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A loss run is your claims history, produced by the insurer that wrote the policy. It is almost always the slowest item in a renewal file, and it is the one item nobody else can generate for you. Here is what it contains, who to ask, what to ask for, and the letters that start it moving.
A loss run is a report an insurer produces from its own claim records for a named policy over a stated period. A usable one lists, for every claim in the period:
Reserves are the reason a loss run has a valuation date. An open claim's reserve moves as the insurer's estimate of it moves, so the same five policy years can produce a different total depending on the day the report was run. That is why the request has to name a valuation date, and why a report from last year is not a substitute for one run this week.
"Currently valued" means the report was produced recently enough that the reserve figures still reflect the insurer's present estimate. In practice, submission guidelines commonly ask for loss runs valued within about 90 days of the submission date.
That 90-day figure is a market convention, not a federal rule — there is no regulation in 49 CFR that sets it, and different markets ask for different things. The practical consequence is what matters: a loss run you obtained six months ago will often have to be requested again, so requesting early does not mean requesting once.
There are two places the report can come from, and they move at different speeds:
| Who | Why ask them | What slows it down |
|---|---|---|
| The insurer — underwriting or records department | They hold the claim file. The report originates here whatever route the request takes. | Requests routed through a general inbox; a named insured or policy number that does not match their records exactly. |
| Your agent of record | They can usually pull or chase the report faster than a cold request, and they hold the declarations page and unit schedule you also need. | An agent who is busy, or who reads the request as an instruction to start shopping your file. |
Sending both on the same day costs nothing and removes the most common failure, which is a single request sitting unread in one inbox for three weeks.
Both letters need two facts off your public federal record: the liability insurer FMCSA has on file for your USDOT number, and the policy number that was filed with it. Getting the named insurer and policy number right is what stops a records department returning "no match".
Public FMCSA data, queried live. No signup. It shows the insurer of record, the filed coverage amount, the policy number and the filing date.
Anything in [square brackets] is yours to fill in. This is the same structure the Renewal Packet builds, with your own record's values already dropped in.
[Date]
[Insurer name — the liability insurer on your FMCSA filing]
Attn: Underwriting / Records Department
Re: Request for currently valued loss runs
Named insured: [Your legal name exactly as it appears on the policy]
USDOT [number] · Policy [policy number]
Please provide currently valued loss runs for the above policy covering the most recent five (5) policy years, or the full period of coverage if shorter. For each claim please include: date of loss, claim number, coverage line, status (open or closed), amounts paid, and current reserves.
Please send the runs valued no earlier than [date] to [your email]. Many underwriters will not accept loss runs valued more than about 90 days before submission, so a current valuation matters.
If any part of this request cannot be fulfilled, please tell me in writing what is unavailable and why.
Sincerely,
[Your name] · [Title] · [Company]
Three details in that letter are doing real work. "Currently valued" asks for a fresh run rather than the last one on file. "Five policy years, or the full period of coverage if shorter" gives the records department an unambiguous scope, which is what prevents a partial report. And the closing line — tell me in writing what is unavailable and why — converts a silence into a document you can escalate.
[Date]
[Agent name] · [Agency name]
Re: Loss runs and current policy documentation — [Company], USDOT [number]
Please send me currently valued loss runs for the last five policy years, together with the current declarations page and schedule of covered units, by [date].
To be clear about scope: this is a request for my own records. It is not authorization to approach any insurer on my behalf. I will confirm any market assignments separately and in writing.
Sincerely,
[Your name] · [Title] · [Company]
The scope paragraph is not boilerplate. A request for loss runs is easily read as "we are going to market", and once two brokers have approached the same insurer on your behalf, the second one is usually blocked from quoting it. Saying in writing that you have not authorised any approach keeps that decision yours, and gives you a dated record of when you made it.
Keep every reply. If the request has to be escalated — to the insurer's own complaint channel, or to your state insurance department, which is the body that handles complaints about an insurer's response — a dated record of what you asked for and when is the whole basis of the escalation. Reconstructing it afterwards from memory is not the same thing.
A cancelled policy is still the policy the loss runs have to come from. The claims occurred during that policy period and that insurer holds the file, so the request in Letter 1 does not change — you address it to the insurer named on the cancelled filing, with that policy number. What the public record says about a cancellation is a separate question, covered in what it means when your liability filing shows as cancelled.
RenewalReady is document-preparation software. Nothing above evaluates your coverage, interprets your policy, or recommends limits — those are a licensed agent's job and we are not one. This is the procedural side: what the report is, who holds it, and how to ask for it in writing.
Start with the record. The letters above need the insurer and policy number FMCSA has on file for your USDOT number. The lookup is free and shows them in a few seconds.