How Do You File a Claim Against a Freight Broker’s Bond?

What changed under FMCSA’s rule on January 16, 2026

FMCSA published its final rule on broker and freight forwarder financial responsibility on November 16, 2023 (88 FR 78656), effective January 16, 2024. Its suspension, financial-failure and enforcement provisions were first due January 16, 2025; a rule of December 31, 2024 (89 FR 107021) moved them to January 16, 2026, the date already set for the trust-fund asset rules, because FMCSA decided filings and notifications would run only through its new online registration system. The current text of 49 CFR 387.307 begins: “This section is effective January 16, 2026.” For a carrier holding an unpaid invoice, four changes matter.

• A clock on the broker. Once notified of a claim, the broker has 7 business days to address its validity. If it does not respond and the surety finds the claim valid, the surety can pay it without the broker’s consent.
• A clock on the surety. A payment that takes the bond or trust below $75,000, whether made with the broker’s consent, after its silence or on a judgment, must be reported to FMCSA electronically within 2 business days.
• A clock on the broker’s authority. FMCSA then gives the broker written notice that its operating authority will be suspended within 7 business days unless it shows the notice was sent in error, restores the bond or trust to $75,000, or pays the pending claims without using it. If the broker does not respond, FMCSA enters the suspension.
• A public notice and a claims window. When the surety determines the broker is in financial failure, it must start cancelling the bond or trust, FMCSA posts notice in the FMCSA Register, and the surety must accept claims for 60 calendar days after that notice.

Two limits. A broker’s bankruptcy filing under Title 11 does not trigger the immediate-suspension reporting and does not count as financial failure under the rule, so a broker in bankruptcy is a question for an attorney first. And the 2023 rule notes that sureties and trustees are not required to list pending claims on their websites, so a carrier cannot see from outside how much of the $75,000 is already claimed.

Where to find the surety or trust fund, and where the claim goes

The claim goes to whoever stands behind the filing: the surety company for a BMC-84 bond, or the financial institution acting as trustee for a BMC-85 trust. The statute requires the surety provider that receives notice of a claim to answer it, and the regulation names the surety company or financial institution as the one that pays, reports to FMCSA and accepts claims. In 49 CFR 387.307, FMCSA receives the surety’s notices, suspends authority and publishes financial-failure notices; nothing in the section has FMCSA paying a claim.

Sureties and financial institutions submit these filings to FMCSA themselves (FMCSA’s April 2026 notice on Motus, its new registration system, lists them as financial responsibility filers), so the broker’s public FMCSA record is where to look for who stands behind the bond. Look it up by MC (docket) or USDOT number in the Carrier Search on FMCSA’s Licensing & Insurance public site, or in Motus, where the notice says the public will be able to search an entity’s registration record. From the record and the load file, write down:

• The broker’s legal name and MC number, and whether both match the rate confirmation. The bond on file belongs to the registered broker, so a mismatch is the first thing to resolve.
• The form on file (BMC-84 or BMC-85), the surety or trustee named, and any bond or trust number shown.
• Whether the broker’s authority is active, and whether a cancellation of its bond or trust has been posted; under 13906(b)(4), a cancellation is reported at least 30 days ahead and posted on the Department of Transportation’s public website.
• The rate confirmation date of each unpaid load. Under 387.307(d)(2)(ii), when a broker replaces its bond, the departing surety stays liable for damages from contracts the broker made before the replacement took effect, so note which bond was in force on each rate confirmation date: if the bond has since been replaced, the earlier surety is the one the text keeps liable for that load.

Then check the FMCSA Register, which the 2023 rule describes as a daily summary of FMCSA’s decisions and notices on operating authority, for the broker’s name; a financial-failure notice there starts the 60-day claims window. Finally, ask the surety in writing for its claim form and address. The federal text sets the surety’s duties once a claim arrives, not the claim’s form, so use the surety’s own form if it has one.

The claim packet: documents that prove the claim

A claim moves fastest when the surety can check every dollar without a phone call. One packet per broker, one cover letter, every unpaid load listed. The person who runs billing assembles it; the owner signs the cover letter.

