Federal truck crash guides

Each page answers one question, cites the federal rule behind the answer, and links to the carrier lookup and the evidence table.

• How to find out what trucking company hit youUSDOT numbers, MC numbers, door markings, and the federal records that identify the motor carrier after a crash.
• Who can be responsible after a truck crashHow responsibility can run to the driver, the motor carrier, a lessor, a broker, or a shipper, and why the door name is not the whole answer.
• What a CSA score does and does not meanWhat inspection results, crash involvement, and SMS percentiles are, and what FMCSA says they are not.
• How much insurance a semi must file with FMCSAThe 49 CFR 387 minimums, what a BMC-91X filing is, and why the number on file is not the same as money that will be paid.
• What an MCS-90 endorsement isThe federal endorsement that can make an insurer pay a public-liability judgment even when the policy would deny the claim.
• USDOT number versus MC numberWhy most carriers have a USDOT number, when they also have an MC docket, and which one to use in a lookup.
• When the name on the truck is not the company that dispatched itFederal leases, owner-operators, and why the operating carrier is the company whose USDOT number controlled the trip.
• What a driver qualification file containsThe documents 49 CFR 391.51 requires a motor carrier to keep on each driver, and how long they must be kept.
• How long a trucking company keeps driver logsThe six-month retention rule for records of duty status, supporting documents, and what ELD vendors actually keep.
• Semi truck black box data after a crashWhat an ECM stores, why there is no federal retention period, and how continued operation or salvage can erase it.
• What a carrier accident register isThe three-year log 49 CFR 390.15 requires, what it contains, and why it is usually still there when the logs are gone.
• Can you sue a freight broker after a truck crashWhat a broker is under federal law, the bond that is on file, and why control of the transportation is the fact that matters.
• How a truck crash file differs from a car-crash fileWhy commercial crashes have more defendants, more records, and federal rules that passenger-car claims do not.
• How to read a commercial-vehicle crash reportWhat the state crash report and the commercial supplement usually capture, and what they leave out.