Oregon puts PIP and uninsured motorist coverage on every company pickup. Its motor carrier filings mostly wait for 26,000 pounds or a for-hire load.

$750,000. Minimum auto liability, per accident combined single limit, that ODOT's Commerce and Compliance Division accepts on the Form E filing for intrastate carriers, under ORS 825.160, ORS 825.162 and OAR 740-040-0010 (ODOT Commerce and Compliance Division, Insurance Requirements, read on September 22, 2026).

What Oregon law requires on a business vehicle

Oregon doesn't keep a separate insurance statute for company vehicles. ORS 806.010 makes it an offense to operate a motor vehicle in Oregon without liability insurance or other proof of compliance, and it applies whether the name on the title is yours or your LLC's. ORS 806.060 says a person who owes financial responsibility must be able to respond in damages by one of the methods the law allows. For nearly every business, that method is a motor vehicle liability policy.

The minimum is the schedule in ORS 806.070:

• $25,000 for bodily injury to or death of one person in any one accident
• $50,000 for bodily injury to or death of two or more people in one accident, subject to the per-person limit
• $20,000 for damage to the property of others in one accident

ORS 806.080 sets what the policy itself has to look like. It must describe the vehicles it covers, either explicitly or by reference, and it must cover the named insured plus anyone driving those vehicles with the named insured's permission. The one carve-out is a person specifically excluded under ORS 742.450. For a business, that permissive-use clause is what covers the employee who takes the truck to a job. An excluded driver is the opposite, and it's worth knowing whether your policy has one on it. Ask the company what happens when somebody drives who isn't on the list.

ORS 806.080(2) also lets more than one insurer's policies together meet the requirement. That's how a business auto policy and an excess or umbrella layer can sit on the same vehicle.

A few vehicles sit outside the requirement altogether. ORS 806.020 exempts farm tractors, farm trailers and implements of husbandry, along with a vehicle that is never operated on a highway or premises open to the public. The mower on your trailer doesn't need auto liability. The truck pulling it does.

PIP and uninsured motorist coverage come with every Oregon policy

This is where Oregon departs from states like Nevada. Oregon DMV's insurance requirements page lists three parts to the state's minimum, not one:

• liability of $25,000 per person, $50,000 per crash and $20,000 property damage
• personal injury protection (PIP) of $15,000 per person
• uninsured motorist coverage of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per crash for bodily injury

The page has no separate list for business vehicles. If a commercial auto quote shows liability and physical damage but no PIP or UM line, it isn't a complete Oregon policy. Ask why before you buy it. Our comparison of medical payments and PIP explains what PIP pays and who it follows.

The uninsured motorist limit follows your liability limit unless someone signs

Oregon's Division of Financial Regulation publishes the form an insured uses to choose lower uninsured motorist limits. Its wording sets the default: your policy must include uninsured motorist coverage with limits equal to your bodily injury liability limits unless you elect lower limits. It also sets the floor. You may not elect less than $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident.

Buy a $1 million combined single limit and your uninsured motorist coverage starts at that same level, unless somebody signed the election. So if your declarations page shows a lower UM limit, somebody did sign it, maybe years ago and maybe before you owned the business. That signature is what decides how much an employee hurt by an uninsured driver can collect. Read more on uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.

Self-insured fleets still owe UM

ORS 806.130 opens self-insurance only to a business with more than 25 motor vehicles, including buses, registered in its name, plus a DMV certificate and proof it can pay judgments. Subsection (1)(c) requires the self-insurer to provide the same coverage a policy would, including uninsured motorist coverage and liability at least at the ORS 806.070 limits. So even the biggest Oregon fleets carry UM.

When an employee is driving

Oregon's statutes put the business owner, not the employee, on the hook when a company vehicle is uninsured. ORS 806.200 makes it an offense for the owner or driver of an uninsured vehicle in a crash to skip a future responsibility filing within 30 days. ORS 806.210(7) then exempts a driver operating a vehicle owned, operated or leased by the driver's employer with the employer's permission. The same subsection says owners remain subject. Under ORS 806.200(2), if the driver is an exempt employee, the employer takes on the filing and the penalties.

What that means in practice is you can't afford a gap. A truck that falls off the schedule when you switch companies, or a van you bought and never added, leaves you exposed as the owner. The problem runs the other direction too, when employees use their own cars on company errands. That's hired and non-owned auto coverage, and a policy built around scheduled vehicles won't include it by default.

Where Oregon motor carrier rules start

Look up Oregon commercial vehicle rules and you'll hit ORS chapter 825 and ODOT's Commerce and Compliance Division fast. Most small businesses running pickups and vans are nowhere near it. Two things decide the line: whose goods you're hauling, and what the vehicle or the combination weighs.

Private carrier or for-hire carrier

ORS 825.005 defines a private carrier as one operating a motor vehicle on Oregon highways to transport persons or property when the transportation is incidental to a primary business other than transportation. Carry fittings to your own job and you're a private carrier in that sense. So is a landscaper hauling plants to a client's yard. A for-hire carrier transports persons or property for hire, or publicly offers to.

ORS 825.100(1) requires a carrier to hold an ODOT certificate or permit before operating. The exemptions carve most small private carriers back out:

• ORS 825.017(3) exempts property hauled by a private carrier in a vehicle or combination whose combined weight doesn't exceed 8,000 pounds.
• ORS 825.108(2) says a private carrier needs no ODOT permit for any vehicle or combination with a combined weight of 26,000 pounds or less.
• ORS 825.022(1) says the chapter's insurance section, ORS 825.160, and its weight-mile tax sections don't apply to a vehicle or combination of 26,000 pounds or less.

