Texas Freight Broker Bond: $75K BMC-84 + 2026 FMCSA Rule

If you’re starting a freight brokerage in Texas, the most expensive thing standing between you and active authority isn’t your MC number or your software — it’s the $75,000 BMC-84 surety bond the federal government requires before the FMCSA will let you broker a single load.

This guide walks through what that bond actually is, why it’s $75,000, what it costs in real-world premiums, the difference between BMC-84 and BMC-85, the separate Texas intrastate bond most new brokers don’t know about, and the step-by-step process to go from filing your MC application to dispatching freight under your own authority. We’ve been writing these bonds for Texas brokers for over 40 years through our parent agency, so a lot of this is the same advice we give over the phone every week.

What is a BMC-84 bond, and why does FMCSA require it?

A BMC-84 is the form name for the federal property broker surety bond. Federal law (specifically 49 U.S.C. §13906 and the implementing regulation at 49 CFR §387.307) requires every interstate property broker registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to maintain financial security of $75,000. The bond is the most common way to do that. The trust fund (BMC-85) is the alternative; more on that below.

The bond is a three-party guarantee. You are the principal — the broker. Motor carriers and shippers are the obligees — the parties the bond protects. The surety is the insurance company that issues the bond and stands behind the $75,000 promise. If you take a shipper’s payment for a load and don’t pay the carrier, or you commit some other breach of your broker contract, the wronged party can file a claim against your bond. The surety pays out valid claims up to $75,000 — and then collects from you. The bond protects carriers and shippers. You are still on the hook for every dollar the surety pays.

This is the most important thing to understand about the BMC-84: it is not insurance for the broker. It is a financial responsibility instrument that the federal government uses to weed out brokers who can’t be financially trusted, and to give wronged parties a guaranteed pool of money to recover from when a broker fails.

Why $75,000? The MAP-21 backstory

For most of the 20th century, the federal broker bond was just $10,000. It stayed at $10,000 from the 1970s until 2013. That number was completely out of step with the size of modern freight invoices, and it became a cottage industry: bad-actor brokers would collect from shippers, stiff carriers, get a $10,000 claim filed against them, and start a new authority under a different name.

Congress fixed it with the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), signed July 6, 2012. MAP-21 raised the bond from $10,000 to $75,000 effective October 1, 2013. The 7.5× increase had two goals: give carriers and shippers meaningful recovery on a typical claim, and put up a financial barrier that filters out under-capitalized brokers before they ever start moving freight.

The bond protects:

• Carriers who haul a load and don’t get paid by the broker.
• Shippers who pre-pay a broker for transportation that doesn’t happen.

It does not cover cargo damage, freight loss, driver injury, or any of the things your motor truck cargo policy or general liability policy is meant to handle. Don’t confuse the BMC-84 with insurance — they sit next to each other on the FMCSA’s required filings list but they do completely different jobs.

BMC-84 vs BMC-85: bond or trust fund?

FMCSA gives every broker two ways to satisfy the $75,000 financial responsibility requirement.

BMC-84 (surety bond). You pay an annual premium to a surety company, and they file the bond electronically with FMCSA. You don’t post the full $75,000 — you pay a credit-based premium that’s typically 1.25% to 12% of the bond amount per year. Your money stays in your business.

BMC-85 (trust fund). You deposit the full $75,000 in a trust account with a qualifying financial institution. The institution files a BMC-85 trust fund agreement with FMCSA. You earn whatever interest the trust account pays, but the $75,000 is locked up — you can’t use it for operations, payroll, or growth.

For 95% of new brokers, the BMC-84 surety bond is the right call. A new brokerage’s most valuable asset is operating capital. Tying up $75,000 in a trust account to satisfy a regulator while you’re trying to scale a sales pipeline is a slow-motion liquidity problem. The annual bond premium — even at the high end of the credit range — is almost always cheaper than the opportunity cost of locking up $75K.

The BMC-85 trust makes sense in two cases: a broker with bad credit who can’t get a surety to write the bond at any acceptable rate, or an established brokerage with so much idle cash that the trust account is operationally invisible. Otherwise, write the bond.

