Texas Freight Broker BMC-84 Bond: The Complete Guide for New Brokers

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.

A note on 2026: FMCSA finalized new financial responsibility rules in 2023 that tighten the assets that can satisfy BMC-85 trust requirements, with key provisions phasing in through 2026 and 2027. Brokers who set up BMC-85 trusts years ago should verify with their financial institution that the trust still complies.

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 sometimes 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. We’ve placed bonds in every tier; if your credit is rough, get a quote before assuming you can’t be bonded.

The often-missed Texas intrastate broker bond

Here’s the rule that catches a lot of new brokers: if you arrange transportation that stays entirely inside Texas, the BMC-84 alone does not cover you.

Texas Transportation Code §646.003 requires a separate state-level bond for any motor transportation broker arranging intrastate Texas moves. The bond is filed with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV) and the standard amount is $10,000 — though TxDMV can require more depending on the broker’s operating scope. The annual premium typically runs about 1% of the bond amount, so $100 for a $10,000 bond for most applicants.

Two clarifications brokers always ask about:

Pure interstate brokers don’t need this. If every load you broker has an origin or destination outside Texas, your federal BMC-84 is sufficient and you don’t need the TxDMV bond.
Mixed operations need both. If you broker any Houston-to-Dallas, San Antonio-to-Lubbock, or similar in-state moves, you need both the federal $75,000 BMC-84 and the Texas $10,000 intrastate bond. The federal bond does not satisfy the state requirement.

This is one of the most common reasons we get follow-up calls from brokers who got their MC number, started selling, and then discovered they needed a second bond before they could legally cover their first intrastate load.

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 3 to 6 weeks from application to active authority, longer if any paperwork 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 MC authority (Form OP-1). File the Application for Motor Property Carrier and Broker Authority through the FMCSA Unified Registration System. The filing fee is $300 and the application is non-refundable. FMCSA assigns you an MC number within a few business days.

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 the FMCSA protest period. Once your MC application is published in the FMCSA register, there’s a 21-day protest period before authority is granted. Use this window to set up your TMS (transportation management system), load board accounts, factoring relationship, and accounting.

6. File the Texas intrastate bond (if needed). If you’ll broker any in-state loads, order and file the TxDMV $10,000 intrastate bond before you cover that first in-state load.

7. Get active. Once FMCSA grants authority — usually 21 to 28 days after application, assuming no issues — 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.

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.

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 the FMCSA’s 21-day protest period, 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. Yes for some states’ intrastate requirements; Texas is one of the states that requires a separate intrastate bond if you arrange in-state moves.

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.