FMCSA · Motor Carrier
BMC-91X
Motor Carrier Surety Bond (Excess)
Motor Carrier Surety Bond For Public Liability — Excess Coverage (FMCSA Form BMC-91X)
Excess-layer surety bond used to bring a motor carrier's primary auto liability up to the federal financial-responsibility minimum when the primary policy alone is insufficient.
Heads up: This is an FMCSA filing posted to SAFER — not a policy endorsement. A contract requiring an endorsement (for example MCS-90) is NOT satisfied by a filing alone.
What it does
BMC-91X is the excess-layer cousin of BMC-91. Used when a motor carrier's primary auto liability policy provides less than the FMCSA financial-responsibility minimum and an excess surety bond fills the gap to the required amount. Like BMC-91, it appears on SAFER as a filed financial-responsibility instrument. Same caveat applies: it satisfies the federal filing but does NOT satisfy a contract requirement for an MCS-90 endorsement on the underlying policy.
When you need it
- Motor carriers with a primary auto liability policy below the federal minimum who use an excess bond to fill the gap.
- FMCSA compliance verification where the primary insurer cannot or will not write the full required limit.
- Hazmat carriers requiring $5,000,000 financial responsibility whose primary policy stops at $1,000,000.
Common mistakes
- Treating BMC-91X as evidence of $5M of usable insurance — it's a federal filing, not a coverage layer your contract necessarily benefits from.
- Missing the primary policy's MCS-90 endorsement — the excess bond does not substitute for the primary's MCS-90.
- Allowing the primary policy to drop without immediately re-filing — the BMC-91X is only meaningful with a primary in force.
Verifying BMC-91X on a real certificate?
Bindly Compliance auto-verifies endorsement attachment, named parties, and edition dates on every COI we track. Description-only language and missing forms surface as deficiencies in your dashboard before they become claims.