Combined weight is the part people miss. A three-quarter-ton pickup sits well under 26,000 pounds by itself and clears it with a loaded equipment trailer hooked on. ODOT's requirements page says an Oregon account is required once trucks exceed 26,000 pounds combined weight, and for any truck of 26,000 pounds or less that hauls for hire. For how the trailer itself gets covered, see the landscaping truck and trailer page.

The $750,000 figure and what it applies to

ODOT's Commerce and Compliance Division states the minimum it accepts from intrastate carriers as $750,000 per accident for auto liability, combined single limit. It cites ORS 825.160, ORS 825.162 and OAR 740-040-0010. The proof is a Form E filed by the insurer, and carriers hauling loads that can be damaged in transit also file cargo coverage of at least $10,000 on a Form H. CCD says a filing with the federal motor carrier agency for interstate authority meets the Oregon intrastate filing requirement.

ODOT's registration and tax manual ties the filing to weight and tax status. Motor carriers operating vehicles over 26,000 pounds that are subject to weight-mile tax and operate only in Oregon must file proof of insurance with CCD. The same manual says intrastate carriers with exempt vehicles, including those under 26,000 pounds, maintain the minimum coverage of the Oregon Motor Vehicle Code instead.

So the $750,000 minimum doesn't reach your half-ton. That truck answers to ORS 806.070, with PIP and UM on top. Grow into a heavy dump truck or a tractor and lowboy, or start hauling for other people, and you're into CCD's filing rules. For-hire work belongs with our Oregon trucking insurance page, and the wider trucking and transportation section covers authority and cargo.

Weight-mile tax, and why it appears on an insurance page

Oregon's weight-mile tax applies to vehicles in commercial operation on Oregon roads with a registration weight over 26,000 pounds, according to ODOT's manual. The tax itself isn't insurance. It comes up here because the same weight line brings the CCD insurance filing with it, and ORS 825.022 groups the insurance section and the tax sections into one exemption. If a truck is enrolled for weight-mile tax, expect CCD to want proof of insurance on file for it. Tell us which trucks are enrolled so your insurer files the right form.

Crash reports on company vehicles

Oregon DMV requires drivers involved in a collision to submit an Oregon Traffic Collision and Insurance Report within 72 hours in certain cases. The report is due when damage to any vehicle or other property exceeds $2,500, when a vehicle is towed with damage over $2,500, or when anyone is injured or killed. DMV says Oregon law requires it to issue a suspension notice if a required report isn't filed. That notice goes to the driver, and a suspended employee can't drive your truck. Check the thresholds on DMV's collision page after any crash, and make filing the report part of what a driver does before he calls the office.

Who this page is for

This page is for Oregon businesses with one to a handful of light vehicles that exist to get people and materials to work. That means general contractors and remodelers, electricians and plumbers, landscapers and lawn care crews with a pickup and trailer, cleaning companies with vans, mobile repair techs, and property maintenance crews. Our office is in Eugene, so Lane County businesses are close to home, and we work with Oregon businesses statewide.

A few situations run somewhere else. If the trucks are the product and you haul for hire, start with the Oregon trucking page. If you're comparing forms and endorsements across states, there's more on the contractor commercial auto page. If everything you run is under 10,001 pounds gross vehicle weight rating, the cars and light trucks page covers titling and covered auto symbols, the codes on the policy that say which vehicles it reaches. If this is your first business vehicle, start with new business commercial auto. If you or an employee has a rough driving record, see commercial auto with driver violations.

What to compare on an Oregon quote

Two quotes can carry the same liability limit and still be built very differently. The price on the front page won't tell you. Check these:

• whether PIP appears, and at what limit
• whether uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage matches your bodily injury limit, and if not, whether you signed an election
• which covered auto symbols apply, since those are what decide whether a truck you buy next month is covered before you call it in
• whether hired and non-owned auto is included or quoted separately
• the drivers the company has listed, and any it has excluded
• how trailers are scheduled and whether physical damage applies to them
• any additional insured, waiver of subrogation or primary wording a contract requires

Above the Oregon floor, the limit is your call. Plenty of contracts ask for more than 25/50/20, and whatever you pick, the uninsured motorist default follows it. Our guide to commercial versus personal auto for business use explains why a work truck on a personal policy is a common gap.

What to send us

• Every vehicle and trailer you own or lease, with VIN, gross vehicle weight rating, and one line on what it does
• The heaviest combination you ever run, truck plus loaded trailer
• Where each vehicle is parked overnight in Oregon
• Every driver, with date of birth and license number, including occasional ones
• Whether employees use their own cars for errands, and how often
• Whether you haul anything for anyone else for pay
• Any ODOT account, weight-mile tax enrollment or USDOT number
• Your current declarations page and any UM election form you signed
• Contract language that sets limits or requires endorsements
• Loss runs for as many years back as your insurer will give you
• Whether you'd like to pay in full or finance

Where we usually start

We're independent, so we quote Oregon businesses with more than one commercial auto company and line the answers up. Which ones fit depends on the trucks, the drivers, the kind of work and how far you drive. Each company decides for itself, subject to underwriting. We'll show you what each one did on PIP, UM and physical damage, not just the number at the bottom. Businesses in Eugene can also start from our Eugene commercial auto page.

Oregon statutes and ODOT rules change, and the insurance amounts for motor carriers live partly in administrative rule. This page is general information, not legal advice. Confirm where you stand with ODOT's Commerce and Compliance Division, and remember that your policy form is what controls your policy.

Reviewed for insurance accuracy by Richard Sweet, owner of Vantage Point Risk and an independent insurance advisor. Last reviewed September 24, 2026. How we review this.