By Evan Reid, Founder of Haul Handbook · Updated Jul 25, 2026
The Pennsylvania requirements table
- Application
- Application for Motor Common Carrier of Property, filed with the Secretary of the PA Public Utility Commission (400 North Street, 2nd Floor, Harrisburg, PA 17120) or through the Commission's eFiling system. Applications may also be requested by mail, email or fax.
- Renewal
- There is no annual renewal fee. The $100 property filing fee is one time. What continues is the obligation to keep insurance on file (a lapse triggers a suspension letter and can lead to cancellation of the authority) and the annual PUC assessment on gross intrastate revenues. Applicants have 60 days after approval to submit insurance, bonds and tariff items or the application is dismissed and must be restarted.
Application fee schedule by authority type
Pennsylvania charges one application filing fee per class of authority, so what a carrier pays depends on the certificate being applied for rather than on a term or a fleet size.
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Who the requirement covers
- Passenger carriers
- Passenger service is separately certificated. The PUC lists distinct passenger authority types (taxi or call and demand, limousine, scheduled route, airport transfer, paratransit, group and party, experimental, contract carrier of passengers, transportation network company). Taxi and limousine service inside the city of Philadelphia falls under the Philadelphia Parking Authority, not the PUC.
Pennsylvania insurance minimums
State minimums can differ from the federal filing levels; the federal side is covered in our insurance filings guide.
- Liability minimum
- $750,000 ($750,000 per accident is the PUC minimum for a property carrier vehicle with a manufacturer's gross vehicle weight rating (or gross combination weight rating, for an articulated vehicle) over 10,000 pounds. Vehicles rated at 10,000 pounds or less carry $300,000 per accident.)
- Cargo minimum
- $5,000 (Cargo liability insurance of not less than $5,000 for loss or damage to cargo carried on a motor vehicle must be filed with the Commission. It may be waived if all transportation is in dump trucks, or is limited to farm products, garbage, ashes, rubbish, coal debris, earth, crushed stone, amesite and similar construction materials, or if the value of any one load is not more than $500. A signed cargo waiver must be submitted by the applicant.)
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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Who needs a PUC certificate
Two facts have to be true together: the carrier is compensated for the trip, and both the origin and the destination sit in Pennsylvania. That is the whole trigger. No gross weight rating, no axle count, no passenger threshold for property work. A pickup hauling for pay between Scranton and Erie is inside the rule.
Passenger service is certificated separately, with its own authority types, and taxi and limousine work inside the city of Philadelphia belongs to the Philadelphia Parking Authority instead of the PUC. Household goods movers and household goods brokers hold their own authority types and file an approved tariff with the Commission. Brokering freight inside Pennsylvania also takes PUC authority, and brokers post a surety bond rather than filing carrier insurance.
Carriers whose service territory crosses state lines are not required to file with the Commission at all, because interstate transportation sits on the exemption list.
The exemption list is where Pennsylvania hides its threshold
Instead of a weight exemption, Pennsylvania publishes a list of operations that need no PUC authority, and tells applicants not to file if one fits. It runs long and it runs specific: free transportation with no compensation, private hauling of your own property to yourself or to purchasers in your own vehicles, farm hauls by the farm owner or an exclusive contractor, dump-truck loads of anti-skid material, ashes, excavated material and rubbish except in five-axle tractor-trailers, road construction materials to a construction or repair site, towing of wrecked or disabled vehicles, logs and pulpwood from wood lots, buy-and-sell operations, transportation incidental to a non-transportation business, and several more.
Read the sourced exemption list below before paying a filing fee. It is the cheapest step in the whole process.
Authority types and filing fees
The Commission prices its authority types in two bands. Property carriers and group and party carriers of sixteen or more passengers sit in the lower band; household goods movers, household goods brokers, passenger brokers, and every other passenger authority type sit in the higher one. The fee is a one-time filing fee, and the Commission's own frequently asked questions confirm there is no annual renewal fee.
Payment has to be a certified check, money order, or attorney check payable to Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The sourced fee table below lists each authority type with its amount.
Insurance minimums and who files them
Pennsylvania sets liability minimums by vehicle weight rating for property carriers, with a lower tier for light vehicles and a higher one above it, and separate tiers by passenger capacity for passenger carriers. On top of liability, motor carriers of property and household goods have to file cargo liability coverage, which the federal general-freight rule does not require. The cargo requirement can be waived by affidavit for dump-truck-only work, for a listed set of bulk and farm commodities, and for low-value loads.
The filing mechanics matter as much as the amounts. Form E is the only binding proof of bodily injury and property damage coverage and Form H is the only binding proof of cargo coverage, both filed electronically by the insurance company's home office through NIC Insurance Filings. Not by you, not by your agent, and no longer by mail. The name and address on the Form E have to match the application exactly, and on-hook towing coverage is not accepted.
The annual assessment and keeping the certificate alive
The filing fee ends; the assessment does not. Certificate holders file an annual assessment report and get billed on non-exempt gross Pennsylvania intrastate revenue, which is how the Commission recovers the cost of regulating utilities. Public utilities file a statement of the previous calendar year's intrastate revenue by the end of March, the Commission allocates its expenses across utility groups, and each utility pays within thirty days of the notice.
There is no published flat rate or percentage, because the bill is a share of allocated expenses rather than a tax on revenue. What the statute does set is a ceiling on the total the Commission may assess. Failing to report revenue and pay can bring civil penalties, suspension, or cancellation of the certificate, and so can letting insurance lapse.
The statute behind the certificate
Pennsylvania's requirement comes from the Public Utility Code rather than the Vehicle Code. The Code provides that a certificate of public convenience has to be obtained from the Commission before a proposed public utility may begin to offer, render, furnish or supply service in the Commonwealth, and the certificate describes the nature of the service and the territory it covers. Motor carriers of property are public utilities for this purpose.
That framing explains the rest of the regime: the annual assessment, the tariff filings for household goods and passenger work, and the rule that a certificate has to exist before service is even advertised.
Where this fits in the Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania, 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
What weight triggers Pennsylvania intrastate authority?
- None. Pennsylvania sets no vehicle weight threshold for intrastate operating authority. The Public Utility Commission's test is compensation plus a trip whose origin and destination are both in Pennsylvania, at any vehicle weight, which is unusual among states.
How do I apply for a Pennsylvania PUC number?
- File the Application for Motor Common Carrier of Property with the Secretary of the Public Utility Commission in Harrisburg, or eFile it through the Commission's system. Original signatures are required unless you eFile. Business entities have to be registered with the Pennsylvania Department of State first and supply a Corporation Bureau entity identification number.
What insurance does the Pennsylvania PUC require?
- Liability coverage set by vehicle weight rating for property carriers, plus cargo liability coverage that the federal general-freight rule does not require. Your insurance company files Form E for liability and Form H for cargo electronically through NIC Insurance Filings; the applicant and the agent cannot file them. The sourced minimums table below lists each operation type with its amount.
Is there an annual renewal fee for Pennsylvania trucking authority?
- No renewal fee for the certificate. The property filing fee is one time. What recurs is the annual PUC assessment on non-exempt gross Pennsylvania intrastate revenue, plus the obligation to keep insurance on file without a lapse.
Does the PUC certificate cover interstate hauling?
- No, and it is not needed for it. Carriers whose service territory crosses state lines are not required to file an application with the Commission; interstate transportation appears on the published exemption list. Interstate work runs on federal operating authority instead.
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.