What changed on January 16, 2026: FMCSA’s financial responsibility rule

FMCSA’s Broker and Freight Forwarder Financial Responsibility Final Rule moved from paper to practice on January 16, 2026. The $75,000 amount didn’t change. What changed is how fast you have to fix a shortfall, and what a BMC-85 trust is allowed to hold:

• The seven-business-day replenishment clock. If your available financial security drops below $75,000 — which in practice means the surety paid a claim against your bond, or funds were drawn from your trust — the provider must notify FMCSA within two business days, and you get seven business days after service of the pending-suspension notice to restore the $75,000, show the claims were satisfied without bond or trust assets, or prove the notice was issued in error. Miss the window and FMCSA suspends your operating authority. Before 2026, brokers effectively had a 30-day cushion; that cushion is gone. (Note the one place calendar days still apply: BMC-85 trust assets must be liquidatable to cash within seven calendar days.)
• BMC-85 trusts can only hold three asset types: cash, irrevocable letters of credit issued by a federally insured institution, and Treasury bonds. Riskier or less-liquid assets no longer qualify.
• Loan and finance companies can no longer serve as BMC-85 trustees. Only banks and other qualifying institutions can file the trust agreement.

To be clear about what this rule is not: it has nothing to do with routine renewal. Paying your annual premium on time works exactly like it always has. The clock only starts when the security actually on file falls below $75,000 — almost always after a paid claim. But it is one more reason claims are existential events for a brokerage: you’re repaying the surety and racing a federal deadline measured in business days at the same time.

Brokers who set up BMC-85 trusts years ago should verify with their financial institution that the trust’s assets and trustee still comply. If they don’t, converting to a BMC-84 bond is usually the fastest fix — we can issue and file one same-day.

What does a Texas freight broker bond actually cost?

The bond amount is fixed at $75,000. What varies is your annual premium — what you pay the surety to issue and maintain the bond. Premiums are credit-driven, because the surety’s underwriting question is “if we have to pay out on this bond, can we collect $75,000 back from this broker?”

Personal Credit Score	Typical Premium Rate	Annual Cost (on $75K bond)
750+	1.25%–2%	$940–$1,500
680–749	2%–3.5%	$1,500–$2,625
620–679	3.5%–6%	$2,625–$4,500
580–619	6%–10%	$4,500–$7,500
Below 580	10%–12% (or collateral required)	$7,500–$9,000+

These are ranges, not quotes. Specific premiums depend on years of business experience, prior claims history (yours or anyone else you’ve been an officer of), financial statements for an established business, and whether you’re applying as an individual or through a corporation or LLC. New brokers with no prior bond history and personal credit under 680 should expect to be in the middle band, even with no marks on the business.

Sub-580 credit brokers are frequently asked for collateral — an irrevocable letter of credit or a cash deposit — to backstop the bond. That’s the surety’s way of writing a bond it otherwise wouldn’t. Be candid with yourself about the 2026 market, though: sureties have tightened this class, some have exited it, and not every file gets placed. If your credit is rough, get a quote before assuming you can’t be bonded — and if you have already been turned down, read why BMC-84 applications get denied before you apply anywhere else.

The Texas intrastate broker bond — and the exemption most articles miss

You will find a lot of pages online telling Texas brokers that in-state loads automatically require a second state bond on top of the BMC-84. Read the statute before you buy one.

Texas Transportation Code Chapter 646 does create a state motor transportation broker bond, filed with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV), with a standard amount of $10,000. But §646.002 exempts a broker registered with the U.S. Secretary of Transportation under 49 U.S.C. §13904 — that is, a broker holding federal FMCSA broker authority. The current TxDMV Motor Carrier Handbook reflects the same exemption.

What that means in practice:

• A federally registered broker does not automatically need a second $10,000 Texas bond just because a load runs Houston-to-Dallas. Your federal registration is what triggers the exemption, not the route.
• The Texas bond is aimed at intrastate-only motor transportation brokers that operate outside that federal-registration exemption.
• Your operating profile decides it, not a blog post. If you are not sure which description fits your business, confirm it with TxDMV or with us before you file anything — buying a bond you do not need is cheaper than missing one you do, but neither is free.

This is one of the most common areas of confusion we field on the phone, and it is worth five minutes to get right.

Step by step: from MC application to active authority

The order of operations matters because some steps can’t start until others finish. Plan on roughly 4 to 6 weeks from application to active authority, longer if identity or business verification pings back.

1. Get an EIN and form your business entity. Most brokers operate as an LLC for liability isolation. Get the EIN from the IRS (free, takes 15 minutes online).

2. Apply for broker authority. As of May 14, 2026, FMCSA registration runs through Motus, the USDOT Registration System that replaced the legacy tools. Motus uses Login.gov, identity verification, and business validation, so your legal name and address have to match your source records exactly. The filing fee is $300 and it is non-refundable.

3. Order your $75,000 BMC-84 bond. Don’t wait for FMCSA to publish your authority — order the bond as soon as you have your MC number. The surety files the BMC-84 electronically with FMCSA. We can issue and file most Texas freight broker bonds the same day. Start a BMC-84 application here.

