The BMC-84 broker bond, and what the record says about it

The short answer

A property broker must have a surety bond or trust fund of $75,000 in effect (49 CFR 387.307(a), read 2026-09-03). FMCSA will not register a broker until it is, and the registration "shall remain in effect only as long as" it stays in effect. Evidence of a bond is filed on Form BMC-84; evidence of a trust fund with a financial institution is filed on Form BMC-85.

The money is not there for the broker. It is there to pay shippers and motor carriers when the broker fails to carry out the arrangements it made — which is exactly why it is worth checking before the arrangement is made rather than after.

BMC-84 or BMC-85 — the practical difference

• BMC-84 is a surety bond: a surety company stands behind the $75,000 and underwrites the broker to do it. Most brokers hold this one.
• BMC-85 is a trust fund: $75,000 in assets held at a financial institution, and under 387.307(b) they must be liquidatable to cash within seven calendar days — cash, irrevocable letters of credit from a federally insured depository institution, or Treasury bonds.
• Either satisfies the rule. Which one a broker holds is a fact about how it financed the requirement, not a grade. What matters is that one of them is on file and has not entered cancellation.

The gap the record leaves open: cancellation runs on a clock

A bond or trust agreement may be cancelled only on 30 days’ written notice to FMCSA, on Form BMC-36 for a bond (387.307(d)(2)(i)). The notice period starts when FMCSA actually receives it. For thirty days, therefore, a broker can be inside a cancellation that has already been filed while its authority still reads active.

This is the reason a bond is a thing to re-check rather than a thing to check once. A snapshot taken today is true today; a load tendered next month is a different question, and the honest answer is another look at the record.

What happens when the bond is drawn down

Since the financial-responsibility rule took effect, a surety or financial institution that pays a claim which drops the bond below $75,000 — or that determines the broker is in financial failure or insolvency — must notify FMCSA within two business days (387.307(e)). FMCSA then notifies the broker that its registration will be suspended within seven business days unless the bond is restored, the claims are satisfied, or the notification was sent in error.

If it is not cured, the surety initiates cancellation and FMCSA posts the failure in the FMCSA Register on its public website; claims against the bond are accepted for 60 calendar days after that notice (387.307(f)). A surety that breaks these rules can itself be suspended from filing for three years.

Reading it against the authority line

Broker authority and the bond are two fields with one story. Authority ACTIVE with a bond on file is the ordinary case. Authority ACTIVE with revocation pending is the field worth a phone call — FMCSA has started pulling the registration while it still reads active, and a lapsed bond is one of the ways that begins.

And a company with broker authority but no carrier authority does not haul; it arranges. If someone quoted you as a carrier and the record shows a broker, that discrepancy is the finding, whatever the bond says.