• Cover letter: the carrier’s legal name, MC and USDOT numbers and contact; the broker’s legal name and MC number; the bond or trust number; the total claimed; and a plain statement that the broker failed to pay freight charges under the listed rate confirmations.
• A load table: load or pro number, rate confirmation date, pickup and delivery dates, the agreed amount, invoice number and date, amount paid, and amount still owed.
• The rate confirmation for each load, and the broker-carrier agreement if one was signed.
• The signed bill of lading or proof of delivery, showing the load was delivered and when.
• The invoice as sent, with the date and the address it went to.
• Correspondence: each reminder, the final written demand, the broker’s replies or promises to pay, and any partial payment with its remittance.
• Accessorials agreed on the rate confirmation, such as detention, each with its own proof. The guide to detention billed but not paid covers what that proof looks like; the surety decides which charges it accepts.

If the load was factored, the factor may own the invoice. Check the agreement and talk to the factor before filing, so one load does not reach the surety twice from two claimants. Send the claim by a method that proves the date the surety received it: the statute counts the surety’s 30 days from that date, and in a financial failure the payout covers claims received inside the 60-day window. Keep a copy of everything sent, in one folder per broker.

When many carriers claim against one bond

There is one $75,000, and every paid claim draws it down. Before any financial-failure notice, each claim stands on its own: paid with the broker’s consent, after its silence and the surety’s finding, or on a judgment, and each payment leaves less for the claims that follow.

Once the surety determines the broker is in financial failure, the method changes. Under 13906(b)(6), the surety must advertise publicly for claims for 60 days from the publication of the cancellation notice, then pay, within 30 days after those 60 days end, either all uncontested claims received in that period or “a pro rata share of such claims if the total amount of such claims exceeds the financial security available.” The regulation counts calendar days, rolling a last day on a weekend or federal holiday to the next business day.

Illustrative example, with invented numbers: during the window, a broker’s surety receives uncontested claims from 20 carriers totaling $150,000, and the full $75,000 is still available. Paid pro rata, each claimant receives half of its claim: $4,000 on an $8,000 claim. Had $30,000 already gone to earlier claims, $45,000 would be shared instead, and the same $8,000 claim would receive $2,400.

So file as soon as the packet is complete, not after another round of promises; check the FMCSA Register weekly for every broker that owes money, because the window runs from the notice, not from the day the carrier hears of it; and count on the bond to limit a loss, not to cover it in full.

How long a bond claim takes, and what to do if it is denied

The federal text sets these clocks, and only these:

• The broker: 7 business days to address the validity of a claim once notified.
• The surety: an answer “on or before the 30th day following the date on which the notice was received,” under 13906(b)(2)(B), and for a denial, the grounds set out in writing for the claimant.
• In a financial failure: 60 calendar days for claims after the FMCSA Register notice, then up to 30 days to pay, so up to about three months from the notice to the money on an uncontested claim.
• Outside a financial failure, neither the statute nor the regulation sets a date by which an accepted claim must be paid, or a deadline for filing an ordinary claim. Ask the surety in writing for its expected payment date, and put it on the calendar next to the 30-day answer date.

A denial is a document to answer. Its written grounds say what the surety found missing or disputed, for example delivery not shown or a rate not shown as agreed. Answer each ground with the document that settles it, if there is one. If the broker disputes the debt itself, the statute’s third path is a judgment against the broker; and in an action against a surety on a claim, the prevailing party is entitled to recover reasonable costs and attorney’s fees, which cuts both ways. Whether to sue the broker, the surety or neither, where, and within what limitation period are questions for a transportation or collections attorney; this is not legal advice.

The weekly check, and where the Review fits

A bond claim stalls when nobody owns it. The person who runs billing owns this list, and the owner reads it in the same weekly meeting:

• Days to pay, broker by broker: every broker invoice past its terms, with days past terms and the total owed. This is the early signal; the bond is the last resort.
• For each broker with a balance past terms: authority status and the bond or trust on file in its FMCSA record, and a check of the FMCSA Register for its name.
• Every open claim: the surety, the date it received the claim, the broker’s 7-business-day date, the surety’s 30-day answer date, and the next action with its date.
• New loads offered by a broker with an open claim or a balance well past terms: dispatch checks the list before booking, and the owner makes the call.

A bond claim is not the next step when the broker is paying, only late, which is a collections routine; it is early without a final written demand on file; and it is an attorney’s question first when the broker has filed for bankruptcy or disputes the service itself. For a trucking company, the Revenue Review counts this under the Invoice → Payment hand-off: from read-only exports of the TMS, invoices, factoring statements and bank deposits, it lists every broker invoice by days past terms and the days from delivery to cash by broker, with a monthly dollar figure where the records support one. It does not file bond claims, contact sureties or give legal advice. It takes two weeks, and the report is the company’s to keep. If one broker is the whole problem, the claim above is the job, not a Review, and a free 20-minute call is where we would say so.