The Carrier Packet Brokers Actually Ask For

The minimum set: authority, W-9, COI, voided check or NOA

Start with four documents and stop adding paper until a broker asks. First, a SAFER company snapshot that shows the authority you are using as ACTIVE, with the DOT number visible. A snapshot of a pending grant is a different document. Label it as pending if that is what it is. Second, a W-9 in the legal name the IRS has for that entity, with the tax classification filled in. Third, a certificate of insurance that shows auto liability and the cargo coverage the broker's packet actually requires. Fourth, payment instructions: a voided check for the account that matches the W-9 name, or the factor's notice of assignment if a factor is the payee.

VINs, equipment lists, a signed broker-carrier agreement, a lanes sheet, and a W-9 for a factor are additions. Send them when that broker's checklist asks. Sending them to everyone, in random order, with three different logos, is the email brokers do not finish. Name the files with the DOT number and the document type. "scan.pdf" and "scan2.pdf" are how a good packet looks empty.

Names that have to match across every page

The legal name and the DOT number are the packet. If the W-9 says one corporation, the certificate says a DBA, SAFER says a different LLC, and the notice of assignment says the owner's personal name, the broker's setup desk stops. They are not being difficult. They cannot tell who would be paid and who is insured. Fix the name at the source. The authority filing, the IRS name, and the insurance policy have to be brought together before you email the stack. Do not "correct" the mismatch by typing a new name onto a PDF. That is the fraudulent-packet pattern.

How carriers get scammed includes packets that borrow a real carrier's DOT and attach someone else's certificate. Do not be the carrier who sends a certificate listing a different MC because the right certificate is a day away. Wait the day. A setup that starts with the wrong MC is not a head start.

What "active" insurance means in a packet

Brokers say they need active insurance. They mean a certificate whose dates cover the pickup, whose insured name matches SAFER, and whose limits meet the agreement, plus a liability filing that is not cancelled. Those are two checks. How to verify a COI is the certificate check, including why you do not trust the phone number printed on the PDF. L and I is the filing check. A certificate can look current on the day L and I shows a cancellation, and a filing can be active while the cargo limit the broker wants is not on the policy. Do both.

If authority is pending, insurance may already be bound and the packet can still not make the load legal. The authority timeline is the grant, the protest window, and the insurance lag. Do not let a broker's setup approval talk you into a pending-authority load. Their packet checkbox is not FMCSA's grant.

A factor NOA replaces the voided check

If you factor, the notice of assignment is the payment instruction. It replaces the voided check. Do not send a voided check and a notice that name different payees. The broker will pick one, and the factor page on who gets paid explains why the wrong pick can be paid twice. The notice has to use the same legal name as the W-9 and SAFER. A notice in a nickname is not a payment instruction. It is a mismatch.

Tell the broker the notice is the only payee. Put that sentence in the email with the packet so the setup record and the payment record are born together. If you later leave the factor, the cancellation sequence replaces the notice. Do not leave the old notice in the packet folder you resend to the next broker.

What you should demand back from the broker

The packet is not a one-way dump of your documents. Before the first load, know who you are giving freight to. Vetting broker credit is how you read a broker before the invoice is the only leverage you have. The financial-responsibility rule is the bond or trust the broker must have on file. A broker who demands your insurance and will not show a bond is upside down. You can refuse the setup.

Also keep a copy of the agreement you signed. Your packet email is not the contract. The rate confirmation arrives later, load by load. Do not treat a setup approval as a rate. And do not treat this article as an offer to run your dispatch. The documents are a checklist you can complete yourself.

A same-day packet order

Do it in this order so you notice the mismatch while you can still fix it. Pull SAFER and write down the legal name and DOT number. Pull the W-9 and stop if the name differs. Pull the certificate and stop if the insured or the DOT differs. Pull L and I and stop if the filing does not match the certificate's insurer or shows a cancellation. Then add the voided check or the notice, and stop if that payee is a third name. Then save the four files under the DOT number. Then, not before, look up the broker's bond and credit. Then send the email.

If a broker replies with an extra form, read it before you sign it. A broker-carrier agreement can contain a setoff clause and an all-assets assignment of claims. The setoff page and the rate-confirmation clauses page are those sentences. Signing the packet is still signing. Same-day does not mean unread.

A dispatch service is not required for that sentence. The sentence is the packet.

When a broker asks for a VIN list, send the VINs of the power units that will actually run their freight, matching the registration. A list copied from an old fleet, or from a truck you sold, fails the first roadside check and makes the packet look borrowed. If they ask for an additional-insured endorsement, that request is not satisfied by a checkmark on the certificate. The verification page explains why the endorsement is a form number, not a box. Ask your agent before you promise the broker a status you do not have.

Keep the packet in one folder and replace a document when it changes, instead of forwarding the whole history of drafts. An expired certificate sitting under a current one is how a broker's clerk uploads the wrong page. Date the email. One current set, one name, one DOT number. If you operate two authorities, build two folders. Mixing them to "use whichever insurance is higher" is the mismatch this page is written to stop.

A broker who asks you to put their name on the certificate as the insured, rather than as a holder or an additional insured, is asking you to show a policy you do not have. Refuse that edit. The insured is the motor carrier. Anything else is a different document, and it is the kind of document the fraud page is about.

Frequently Asked Questions