Can I haul cargo that my insurance doesn't cover?

If the pheromones used to keep them docile leach out and stop working before you get them to final, they are going to be very angry, and could easily go off on random people near your truck. Not like killer bees or anything, but for some people one sting is a deadly emergency. One sting could cause someone near you to wreck.

Even if they don't go off on anyone else, they might also find a way into your truck, and make you miserable.

I would strongly advise you not to haul bees unless you are an experienced bee handler, and have the proper equipment to safely deal with them.

If you decide to do it anyway, I would see about getting some sort of 'umbrella' insurance that can protect you from a wide range of liability.

 

You will be fine as long as nothing catastrophic happens. In case of an accident and all the bees are dead or set "free" his insurance most likely will refuse to pay and you'll be on the hook.

 

Bees are "livestock", so just list livestock on your MCS-150. We haul live fish, and there's not an insurance company in the world short of LLoyds that will write a policy on them. When we have O/O's haul for us we create a liability waiver for the value of the load to cover their liability.

In case of a crash, you still required coverage for the cleanup, which in the case of bees might be a concern.

 

Hartford insurance would probably cover fish and bees. I carry an additional cargo policy with them to cover cattle and hogs. They pay at market rate for all livestock dead or injured in a wreck with no limits. My Progressive cargo covers livestock, but they only pay for deads and livestock loads can exceed my general cargo 100k limit.

 

To answer your question, no.

All FMCSA cares about in the audit process is that you have the statutory minimum public liability and cargo in place. They only look at commodities to determine if you need higher than minimum liability, example as a car hauler you are required to carry $1 million in public liability vs. the $750,000 for general freight. Same for hazardous materials. As for cargo insurance itself, they only look at that if you are a registered household goods mover. A common carrier that does not haul household goods has no legal obligation to maintain cargo insurance.

FMCSA is not concerned if you can replace the cargo in the event of a loss, nor does cargo coverage help clean up the mess when you have a crash. That is what the public liability coverage is for, which is why that is the must have coverage and cargo is sometimes optional. Cargo (unless household goods) is between you and the shipper, with you deciding how much liability you are willing to shoulder.

See this link for FMCSA insurance requirements.
Insurance Filing Requirements