By Evan Reid, Founder of Haul Handbook · Updated Aug 5, 2026
The Louisiana requirements table
- Program name
- There is no general intrastate authority program to name. The Commission's programs are named by the class of carrier they cover, and each is listed in the sector authority table below.
- Application
- There is no application for general freight, because there is no authority for general freight. The five regulated classes each have their own Commission form, filed at the Galvez Building, 602 North Fifth Street, Baton Rouge, and mailed to P.O. Box 91154, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-9154: Form T-77 for household goods, Form T-79 (common) or Form T-74 (contract) for waste, Form T-78 for saltwater, Forms T-75, T-72 and T-71 for passengers and taxicabs, and Form T-76 for non-consensual wrecker and towing. Every application must be completed, signed, and notarized, and waste applications are filed in triplicate. Corporations and limited liability companies attach the Secretary of State certificate and articles plus a Louisiana Certificate of Good Standing, and out-of-state applicants must show the Louisiana location or locations from which operations will be conducted and designate an agent for service of process.
- Renewal
- There is no authority to renew for a general freight carrier. For the certificated classes, the recurring obligation is the intrastate identification stamp: La. R.S. 45:169(A) makes the $10.00 per vehicle special fee due each year between January first and February first, and the Commission runs the renewal window from November 1 through January 31. Proof of insurance must be on file and the previous year's renewal completed before stamps are issued. Every Commission-regulated intrastate carrier also files annual reports with the Transportation Division and pays the quarterly inspection and supervision fee. Non-operation of an authority for six months can lead to its cancellation, and a carrier expecting a dormant period can request a voluntary suspension in writing on Form T-96.
Authority fee schedule
Louisiana charges a fixed amount per filing rather than pricing registration by term. Each charge below is set by its own statute or rule section.
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Sector licences that still apply
Louisiana licenses some kinds of carrier separately, whatever the general authority answer above. If you move household goods, carry passengers, or haul waste, the licence below is the one that binds you.
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Who the requirement covers
- GVWR threshold
- NoneLouisiana sets no weight threshold for intrastate operating authority because it grants no general intrastate operating authority. The Commission's jurisdiction turns on what a carrier hauls, not on what the truck weighs. The weight lines a Louisiana carrier actually meets are elsewhere: 26,000 pounds for IFTA and IRP qualification, 80,000 pounds for legal gross weight, and 10,001 pounds for a federal USDOT number in interstate commerce.
- For-hire only
- YesLa. R.S. 45:161 and La. R.S. 45:162(5)(a) both scope the regime to intrastate transportation for hire, charge, or compensation. A private carrier hauling its own goods inside Louisiana is outside the Commission's motor carrier jurisdiction entirely. La. R.S. 45:162(5)(e) adds a presumption: anyone who furnishes such transportation to more than five separate shippers of property or more than five passengers is prima facie a common carrier and carries the burden of showing otherwise.
- Property carriers
- NoGeneral property and general freight are not covered. La. R.S. 45:162(5)(a) reaches only household goods, passengers, and waste, so an intrastate carrier of building materials, machinery, produce, steel, or containerized freight holds no Louisiana operating authority and pays no state authority fee. La. R.S. 45:162(5)(f) also carves out any business conducted mainly inside one incorporated municipality and within seven miles of its limits.
- Passenger carriers
- Separate regime. A common or contract carrier of passengers needs a Commission certificate or permit under La. R.S. 45:161 through 172. There are three application tracks: Form T-75 for a seating capacity of 15 or fewer, Form T-72 for a charter bus with 16 or more, and Form T-71 for a dispatched taxicab. Passenger carriers register every driver as well as every vehicle, at $10.00 each per year. La. R.S. 45:164(F) bars a certificate to any applicant that uses a vehicle with a reconstructed title.
- Household goods
- Separate regime. La. R.S. 45:164(E)(1) requires all intrastate movers of household goods to apply for and secure a common carrier certificate from the Commission, to carry motor truck cargo insurance of at least $50,000 per truck and $100,000 per catastrophe, to secure and maintain workers compensation insurance, and to file a $5,000 surety bond, before engaging in any moving activity. La. R.S. 45:164(E)(2) adds that the carrier, whether domiciled in Louisiana or not, must maintain a staffed permanent establishment in Louisiana, and that losing it immediately suspends the right to do business.
- Hazmat
- NoLouisiana creates no hazmat-specific intrastate operating authority. The regulated stream is waste: La. R.S. 45:164(A) requires a common carrier certificate or contract carrier permit for a motor carrier of waste, and La. R.S. 45:164(B) makes a waste applicant prove fitness at a hearing. A carrier hauling placarded hazardous materials that are not waste answers to the federal rules and, if the quantity requires a safety permit, registers with FMCSA rather than with the Commission.