4. File your BOC-3 (designation of process agents). Federal law requires every interstate broker to designate process agents in every state where the broker operates. You file Form BOC-3 through a designated process agent service — there are dozens, and the fee is typically $50 to $150 one-time. Without BOC-3 on file, FMCSA will not grant authority no matter how clean your other filings are.

5. Wait out the FMCSA protest period. Once your application is published, there is a 10-calendar-day protest window before authority is granted. Use it to set up your TMS (transportation management system), load board accounts, factoring relationship, and accounting.

6. Check whether a Texas intrastate bond applies. If you hold federal broker authority, the §646.002 exemption discussed above generally covers you. If your operation is intrastate-only and falls outside that exemption, file the TxDMV $10,000 bond before you cover that first in-state load.

7. Get active. Once FMCSA grants authority — realistically several weeks after application, assuming nothing pings back — you can legally broker freight. Your MC number on a load board is now backed by a real, regulator-issued authority.

Renewal and cancellation: the rules that keep your authority alive

The BMC-84 bond term is typically one year and renews annually. The surety bills you for the renewal premium 30 to 60 days before expiration. If you don’t renew, the surety files a notice of cancellation with FMCSA, and the bond cancels 30 days after that filing. That 30-day cancellation notice is a different clock from the seven-business-day replenishment rule covered above — cancellation is the whole bond going away for non-payment; replenishment is topping the security back up to $75,000 after a claim.

When a BMC-84 cancels, FMCSA suspends your operating authority. You can’t broker any more freight until you reinstate. Even worse: the wronged parties window — the 60-day period when carriers and shippers can file claims against the just-cancelled bond — is when most claims actually get filed, because that’s when carriers realize they’re not getting paid.

Two practical rules every Texas broker should follow:

• Calendar the bond renewal 60 days before the expiration date. Don’t rely on the surety’s notice landing in the right inbox.
• Don’t let it lapse to save on premium. A lapse triggers the claims window, can damage your credit and surety relationship, and forces you to reapply for authority at full cost if it stays cancelled long enough.

Related reading

If your BMC-84 application was declined, referred, or came back with a collateral requirement, see why freight broker bond applications get denied — it covers what underwriters review, the documents to assemble, and what may improve each common decline reason.

See the full license & permit bonds overview for the other Texas authorities that work alongside freight broker authority.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to get a BMC-84 bond? For most applicants with reviewable credit, same day. We file the BMC-84 electronically with FMCSA the same day the bond is issued. The longer wait is FMCSA registration itself — including the 10-calendar-day protest period after publication — not the bond.

Can I broker freight while waiting for my authority? No. Until FMCSA grants active authority, brokering freight is a federal violation. Get the bond, get BOC-3 filed, wait out the protest period, then start selling.

Does the BMC-84 cover cargo damage? No. The BMC-84 covers your contractual obligations to carriers and shippers — primarily paying carriers what you owe them. Cargo damage is handled through contingent cargo insurance you maintain separately.

What’s the difference between an MC number and a DOT number? A DOT number identifies a regulated entity. An MC number is operating authority — permission to charge for interstate transportation. Brokers need both, and the bond is tied to the MC authority.

Can my LLC apply for a BMC-84, or does it have to be a personal bond? The bond is issued to the named broker entity — the LLC, corporation, or sole proprietor that holds the MC authority. The personal credit of the owners is what the surety underwrites for new businesses, but the bond itself names the business.

Do I need a separate bond for each state I operate in? No for federal authority — the $75,000 BMC-84 covers all 50 states for interstate brokering. Some states do have their own intrastate broker bonds, but Texas exempts brokers registered with the U.S. Secretary of Transportation under 49 U.S.C. §13904 (Texas Transportation Code §646.002). The Texas $10,000 bond applies to intrastate-only brokers outside that exemption.

What happens if a claim is paid out on my bond? The surety pays the claimant up to $75,000. You owe the surety every dollar paid, plus legal fees. The surety can refuse to renew. Most brokers who have a paid claim find it dramatically harder to get bonded again at any reasonable rate.

What happens if my freight broker bond drops below $75,000? Under the FMCSA financial responsibility rule in force since January 16, 2026, a drop below $75,000 — in practice, after the surety pays a claim — starts short federal clocks. The provider notifies FMCSA within two business days, and you get seven business days after service of the pending-suspension notice to restore the $75,000, show the claims were satisfied without bond or trust assets, or prove the notice was in error. Miss it and FMCSA suspends your operating authority. It is a separate, much shorter clock than the 30-day cancellation notice that applies when a bond is cancelled for non-renewal. Don’t confuse it with the seven calendar day liquidity rule for BMC-85 trust assets.