What's the difference between BMC-84 and BMC-85?

A BMC-84 is a surety bond: an insurance company promises to pay carriers if the broker doesn't. A BMC-85 is a trust fund: the broker parks actual cash or securities with a financial institution. Both satisfy the $75,000 requirement. In practice a BMC-84 claim tends to move faster because there's a surety underwriting it.

What does a pending bond cancellation mean for me?

It means the surety has told FMCSA it's walking away on a specific date. If the broker doesn't replace the filing by then, FMCSA revokes their broker authority. Any load you haul after that date has no bond behind it. If you see a cancellation date on a broker's page, get paid before it lands, or don't take the load.

Where does this data come from?

FMCSA's public Licensing & Insurance database and the motor carrier census, the same source the government publishes. Bond filings, cancellation notices, authority status and registered addresses all come straight from those records. We don't editorialize them.

How do I know a rate confirmation is really from this broker?

Check the sender's email domain against the domain on the broker's FMCSA registration, which is listed on every profile page here. Rate cons from Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook addresses are not how licensed brokers do business. Drop the PDF into the sandbox on any broker page and Bubba will run that comparison for you, in your browser, without uploading the file anywhere.

Do you show broker credit scores and Days-to-Pay?

Not yet. Payment-history data comes from credit bureaus that collect it from carriers, and we'd rather show you nothing than show you a number we made up. Bond and authority status, the things that determine whether you can collect at all, are live today.

Is any of this a guarantee I'll get paid?

No. An active bond and clean authority mean the broker meets the federal minimum, not that they're good for the money on time. Use this to rule out the obvious problems, then use your own credit terms and quick-pay judgment on the rest.

Does it cost anything?

No. Look up as many brokers as you want, free, with no account. If you want Bubba to run your dispatch, booking the loads, parsing the rate cons and making the check calls, the pricing is as follows. Free during beta. At general availability, the first five booked loads are free, then 2.99% of the negotiated rate. No credit card is needed to get started.

Check the broker before you check the load

Bond status, authority and fraud checks, straight from FMCSA, free. Every licensed broker has to keep $75,000 on file with the feds. Type in an MC number and Bubba will tell you whether theirs is still there, whether a cancellation has been filed, and what email domain their paperwork should actually come from.

Jump to

High-risk alerts Newly authorized No bond on file

How it works

Search the MC number
It's on the rate confirmation. Paste it in, or search by USDOT number or company name if that's all you've got.
Read the bond and authority
Active BMC-84 or BMC-85, who the surety is, and whether anyone has filed to cancel it. If a cancellation is pending, you'll see the date and the countdown.
Check the paperwork against the record
Drop the rate con into the sandbox on the broker's page. Bubba reads it in your browser and compares the sender's email domain to the one FMCSA has on file.
Book it and let Bubba run it
Once the broker checks out, hand the load to Bubba: the rate con is parsed into your TMS, check calls are handled and paperwork is filed. Free during beta. At general availability, the first five booked loads are free, then 2.99% of the negotiated rate.

Six things to confirm before a truck moves

These are the six records worth confirming on any broker. On a broker's page, each one shows what FMCSA's records say.

Active broker authority

A broker must hold FMCSA broker authority to arrange freight for pay. Revoked or inactive authority means it cannot legally do so.

BMC-84 bond or BMC-85 trust fund

Every broker has to keep $75,000 on file as security for carriers' invoices. A cancellation notice starts a clock on losing authority.

BOC-3 process agent

A broker must name a legal process agent in every state it operates. It is a basic filing that fly-by-night operations often skip.

USDOT record and MCS-150

The USDOT record should be active and its MCS-150 updated every two years. A stale record can mean nobody is minding the company.

Authority age and history

A broker that is only weeks old has no track record, and a revocation on record shows it has lost authority before.

Contact details to check against

Impersonators put a real broker's name and MC number on a fake rate con. The phone and email domain FMCSA holds are what you check it against.

BMC-84 surety bond vs BMC-85 trust fund

Brokers and freight forwarders must show $75,000 of financial security to hold FMCSA authority. They can do it with either filing. The difference is who stands behind the money.

BMC-84 Surety bond

What it is: A surety bond: a bonding company guarantees the broker will pay.
Federal minimum: $75,000.
Who files it with FMCSA: The surety company.
If the broker does not pay: A carrier files a claim against the bond.
How it can end: A cancellation notice filed with FMCSA, or a new filing replacing it.
What to check: That it is on file, who the surety is, and that no cancellation is filed.

BMC-85 Trust fund

What it is: A trust fund: cash or securities held in trust for carriers by a financial institution.
Federal minimum: $75,000.
Who files it with FMCSA: The trustee holding the fund.
If the broker does not pay: A carrier files a claim against the trust fund.
How it can end: A cancellation notice filed with FMCSA, or a new filing replacing it.
What to check: That it is on file and that no cancellation is filed.

Comparison of the BMC-84 surety bond and the BMC-85 trust fund
	BMC-84 Surety bond	BMC-85 Trust fund
What it is	A surety bond: a bonding company guarantees the broker will pay.	A trust fund: cash or securities held in trust for carriers by a financial institution.
Federal minimum	$75,000.	$75,000.
Who files it with FMCSA	The surety company.	The trustee holding the fund.
If the broker does not pay	A carrier files a claim against the bond.	A carrier files a claim against the trust fund.
How it can end	A cancellation notice filed with FMCSA, or a new filing replacing it.	A cancellation notice filed with FMCSA, or a new filing replacing it.
What to check	That it is on file, who the surety is, and that no cancellation is filed.	That it is on file and that no cancellation is filed.

Vetting the broker is step one

Step two is not spending your evening on rate cons and check calls. That's Bubba's job.

No dispatcher salaries

Free during beta. At general availability, the first five booked loads are free, then 2.99% of the negotiated rate. No monthly per-seat licence, no per-dispatcher fee.

78% of routine back-office work removed

Ratecon ingestion, check calls and paperwork run themselves, giving 10+ hours a week back per dispatcher. The 78% is measured in our published research.

25–50 trucks per dispatcher

Back-office automation lifts a dispatcher from 10–15 trucks to 25–50 without adding headcount.

Check calls without the calls

Automated voice and SMS driver tracking in 40+ languages, so nobody chases a status update.

Plugs into your TMS

Reads from McLeod today, with write-back shipping very soon, and works with Trimble TMW.Suite, plus Samsara, Motive and TruckX ELDs.

FAQ'sFrequently Asked Questions

It's the $75,000 the federal government makes every licensed broker put up before they can arrange your freight, either a BMC-84 surety bond or a BMC-85 trust fund. If the broker stiffs you, that's the money you file a claim against. No bond on file, no operating authority.

Setting up with a broker?

Step-by-step carrier setup guides, with each broker's requirements checked against its own site.

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