- Waste transport
- Separate regime, and the only Commission authority that requires a contested fitness hearing. Under La. R.S. 45:164(B) a waste applicant must prove before an administrative law judge or hearing officer that it holds or can acquire a complying insurance policy, has the financial ability to transport waste for disposal safely and efficiently, holds or can acquire every other regulatory authorization, holds or can acquire the equipment and manpower, and has or can establish a safety program. Waste applications are filed in triplicate. Saltwater used in oil well exploration and production is a separate certificate class, applied for on Form T-78.
- Private towing and wrecker services
- Non-consensual towing and recovery needs a common carrier certificate under La. R.S. 45:180.1, applied for on Form T-76. If a company performs any towing or recovery inside Louisiana without the prior consent or authorization of the vehicle's owner or operator, it must hold Commission authority. La. R.S. 45:162(12) puts tow trucks inside the statutory definition of motor carriers. Consensual towing arranged by the vehicle owner is not covered.
Louisiana insurance minimums
State minimums can differ from the federal filing levels; the federal side is covered in our insurance filings guide.
- Liability minimum
- Louisiana sets no intrastate liability minimum for a general freight carrier, because it certificates none. For the classes it does regulate, La. R.S. 45:163(D)(1) sets the minimums by class rather than as a single figure, which is why the liability figure is left blank by design and the schedule sits in the operation-type table below. Household goods, saltwater, and passenger-carrying vehicles carry $250,000 for injury or death to any one person, not to exceed $500,000 per occurrence, plus $25,000 property damage. Tow trucks and wreckers carry not less than $500,000 combined single limit. Waste trucks carry not less than $750,000 combined single limit.
- Cargo minimum
- $50,000 (La. R.S. 45:164(E)(1) requires an intrastate household goods mover to carry motor truck cargo carriers insurance of at least fifty thousand dollars per truck and one hundred thousand dollars per catastrophe, to secure and maintain workers compensation insurance, and to file a surety bond by a qualified surety company in the amount of five thousand dollars with the Commission, all before engaging in any activity related to moving household goods. No other class carries a Louisiana cargo minimum, and general freight carries none at all.)
Minimum liability by operation type
General freight is not the floor for every carrier. Hazmat and larger passenger operations carry higher minimums; buy against the row that matches what you haul.
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Other Louisiana insurance requirements
Insurance filing forms
Your insurance company makes these filings with the state, not you.
- Note
- Filings must be made by the insurance underwriter, not the carrier, and the name and address on the Form E must match the application exactly. Household goods movers also file an Accord certificate of workers compensation coverage and the original $5,000 surety bond. All filings are due within thirty days of the date the Commission received the application. Louisiana charges no separate insurance filing fee.
More Louisiana authority rules
- USDOT prerequisite: note
- Louisiana does not appear on FMCSA's list of states that require their intrastate commercial motor vehicle registrants to obtain a USDOT number. Neighboring Texas, Mississippi, and Arkansas are absent from that list too, while Alabama is on it. A Louisiana carrier still needs a USDOT number to hold apportioned IRP plates, because Louisiana is a PRISM state and the barcode on every cab card carries the USDOT number of the motor carrier responsible for safety or of the registrant.
Who the Commission actually certificates
The scope statute is what decides this. Louisiana declares the business of hauling persons, household goods or waste intrastate for hire to be affected with a public interest, then defines a common carrier by motor vehicle as one that solicits or accepts household goods, passengers or waste for intrastate transportation for hire. General commodity freight is simply outside the definition, and a later paragraph extends the term motor carrier to tow trucks.
The deregulation is written into the same definitions. Certificates of public convenience and necessity issued before the mid-nineties, and caught by the preemption in the federal aviation authorization act of 1994, were declared null and void with no continuing value. Two more limits narrow the reach further: the regime applies only to carriage for hire, so a private carrier hauling its own goods is outside it entirely, and a business conducted mainly inside one incorporated municipality and a short radius beyond it is carved out.
The five regulated classes
Household goods movers apply on their own form, carry motor truck cargo coverage and workers compensation, file a surety bond, and keep a staffed permanent establishment inside Louisiana whether or not they are domiciled here. Losing that establishment suspends the right to do business immediately.
Waste carriers are the outlier. A waste applicant must prove fitness at a hearing before an administrative law judge or hearing officer on five statutory factors covering insurance, financial ability, other regulatory authorizations, equipment and manpower, and a safety program. Applications go in triplicate. The statute expressly exempts the other four classes from that hearing.
