Truck Accident Claims: What's Different From a Car Accident

A truck accident claim uses the same negligence rules as a car crash claim, but it's built differently. Several businesses can share the blame, federal rules cap how long the driver may drive, interstate for-hire carriers must carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage, and key records may only have to be kept for months.

This article is general legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by state and situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your case, talk to a licensed attorney.

Key takeaways

• Interstate for-hire carriers hauling ordinary freight in vehicles rated 10,001 pounds or more must carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage (49 CFR 387.9).
• After 10 consecutive hours off duty, a property-carrying truck driver may drive up to 11 hours, and not past 14 hours after coming on duty.
• The driver, the carrier, whoever loaded the cargo and a repair shop can each share responsibility.
• Carriers must keep hours records for at least 6 months and daily inspection reports for only 3 months.
• State law sets the deadline to sue: 2 years for most injury suits in Texas and California.

How a truck claim differs from a car claim

The core question is the same as in a car case: did someone fail to use reasonable care, and were you hurt because of it? Our guide to how personal injury claims work covers those basics. What changes with a truck is who that someone might be and what rules applied.

Federal safety rules cover commercial motor vehicles in interstate commerce, which 49 CFR 390.5 defines to include any vehicle with a weight rating, or combined weight rating, of 10,001 pounds or more. A box truck, or a pickup towing a heavy trailer, can qualify.

	Typical car crash	Commercial truck crash
Who may be responsible	Usually the other driver	The driver, the motor carrier, and possibly a shipper, a maintenance company or a parts maker
Limits on driving time	None for ordinary drivers	11 hours of driving within a 14-hour window (49 CFR 395.3)
Alcohol rules	Your state's DUI law	No duty at 0.04 alcohol concentration or above, and no drinking within 4 hours before duty (49 CFR 382.201, 392.5)
Evidence	Police report, photos, witnesses	All of that, plus ELD logs, maintenance files, the driver's file and post-crash tests
Minimum liability insurance	Set by each state	$750,000 to $5,000,000 for interstate for-hire and hazardous materials carriers (49 CFR 387.9)

Who can be held responsible

Start with the driver, then look at the company. Federal rules put duties on the carrier directly: it may not permit or require a driver to exceed the hours limits (49 CFR 395.3), must keep a qualification file on each driver (49 CFR 391.51), and must systematically inspect, repair and maintain its vehicles (49 CFR 396.3). Breaking one of those rules can point to fault by the company itself. How far a company answers for its driver's mistakes is a matter of state law.

Some drivers own their trucks and lease them to a carrier. The lease must give the carrier exclusive possession, control and use of the truck, and complete responsibility for operating it, while the lease lasts (49 CFR 376.12). If the owner's name is on the truck, the operating carrier's name must appear after the words "operated by" (49 CFR 390.21).

Cargo problems bring in other companies. The driver must make sure the load is secured, check it within the first 50 miles, and check again after any change of duty status, 3 hours of driving or 150 miles, whichever comes first (49 CFR 392.9). Those checks don't apply to a driver of a sealed trailer who was told not to open it, so when a sealed load shifts, look at whoever packed it. A repair shop, a separate trailer owner or the maker of a defective part can also share responsibility.

One exception: most federal motor carrier safety rules don't apply to transportation by a federal, state or local government (49 CFR 390.3(f)). Claims against government bodies can also carry separate notice rules and much shorter deadlines, so check your state's tort claims law right away.

## Hours-of-service limits and electronic logs

An early question after a serious truck crash is whether the driver had been on the road too long. Under 49 CFR 395.3, a property-carrying truck driver, with some short-haul exceptions:

• must have 10 consecutive hours off duty before driving;
• may not drive after the 14th consecutive hour since coming on duty, and may drive no more than 11 hours in that window;
• needs a break of at least 30 minutes once 8 hours of driving have passed;
• may not drive after 60 hours on duty in 7 days, or 70 hours in 8 days if the carrier runs every day, though 34 or more consecutive hours off restarts the count.

Since December 18, 2017, carriers covered by these rules have had to install ELDs and require drivers to use them (49 CFR 395.8). The device records the date, time, location, engine hours, miles and the driver, truck and carrier at each change of duty status, at engine start and shutdown, and about once an hour while the truck is moving (49 CFR 395.26).

Some drivers don't use one. Drivers who stay within 150 air miles of their work reporting location and are released within 14 hours keep no daily log, though the carrier must keep their time records for 6 months (49 CFR 395.1(e)). Drivers who need logs on 8 or fewer days in 30, or who drive a truck built before model year 2000, may use paper (49 CFR 395.8(a)).

Logs can be checked against fuel receipts, dispatch messages and GPS data. False entries and ELD tampering are banned (49 CFR 395.8(e)), so a mismatch matters.

Insurance minimums are far higher

The federal minimums apply to for-hire carriers hauling property across state lines and to hazardous materials carriers, including some trips within one state (49 CFR 387.3). They generally don't apply to vehicles rated under 10,001 pounds, apart from certain high-hazard loads.

