When the carrier's policy isn't enough.

When a claim drops the bond below the minimum

Since January 16, 2026, the compliance date set in FMCSA's December 31, 2024 Federal Register rule, brokers and their sureties have had to follow all of 49 CFR 387.307, including the immediate-suspension process that carries out 13906(b)(5). The sequence:

1. The surety or financial institution must notify FMCSA within 2 business days when a payment drops the bond or trust below $75,000: a claim paid with your consent, a claim it found valid after you did not respond within 7 business days, or a judgment. The same applies when it determines you are in financial failure or insolvency.
2. FMCSA serves you written notice that your operating authority will be suspended within 7 business days unless you show in writing that the notification was sent in error, the bond or trust is back to $75,000, or the pending claims were paid without using bond or trust assets.
3. If you do not respond within those 7 business days, FMCSA enters the suspension. You can ask to have it lifted with the same three kinds of evidence.

These notification rules do not apply once a broker has filed under Title 11 (bankruptcy). When a payment or default is not cured, the surety or financial institution must start cancelling the BMC-84 or BMC-85, FMCSA posts notice in the FMCSA Register, and claims are accepted for 60 calendar days. Under 13906(b)(6), the surety then pays all uncontested claims within 30 days after that period ends, or a pro rata share if the claims exceed the security.

What I tell brokers: treat a claim notice from your surety like a court date. Paying a valid freight bill without touching the bond is one of the three showings the rule accepts to stop a suspension. A surety or financial institution that violates these rules faces a 3-year suspension of its filing authorization.

Broker, carrier or agent: which one are you?

The definitions in 49 CFR 371.2 decide which rules apply:

• Broker: a person who, for compensation, arranges or offers to arrange the transportation of property by an authorized motor carrier.
• Carrier exception: motor carriers, and their employees or bona fide agents, are not brokers when they arrange shipments they are authorized to transport and have accepted and legally bound themselves to transport.
• Bona fide agent: part of a carrier's normal organization, performing duties under the carrier's directions through a preexisting agreement that provides for a continuing relationship, with no discretion to allocate traffic between that carrier and others.

Section 371.7 adds two rules on how you present yourself. You may not offer brokerage, including advertising, under any name other than the one on your registration, and you may not represent your operation as a carrier, directly or indirectly. Any advertising has to show your broker status.

Under 49 U.S.C. 14916, a person may provide interstate brokerage only if registered under 13904 and holding the 13906 financial security. Anyone who knowingly authorizes, consents to or permits a violation is liable to the federal government for a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each violation, and to the injured party "for all valid claims incurred without regard to amount." That liability applies jointly and severally to the company and to its individual officers, directors and principals.

If you run trucks and broker overflow, tell your underwriter which loads you haul and which you hand off, and ask how your trucking policy and motor truck cargo treat loads you broker rather than haul. The answer is in the policy wording.