Saltwater haulers serving oil well exploration and production hold their own certificate class, limited to the waste code the state manifest assigns. Passenger carriers register drivers as well as vehicles and operate under a tariff filed with the Commission. Non-consensual towing companies hold a certificate plus a wrecker license, appear on the rotation list police agencies draw from, and charge no more than the maximum rates a Commission general order sets.
What the regulated classes pay and file
A general freight carrier pays the state nothing for operating authority, because the state issues none. The five regulated classes pay a non-refundable common carrier application filing fee, or a lower amount for a passenger contract carrier permit, plus a per-vehicle intrastate identification stamp every year.
One honest wrinkle sits in the fee record. The statute fixes its own filing amounts for a certificate and for a permit, and the Commission's current application packets charge more. Both figures are recorded rather than reconciled silently: the packet amount is what an applicant writes a check for, and the statutory amount is what the statute says.
Every application is completed, signed and notarized, then delivered or mailed to the Commission in Baton Rouge. Corporations and limited liability companies attach the Secretary of State certificate and articles plus a certificate of good standing, and an out-of-state applicant shows the Louisiana locations it will operate from and designates an agent for service of process. A carrier using owner-operators executes each lease in quadruplicate and files one copy with a per-vehicle filing fee before transportation begins.
Insurance the Commission requires
Louisiana sets its intrastate minimums by carrier class rather than as a single figure, which is why there is no one number to quote. Household goods, saltwater and passenger carrying vehicles sit on one tier with a per person limit, a per occurrence cap and a property damage line. Tow trucks and wreckers carry a combined single limit. Waste trucks carry the highest combined single limit of the five.
Your insurance company makes the filings, not you. Liability proof goes in on Form E, household goods cargo coverage on Form H, and the name and address on the filing must match the application exactly. Household goods movers add a workers compensation certificate and the original surety bond. All filings are due within thirty days of the date the Commission received the application, and Louisiana charges no separate insurance filing fee.
One more caveat is recorded rather than smoothed over: several Commission application packets predate the current statute and print older minimums. The statutory figures are the ones recorded here as operative.
Renewal, the annual stamp and going dormant
There is no authority to renew for a general freight carrier. For the certificated classes the recurring obligation is the intrastate identification stamp, due each year in a window that opens in the autumn and closes at the end of January. Proof of insurance must be on file and the previous year's renewal completed before stamps issue.
Two details save money and trouble. A carrier already registered under the Unified Carrier Registration Agreement with its base state for the renewal year, and claiming all its vehicles under it, owes no stamp fee, but still returns the form with a copy of the receipt so the Commission can verify. And a carrier expecting a quiet stretch can request a voluntary suspension in writing, because leaving an authority unused for six months can lead to cancellation.
Where this fits in the Louisiana launch
A cell reading "Not confirmed" means the agency did not publish a figure we could verify, so we left it open rather than guessed. For the full launch order, work through start a trucking company in Louisiana, then line up IRP registration and IFTA if you run beyond state lines. To compare every state at once, see the national intrastate authority table.
Frequently asked questions
Does Louisiana require intrastate operating authority for for-hire trucking?
- Only for five classes: household goods, waste, saltwater used in oil well exploration and production, passengers, and non-consensual wrecker and towing. General freight hauled point to point inside Louisiana for hire needs no Commission certificate at all.
Is there a Louisiana state carrier number like a CA number?
- No. Louisiana markets nothing comparable. A carrier the Commission certificates gets an LPSC certificate number and a per-vehicle intrastate identification stamp on an intrastate cab card, and a towing company adds a wrecker license number displayed on both sides of each wrecking vehicle. A general freight carrier gets none of it.
What insurance does Louisiana require of an intrastate carrier?
- It depends on the class, because the statute sets minimums class by class rather than as one figure. Household goods, saltwater and passenger vehicles share one tier, tow trucks carry a combined single limit, and waste trucks carry the highest. Household goods movers also carry cargo coverage, workers compensation and a surety bond.
Why does a waste hauler get a hearing when nobody else does?
- The statute says so. A waste applicant must prove fitness before an administrative law judge or hearing officer on five factors: complying insurance, financial ability to haul waste safely, every other regulatory authorization, equipment and manpower, and a safety program. The other four certificate classes are expressly exempted from that hearing.
Do I still owe Louisiana anything if I hold no Commission certificate?
- Yes, on the registration and tax side. You still register your trucks with the Office of Motor Vehicles or take apportioned plates, license for IFTA with the Department of Revenue if you cross a state line, and buy oversize or overweight permits from the Department of Transportation and Development when a load runs over the limits.
Haul Handbook publishes educational information about trucking registration and compliance requirements. This is not legal, financial, or tax advice. Rules, fees, and deadlines change; confirm with the agency before you file or pay.