarantees the carrier can pay for bodily injury or property damage to the public, up to the federal minimum. It is proof of financial responsibility, not a separate policy you buy. Interstate household goods movers carry it as part of meeting the FMCSA $750,000 public liability requirement, and it is kept with the carrier’s policy and produced on demand, while the insurer makes the actual filing with FMCSA on Form BMC-91.
Do local movers need cargo insurance?
Local movers are not always legally required to carry cargo insurance, since it is federally mandated for interstate household goods carriers but left to the states for local-only operators. In practice, nearly every experienced local mover carries it anyway, because it covers customer belongings in transit and a single significant damage claim can exceed a full year of premiums. Skipping cargo coverage to save money is the most common insurance mistake small movers make.
Is workers’ comp required for a moving company?
Workers’ compensation is required for a moving company in most states as soon as it has employees, though the exact threshold and rate vary by state. It covers medical costs and lost wages when an employee is injured on the job, which is a real risk in a trade built on heavy lifting and stairs. For a two-employee moving company, workers’ comp commonly runs $5,000 to $10,000 a year and is one of the two largest insurance line items alongside commercial auto.
FMCSA financial-responsibility requirements, 49 CFR 387.303 (eCFR): source for the $750,000 public liability minimum for for-hire property carriers, the $5,000-per-vehicle and $10,000-per-occurrence household goods cargo minimums, and the associated BMC-91 and BMC-34 filing forms. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-387
MoneyGeek, Average Moving Company Insurance Cost (2026 report): source for the per-category moving-insurance averages (commercial auto, general liability, and workers’ compensation) used to assemble the one-truck, two-employee total-cost range. https://www.moneygeek.com/insurance/business/transportation/moving/cost/
Last updated: July 2026. First publication: the operator-side moving-insurance breakdown reconciling the federal FMCSA minimum against a real small-mover total-cost stack, with the local-versus-interstate distinction and the BMC-84 broker-bond confusion cleared up.
