Adding Broker Authority to an Existing MC

Carrier authority does not include brokerage

Property-carrier authority lets you transport freight as a motor carrier. It does not let you arrange transportation you do not haul, for compensation. That second activity is brokerage, and it needs its own grant. The industry nickname is the same MC number on the door, which is why people skip the application. The statute does not use the nickname.

Overflow is the story carriers tell. A shipper offers two loads, you have one truck, and you hand the second load to another carrier and keep a margin. That margin is broker compensation if you are not the carrier on the second load. Co-brokering is the same family. Calling it a favor or a dispatch does not change the registration category.

You can still be both, legally, if both grants are ACTIVE and both financial-responsibility filings are in force. Many small carriers should not be both. The bond, the trust rules, and the double-brokering exposure are a second business. This page is the decision to add the authority, not the underwriting manual for the bond market.

The second $300 and the second grant

The filing fee is another $300. It is not included in the carrier fee you already paid. FMCSA charges per authority type. Carrier, broker, and freight forwarder are different types. Adding broker authority to an existing USDOT is still a new authority application with its own publication and its own effective date.

You do not get a discount for already being in Motus, and you do not get to check a box that borrows the carrier grant. The docket may display next to the same DOT number. Display is not permission. Until the broker authority line is ACTIVE, you are a carrier who has applied to be a broker.

The $300 is nonrefundable if you change your mind after you see the bond quote. Price the $75,000 financial responsibility before you pay the fee, the same way you should have priced insurance before the carrier application.

The $75,000 BMC-84 or BMC-85, separate from auto liability

Financial responsibility for a property broker is $75,000. Evidence of a surety bond is BMC-84. Evidence of a trust is BMC-85. That filing is not the $750,000 auto liability filing, and it is not cargo insurance. A carrier policy does not satisfy 49 U.S.C. 13906 for brokerage. If your agent says the auto policy includes brokerage, ask which BMC form they will transmit for the broker docket. If they cannot name BMC-84 or BMC-85, they are not filing broker security.

The surety or the trust company files the form. You do not upload it. The same exact-name rules that reject a BMC-91 will reject a BMC-84 filed in the DBA. Match the broker applicant's legal name to the carrier record if they are the same entity, and do not create a second LLC in the same week unless you mean to.

Premium on a bond is not $75,000 in cash for every applicant. The $75,000 is the security. What you pay the surety depends on credit. This page will not invent a premium. It will say you need the filing in force before FMCSA leaves broker authority up, and that a quote is not a filing.

What changed on January 16, 2026

As of January 16, 2026, 49 CFR 387.307 is the property-broker surety and trust rule. Trust funds under that section must contain assets aggregating to $75,000 that can be liquidated to cash within 7 calendar days. Acceptable assets are limited to cash, irrevocable letters of credit issued by a federally insured depository institution, and Treasury bonds. A trust stuffed with other paper does not meet the section.

If available security falls below $75,000, FMCSA's suspension process starts with the provider's notice, then a short cure. The regulation says FMCSA gives written notice that operating authority will be suspended within 7 business days of service unless the broker shows the notification was sent in error, the surety bond or trust has been restored to $75,000, or the pending claims have been satisfied without using those assets. If the broker does not respond within 7 business days of service, FMCSA enters the suspension. That is not an instant. It is also not a leisurely quarter. Do not paraphrase it as either.

The details of claims, provider duties, and the penalty for a provider that violates the section belong on the broker financial-responsibility page. This page only needs you to know that adding broker authority in 2026 means accepting that rule, not the older trust practice your surety sales sheet may still describe.

How long the broker grant takes relative to the carrier grant

A broker application goes through publication and a protest window the same way a carrier application does. It is not added overnight because you already waited once. If your carrier grant took a month, budget another publication cycle for the broker type, plus however long the BMC-84 or BMC-85 takes to post. Sureties that are slow put you in the same 20-day filing problem as a slow auto insurer.

Do not promise shippers a broker start date off the Pay.gov receipt. The carrier side being ACTIVE does not accelerate the broker protest clock. They are scheduled from the broker application's own Register notice.

If you only want to haul, stop here and do not pay the second fee. Broker authority you do not use still needs security in force, and a lapsed BMC-84 can suspend the broker grant even while you thought you were only a carrier.

What you may not do while the broker docket is pending

You may not arrange transportation for compensation under a pending broker application. Brokering before the broker authority is ACTIVE is the same class of problem as hauling on a pending MC. A carrier MC that is ACTIVE does not cover the brokerage, and a dispatcher agreement does not convert you into a broker.

Hauling your own loads still requires the carrier side to be ACTIVE. If the carrier authority lapses while you wait on the broker bond, you cannot haul and you cannot broker. Keep the BMC-91 in force. Do not let the bond project distract you into a cancelled auto policy.

Double-brokering someone else's load to look busy during the wait is worse, not better. You would be arranging freight without broker authority and misrepresenting who the carrier is. Wait for the broker line to read ACTIVE, confirm the BMC-84 or BMC-85 is posted, and only then sign a shipper or co-broker agreement.

What to verify before you act

Before you pay the second $300, get the BMC-84 or BMC-85 quote in writing and ask whether the trust, if you are using one, holds only cash, an irrevocable letter of credit from a federally insured depository, or Treasury bonds. That is the January 16, 2026 asset list. If the provider describes other collateral, you are being sold a structure the section does not allow. Walk away or make them change the assets before you are the broker whose security is the wrong kind of paper.

Decide who in the company is allowed to arrange a load. A carrier dispatching its own truck is not brokering. An employee offering a shipper's extra load to another MC, and keeping a margin, is brokering. Write that rule down and date it. The pending broker docket is not a training period. The first illegal arrange is the one that counts, not the tenth.

Keep the carrier BMC-91 on its own calendar while you add brokerage. A bond project that distracts you into a lapsed auto policy takes down the haul you already know how to do. Two filings, two statuses, one legal name. When both lines say ACTIVE, then you may arrange freight. Until the broker line does, you only haul.

Frequently Asked Questions