How to check a freight broker before you book

A name and an MC number on an email prove nothing. Five checks take a phone and a few minutes, and none of them costs money. None of them tells you for certain that a broker will pay. They tell you who you are dealing with.

1. Is the number a broker’s?

Look the MC or USDOT number up in the public FMCSA registry. A broker holds broker authority and a bond or trust fund. A carrier holds trucks and liability insurance. If the number on your rate confirmation belongs to a carrier that is offering you a load it will not haul, you may be looking at double brokering: here is how to tell.

2. Is the authority active?

Check the status today, not the date on the paperwork. Look at when the authority was first granted and whether it has been revoked or suspended before. A new broker is not a bad broker, but you will have less history to go on, so the next checks matter more.

3. Is the bond or trust fund on file?

A broker must keep $75,000 in a BMC-84 surety bond or BMC-85 trust fund. Check that it is on file, that it meets that amount, and whether a cancellation is scheduled. The bond is not a guarantee: every carrier the broker owes draws on the same $75,000. What to do if a broker does not pay.

4. Call the number on the FMCSA record

Not the number in the email and not the one on the rate confirmation: scammers copy a real broker’s name and MC. Call the number on the FMCSA record and ask:

• Is this load still available, and what is its reference number?
• When and how do you pay: standard terms, quick pay at what fee, or through a factoring company?
• Will the rate confirmation come from your company email?

5. Ask your factoring company

If you factor, ask before you book whether it approves this broker and up to what amount. That is a separate check, and only your factoring company can do it.

Do it for free

Our broker check reads the public registry for you and shows the facts for checks 1 to 3 and the FMCSA phone number on one screen, on a phone, in English, Spanish or Russian. No account and no limit. It shows what FMCSA shows. It does not say whether a broker is safe, and we would not trust a tool that did.