How Do You Read a Commercial Auto Declarations Page? Item by Item, 2026

There is no separate symbols chart in a commercial auto policy: the covered autos symbols sit inside Item Two of the declarations page, one entry on every coverage row, and the deductible is typed inside the Limit cell of that same row. Business Auto Declarations CA DS 03 holds six items, Motor Carrier Declarations CA DS 21 11 20 holds seven, and the two stop matching at Item Six.

Where exactly is the covered autos symbols column?

Item Two is titled Schedule Of Coverages And Covered Autos, and on the ISO advisory form it carries four columns: Coverages, Covered Autos, Limit, Premium. There is no deductible column at all.

• Covered Autos holds the symbol or symbols; some insurers print the heading as Covered Autos Symbols. Business auto uses 1 through 9 and 19, motor carrier uses 61 through 71 and 79.
• Limit carries the deductible too, as wording such as minus $1,000 deductible for each covered auto, or as one cell reading $25,000/$1,000 on a trailer interchange row.
• Premium is the on and off switch: a figure or the word Included means the row is bought, an empty cell means the coverage does not apply, even when the limit and symbol are filled in.
• Read across each row: liability rows are usually broad, physical damage rows narrow. Each number is decoded in the covered autos symbols guide.

A filled-in Item Two on a motor carrier form reads like this:

Row in Item Two	Covered Autos	Limit cell	Premium cell	What it means
Covered Autos Liability	61	$1,000,000 each accident	Included	Any auto, owned or hired, is covered for liability
Trailer Interchange Comprehensive	69, 70	$25,000 / $1,000 deductible per trailer	Included	Trailers you hold or lend under a written interchange agreement
Physical Damage Collision	67	ACV minus $1,000 deductible	Included	Only the VINs scheduled in Item Three
Physical Damage Comprehensive	67	ACV minus $1,000 deductible	blank	Not bought, despite the symbol and deductible being printed

What sits in each item, and where do the two declarations diverge?

One caveat: CA DS 03 and CA DS 21 are ISO advisory forms, and insurers print their own declarations on that base, so on a proprietary form match the section titles, not the item numbers. Layout per the Rough Notes analysis of CA DS 21.

Item	Business Auto Declarations CA DS 03	Motor Carrier Declarations CA DS 21
One	Entity name, mailing address, policy period starting 12:01 AM standard time at that address, form of business, endorsements attached at inception
Two	Schedule Of Coverages And Covered Autos: symbols, limits with deductibles, premiums
Three	Schedule Of Covered Autos You Own: VIN, garaging town and state, loss payee; completed only under symbol 7 or 67
Four	Hired or borrowed autos: cost of hire rating basis and premiums, used only with symbol 1 or 8 (61 or 68), no symbol field
Five	Non-ownership liability, rated on employee and partner headcount, used with symbol 1 or 9 (61 or 71)
Six	Gross receipts or mileage basis for public autos and leasing or rental concerns; blank on a typical trucking policy	Trailer Interchange Coverage: symbols 69 and 70, limit and per-trailer deductible, estimated premium
Seven	Does not exist on this form	Gross receipts rating basis; the mileage basis is not offered to motor carriers

Item Four is a rating page, not a coverage page: the hired autos symbol lives back in Item Two. Item Six is where for-hire carriers get lost, because on the motor carrier form it is the trailer interchange schedule and on the business auto form a rating basis for bus and rental operations. That coverage is unpacked in the trailer interchange guide, and the case where you pull someone else's trailer without a written agreement in the non-owned trailer guide.

How do you read the limits and deductibles without guessing?

One figure such as $1,000,000 each accident is a combined single limit; three figures through slashes are split limits, unusual on a trucking risk. On physical damage rows the deductible follows the word minus, and since the 11 20 edition the form offers an optional maximum deductible: one event costs you at most five times the highest deductible among the damaged units, elected either for theft, mischief and vandalism only or for all perils, per the Big I summary of the 2020 revisions. Ten trucks in one hailstorm at $1,000 each cost $5,000 with the election and $10,000 without it. Deductible levels themselves are compared in the physical damage deductibles guide.

Then compare the liability figure against the federal floor in 49 CFR 387.9:

Operation	Federal minimum	Source
For-hire, non-hazardous property, GVWR 10,001 lbs or more	$750,000	387.9, entry (1)
Oil, hazardous waste and hazmat outside the $5M entries	$1,000,000	387.9, entry (3)
Listed hazardous materials in bulk, highway route controlled Class 7	$5,000,000	387.9, entries (2) and (4)
Household goods cargo security	$5,000 per vehicle, $10,000 per occurrence	387.303(c)

Two things never appear on the declarations: the MCS-90 endorsement under 49 CFR 387.15, which pays the public and then lets the insurer bill you back, and the federal filing itself, explained in the BMC-91 guide.

What happens when you buy a truck mid-term?

1. Broad symbols cover the type, not the category. Under any auto or owned autos, a vehicle of a type already described is covered for the rest of the term, but a fleet of tractors does not automatically pick up your first pickup.
2. Specifically described autos are the trap. Symbol 7 on the business auto form and symbol 67 on the motor carrier form both mean coverage reaches only the VINs in Item Three. A new truck is covered only if the insurer already covers all autos you own for that coverage, or the unit replaces a scheduled one, and you tell the insurer within 30 days of acquiring it.

Typical scenario, an illustrative composite rather than a specific client. Dorofey runs two tractors and renews yearly without opening the packet. A broker demands proof of trailer interchange coverage, he opens the declarations, and the footer names the motor carrier form: every chart of symbols 1 through 9 he found online described a different form, the trailer interchange rows in his Item Two carry no premium, and his Item Six is blank. The gap was printed, in a column, on a page he had forwarded to brokers for three years.

Second typical scenario, also a composite. Yefrem keeps six reefers in one yard and a hailstorm damages all six. His comprehensive deductible reads minus $1,000 on every row, so he expects $6,000 out of pocket. The maximum deductible line on his declarations shows All Perils, and the adjuster applies one event cap of $5,000. Had the election been Theft, Mischief or Vandalism only, hail would have cost him six full deductibles.

What should you check on the declarations before you sign?

1. Entity name matches your FMCSA authority letter exactly, punctuation included: a mismatch stalls every certificate of insurance a broker asks for.
2. Policy period starts 12:01 AM standard time at the mailing address, with no gap from the expiring policy; a gap of even one day triggers the cancellation chain described in the lapse and MC revocation guide.
3. Form number read off the footer: business auto, motor carrier or proprietary.
4. Premium column shows a figure or the word Included on every row you believe you bought.
5. Vehicle schedule lists every operating truck with the correct VIN and its real garaging town, not the mailing address, and no sold units.

TruckSafe is not a licensed insurance agency. We are an independent platform connecting carriers with licensed insurance professionals, and the above is market analysis, not advice on your policy. Run the five-point check and write down the lines you could not explain: put to your agent in writing, they beat any generic chart. Questions in Russian, English or Ukrainian: (315) 871-0833.