Can you show why it matters?

Take one accident: one person seriously hurt, $600,000 in medical and damages, and $20,000 of vehicle damage. Under a $1,000,000 combined single limit the policy pays all $620,000. Under 250/500/100 split limits it pays $250,000 for that person — the per-person cap — plus $20,000 property, and you owe the remaining $350,000. The $500,000 per-accident figure never comes into play because only one person was hurt, and the unused property damage limit cannot be borrowed. That gap is the whole argument.

Do trucking filings require CSL?

The federal financial responsibility requirements are expressed as a single combined amount, and the MCS-90 endorsement operates against that figure — so motor carriers are effectively working in combined single limit terms. Practically, any carrier needing a filing should be on a CSL, and a split-limit policy is likely to create a compliance problem as well as a coverage one.

Where do split limits still appear?

On smaller commercial auto accounts, on some personal-lines-adjacent policies, and wherever price pressure has pushed the structure down. They are not wrong in every case — a business with light vehicles and modest exposure may reasonably carry them — but the choice should be deliberate. The failure mode is an owner who believes they have "$500,000 of coverage" and discovers the per-person cap is half that.

Combined single limit or split limits — what is the difference on a commercial auto policy?

A combined single limit is one pot for the whole accident. Split limits are three separate caps: bodily injury per person, bodily injury per accident, and property damage. A $1,000,000 CSL will pay a million dollars however the loss divides between injuries and property. Split limits of 250/500/100 cap you at $250,000 for any one injured person, $500,000 for all of them, and $100,000 for property — so a single badly injured claimant stops at $250,000 even though the policy says $500,000 somewhere on it. CSL is the stronger structure and it is what most contracts and filings ask for.

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The detail

Split limits express three separate maximums — bodily injury per person, bodily injury per accident, and property damage — and each applies independently, so an unused property damage limit cannot pay a bodily injury claim.
International Risk Management Institute

What this means for you

Ask for CSL if you can get it. A single catastrophic injury is exactly the loss split limits handle worst, and it is the loss that ends a business.
Read a split limit as its PER PERSON figure. That is the real number in the accident most likely to bankrupt you, and it is the smallest of the three.
Check the contract before choosing. Many contracts and most federal motor carrier filings specify a combined single limit, and a split-limit policy will not satisfy them.
Compare quotes on the same structure. A split-limit quote will look cheaper than a CSL quote for the same nominal number and it is not the same cover.

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Retention versus deductible

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