Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/409537
16 | Overdrive | November 2014 Logbook Untitled-48 1 3/15/13 9:44 AM Text INFO to 205-289-3555 or visit www.ovdinfo.com At last May's meeting of the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee, division was high on the issue of giving the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Ad- ministration guidance on an increase in the liability insurance minimum. MCSAC took up the May draft analysis again last month, with FMCSA Associate Administrator Larry Minor noting that the agency wanted the committee to give its "basic sense of what would be an appropriate range" of liability insurance minimums today, based on "inflationary indices" and other factors. The minimum hasn't been changed since going into effect in 1985. FMCSA has had the issue on a fast track, with intent to get a proposal in order this year, but the MCSAC meeting deliv- ered no further clarity on the amount of the new insurance minimum's proposed increase. An Advanced Notice of Pro- posed Rulemaking is under re- view by the White House Office of Management and Budget and should be released "fairly soon," said Minor, adding that the agency "didn't specify any numbers" in the notice. Schneider National representative and MCSAC member Don Osterberg be- lieved the best way to cover all but the rarest of catastrophic accidents would be to look at the actual claims settlements in today's world. "I'm not at all sure that look- ing at core or medical inflation based on the [current $750,000 minimum] number will cap- ture the exponential increase in the cost of claims settlements," Osterberg said. MCSAC also offered the notion of a phase-in period to allow businesses to adjust to an increase in the liability minimum. Officials have said that a substantial increase in the insurance minimum would significantly impact small businesses in the industry. – Todd Dills Specifics still lacking on liability insurance minimum