Vehicle or load	Minimum liability coverage	Rule
Car in Texas	$30,000 per person and $60,000 per crash for injuries, $25,000 for property damage	Tex. Transp. Code 601.072
Car in California, policy issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025	$30,000 per person and $60,000 per crash for injuries, $15,000 for property damage	Cal. Veh. Code 16056
Interstate for-hire truck, ordinary freight, 10,001 pounds or more	$750,000	49 CFR 387.9
Oil and most other hazardous materials	$1,000,000	49 CFR 387.9
Certain bulk hazardous loads, such as cargo-tank hazardous substances and bulk explosives	$5,000,000	49 CFR 387.9

These are floors. A carrier can buy more, and the full coverage isn't known until someone asks. Proof of federal coverage, such as a Form MCS-90 endorsement, must be kept at the carrier's principal place of business and produced when a member of the public reasonably asks (49 CFR 387.7).

Two gaps catch people off guard. A company hauling its own nonhazardous goods isn't covered by the $750,000 rule, and a truck that never leaves one state may fall under state insurance rules instead; your state's transportation or motor vehicle agency can say which apply. Either way, expect the carrier's insurer to start investigating right away.

## Why the evidence has to be saved fast

In a truck case, much of the evidence sits in the carrier's files, and federal rules only require those files to be kept for set periods.

Record	How long the carrier must keep it	Rule
Hours-of-service records and supporting documents	At least 6 months	49 CFR 395.8(k)
Backup copy of ELD records	6 months	49 CFR 395.22(i)
Driver vehicle inspection reports	3 months	49 CFR 396.11
Inspection, repair and maintenance records	1 year, and 6 months after the vehicle leaves the carrier's control	49 CFR 396.3(c)
Driver qualification file	While the driver works there, plus 3 years	49 CFR 391.51
Accident register	3 years after each crash	49 CFR 390.15

Post-crash testing runs on an even shorter clock. The carrier must test its surviving driver for alcohol and drugs after a fatal crash, and after an injury or tow-away crash in which the driver gets a moving-violation citation (49 CFR 382.303). Alcohol testing stops at 8 hours, with a written reason required if it misses the 2-hour mark, and drug testing stops at 32 hours.

State law decides what happens if a carrier destroys evidence once it knew a claim was coming, so put it on notice early, in writing. A preservation letter, usually from a lawyer, lists what to keep: ELD data, dispatch messages, maintenance files, the driver's file, test results, camera footage and the truck itself.

What you can do yourself:

• Photograph the truck, including the carrier name and USDOT number, which must appear on both sides and be readable from 50 feet in daylight (49 CFR 390.21).
• Get the police report number and witnesses' contact details.
• Look up the carrier by USDOT number, MC number or name in FMCSA's free SAFER Company Snapshot.
• Hold off on a recorded statement to the carrier's insurer until you've talked with a lawyer.

The deadline to sue comes from state law

Texas requires a personal injury suit within two years after the claim accrues, and a wrongful death suit within two years after the death (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code 16.003). California allows two years for injury or death caused by another's wrongful act or neglect (Cal. Code Civ. Proc. 335.1). Other states differ, so check yours. Two years sounds like plenty, but six months after a crash the carrier may no longer have to keep the driver's logs.

When to talk to a lawyer

A call with a lawyer makes sense if:

• you need ongoing treatment or have missed work;
• you don't know which company operated the truck, or several may be involved;
• the carrier's insurer wants a recorded statement or has offered a quick settlement;
• the truck carried hazardous materials or belonged to a government agency;
• no one has yet asked the carrier, in writing, to keep its records.

Our guide on when to hire a personal injury lawyer (and when you don't need one) covers small claims you might handle alone; a truck crash with real injuries usually isn't one. You can find a personal injury lawyer near you and ask how much truck accident work the firm does and how it charges. For a rough idea of value, try our Personal Injury Settlement Estimator, knowing it can't account for every party and policy in a truck case.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a trucking company have to keep driver logs?

A motor carrier must keep each driver's hours-of-service records and supporting documents for at least 6 months, plus a backup of ELD records for 6 months (49 CFR 395.8 and 395.22). Daily inspection reports only have to be kept for 3 months. After a recent crash, ask a lawyer about a written preservation request before those periods run out.

What is the minimum insurance a semi truck must carry?

A for-hire carrier hauling ordinary freight across state lines in a vehicle rated 10,001 pounds or more must carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage. The minimum is $1,000,000 for oil and most hazardous materials and $5,000,000 for certain bulk hazardous loads (49 CFR 387.9). Trucks that stay in one state, or haul a company's own goods, may follow different rules.

Can I sue the trucking company instead of just the driver?

In many cases you can name both, though state law sets the details. A carrier can answer for its driver's conduct on the job, and it can be at fault on its own, for example by letting a driver exceed the hours limits or skipping maintenance. When an owner-operator leases a truck to a carrier, federal rules make the carrier responsible for operating it.

How do I find out which company operated the truck?

Interstate trucks must show the operating carrier's name and USDOT number on both sides, readable from 50 feet in daylight. Photograph that number and look it up in FMCSA's free SAFER Company Snapshot, searchable by USDOT number, MC number or company name. If two company names appear, the operator is the one after "operated by."

How long do I have to file a truck accident lawsuit?

State law sets it, not federal trucking rules. Texas and California both allow two years for most personal injury suits (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code 16.003; Cal. Code Civ. Proc. 335.1); other states set their own periods, and claims against a government agency can have much shorter notice deadlines. Don't wait, since some carrier records only have to be kept for 3 to 6 months.

Is a truck accident claim worth more than a car accident claim?

Not automatically. A claim's value depends on your injuries, lost income and other losses, and on how clearly the evidence shows fault. What differs is the insurance that may be available: an interstate for-hire carrier must carry at least $750,000, while a car's state minimum can be far lower, such as $30,000 per person in Texas or California.