Which Moving Companies Have Had Their Insurance Lapse?

Every interstate moving company must file proof of insurance with FMCSA. Three types of coverage are required:

BIPD (Bodily Injury and Property Damage): covers damage the carrier causes to people and property during transport. Minimum required: $750,000 for carriers with vehicles over 10,001 lbs.

Cargo Insurance: covers damage to or loss of the goods being transported. This is the insurance that matters most to consumers. If your belongings are destroyed in transit, cargo insurance is supposed to make you whole.

Surety Bond (BMC-84 or BMC-85): for brokers, this $75,000 bond provides a financial backstop when the broker fails to pay carriers or defrauds consumers. For carriers, a bond may be required depending on their authority type.

Trunk tracks insurance filing status for all household goods carriers in our database. The FMCSA SAFER system records whether each type of insurance is currently on file.

Out of 2,231 household goods carriers tracked, the insurance fields show significant gaps in reported coverage. FMCSA's public data does not always distinguish between 'never filed' and 'lapsed,' but the practical effect is the same: if insurance is not on file, the consumer has no verified coverage protecting their belongings.

The carriers with the highest complaint counts also show insurance filing gaps:

Coastal Moving Services LLC (316 BBB complaints): no insurance on file for BIPD, cargo, or bond. This company reports zero trucks and zero drivers. It is nominally authorized to move household goods interstate with no verified insurance coverage and no equipment.

Safe Ship Moving Services (763 BBB complaints): reports zero trucks. Operates as a broker dispatching to hundreds of carriers. The consumer's insurance coverage depends entirely on whichever carrier Safe Ship assigns to the job, a carrier the consumer has never vetted.

Insurance lapses create a specific and devastating scenario for consumers who are already in transit.

If a carrier's BIPD insurance lapses while your belongings are on the truck, and the truck is involved in an accident, there is no verified coverage for the damage. The carrier may claim to be self-insured. The carrier may claim the insurance was reinstated. But without active filing on record with FMCSA, there is no guarantee.

If cargo insurance lapses, the carrier's liability defaults to the federal minimum: $0.60 per pound per article. A 50-pound flat-screen television worth $2,000 is covered for $30. A 200-pound antique dresser worth $5,000 is covered for $120. This is not insurance. It is a rounding error.

If a broker's surety bond lapses, consumers lose their only financial recourse against the broker. The $75,000 bond is already inadequate for brokers processing thousands of moves. Without it, consumers who paid the broker and never received service have no bonded fund to claim against.

The insurance problem is worst in the broker model. When a consumer books through a broker like Safe Ship Moving Services, the consumer's contract is with the broker. The broker dispatches the job to a carrier. The consumer may not know which carrier will arrive until moving day.

The broker's surety bond covers broker misconduct, not carrier misconduct. The carrier's insurance covers carrier operations, not broker promises. If the broker quoted $3,000 and the carrier demands $6,000 on delivery, neither insurance nor bond reliably covers the difference.

Safe Ship's network includes 621 carriers. Each carrier has its own insurance status. A consumer booked through Safe Ship would need to verify insurance for whichever carrier is assigned, but the assignment often happens the day before the move. By then, the consumer has already packed, given notice on their lease, and committed to the timeline. Checking carrier insurance at that point is theoretically possible and practically useless.

This is why Trunk distinguishes between carriers (companies that own trucks and move your belongings) and brokers (companies that sell you a price and assign the job to someone else). The insurance implications are fundamentally different.

Among the carriers in our database with active insurance filings and high review counts, the picture looks different:

Wirks Moving and Storage (Marietta, GA): 24 trucks, 4.9 Google rating from 2,918 reviews, A+ BBB rating, 2 complaints. An established carrier with equipment, staff, and a verifiable insurance history.

JK Moving Services (Sterling, VA): operating with 2,096 Google reviews, a fleet large enough to maintain consistent insurance, and decades of operation.

Gentle Giant Moving Company: 1,464 Google reviews, A+ BBB, a longstanding carrier with equipment and insurance continuity.

The pattern is consistent: companies with trucks, drivers, and years of operation maintain insurance because they have assets to protect and a business model that requires it. Companies with zero trucks and zero drivers have nothing to insure, and their insurance filings reflect that.

1. Go to safer.fmcsa.dot.gov and enter the carrier's DOT number. 2. Click 'Licensing and Insurance' in the left menu. 3. Look for active BIPD and Cargo insurance with a current effective date and a listed insurance company. 4. For brokers, look for an active BMC-84 or BMC-85 bond filing. 5. If any field shows 'None' or a past expiration date, the coverage has lapsed or was never filed.

Do not accept a certificate of insurance from the company itself. Certificates can be forged or outdated. Only the FMCSA filing, which requires the insurance company to submit directly, provides verified coverage status.

Trunk displays insurance filing status on every profiled carrier. If a carrier shows no insurance on file, that flag appears before you make a booking decision.