To report a freight broker not paying, file a complaint with FMCSA's National Consumer Complaint Database (NCCDB) online or at 1-888-368-7238. To get the money, also file a claim on the broker's $75,000 surety bond (BMC-84) or trust fund (BMC-85). These are separate tracks. The agency will not collect the invoice for you, so a report alone rarely gets anyone paid.

You can land on either side of this. A co-broker might sit on your invoice. Or a trucking company you dispatched calls to say the "broker" who rebooked your freight never paid them. Either way, the sequence is the same.

Build the file before you report anything

Every track below asks for the same proof, and the surety judges your claim on paper. Before you open a form, gather these for each unpaid shipment:

  • The signed rate confirmation. Confirm the legal name, MC number, agreed rate, accessorials, and payment terms (net days, quick-pay, or factoring instructions).
  • The bill of lading signed at pickup, and the signed proof of delivery with the consignee's name and date.
  • Your invoice, the date you sent it, and the address or portal you sent it to.
  • Every email, text, and load-board message about payment. Keep the date of each "check is in the mail" reply.
  • Any detention, lumper, or TONU documentation the rate confirmation authorized.

Most parties never use this paperwork well. According to a law-firm summary of the broker transparency rules, 49 CFR 371.3(a) requires a broker to keep transaction records covering compensation received, the name of the payer, and the date of payment to the carrier. Section 371.3(c) lets each party to the transaction review them. The agency's November 2024 proposed rule would make that bookkeeping electronic. It is a proposal, not a final rule. Claims of a binding 48-hour production deadline come from secondary sources describing a rule that has not been finalized.

Send a written request citing 371.3(c) before you escalate. If the broker ignores it, that is one more dated document for the bond claim.

How to report a freight broker not paying to FMCSA

Complaints go through the NCCDB, and the agency's filing instructions lay out the steps. Go to nccdb.fmcsa.dot.gov, choose your filer category, and complete the form. Or call 1-888-DOT-SAFT (1-888-368-7238), 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday. FleetOwner reports that the revamped NCCDB has, for the first time, a category specifically for broker complaints. Older coverage describes payment complaints landing under a general commercial category. Look at the live form and pick the broker-specific option if it is there.

Enter the broker's USDOT and MC numbers exactly as they appear on the rate confirmation, not as the email signature shows them. If the two differ, say so in the narrative; you might have been dealing with someone using another company's authority. Keep the narrative factual: pickup date, lane, agreed rate, invoice date, amount owed, and each contact attempt.

After review, the agency tells you whether the complaint is actionable or non-actionable. Know what that does and does not mean. On its NCCDB page, the agency says it uses complaints, along with other sources, to decide which companies to investigate. Its complaint FAQs say the complaint stays in the company's file as part of its permanent record. Some articles claim a complaint will "trigger audits, fines, and revocation." No agency source cited here says that.

Its financial responsibility FAQs state that it does not act as an intermediary in payment disputes between outside parties, including disputes over surety bonds and trust funds. File the complaint to build the broker's file and feed investigation selection. Put your collection effort into the bond claim, filed the same day.

Claiming on the broker's bond or trust fund

Under 49 CFR 387.307, a broker must keep a $75,000 surety bond or trust fund in effect: a bond on Form BMC-84, a trust fund on Form BMC-85. The revised section is effective January 16, 2026. Articles often blur this date with the 2023 final rule and later delays, so go by the regulation text. The eCFR text states the purpose: payments to shippers or motor carriers if the broker fails to carry out its contracts, agreements, or arrangements. Trust fund assets are limited to cash, irrevocable letters of credit from a federally insured depository institution, and Treasury bonds.

Your steps:

  • Look up the broker's authority on the agency's licensing and insurance site. Note whether the filing is a BMC-84 or BMC-85, and the provider's name.
  • Ask the surety or trust fund provider, in writing, for its claim form and submission address.
  • Submit the claim with the full file from the first section: rate confirmation, BOL, POD, invoice, and correspondence.
  • Calendar the broker's response window, described below, and follow up the day after it closes.

The regulation gives the broker a defined window. The surety must notify the agency when a paid claim drops the bond below $75,000, including a payment where the broker did not respond within 7 business days on whether the claim was valid and the surety found it valid. A silent broker cannot stall your claim forever. Sources conflict on whether the window is business or calendar days. The retrieved eCFR text uses 7 business days for the broker's response and for the suspension notice, and 7 calendar days for liquidating trust assets. Read the full section before you count days.

That window binds the broker, not the surety's investigation. Ask the surety in writing for its timeline, and do not plan cash flow around a figure from a bond seller or factoring blog.

When the bond is short: suspension, 60 days, and interpleader

Once a paid claim takes the bond below $75,000, the agency gives the broker written notice. Per the regulation text, its authority will be suspended within 7 business days of service unless it cures the shortfall. If a broker you work with is suspended, stop tendering to it that day.

The harder problem: $75,000 is one pool, shared by every unpaid trucking company and shipper, and a broker that stops paying rarely stiffs just one party. After a financial failure or insolvency notice, Subpart C requires the surety or financial institution to accept claims for 60 calendar days, starting at the agency's public notification in the FMCSA Register. Miss that window and you could be outside the pool entirely.

When claims exceed the bond, the agency notes in the Federal Register that the provider will often submit them to a court in an interpleader action, and the court decides how to split the bond or trust fund. Each claimant can recover less than the full invoice, and the split waits on the court. The circulating "cents on the dollar" story comes from a 2016 public comment, not a verified figure. Treat it as a warning about the structure, not a payout rate.

If you hear that a broker who owes you has stopped paying others, file your bond claim immediately instead of waiting out your net terms. Then search the FMCSA Register for a failure notice to see whether the 60-day clock has started.

Going to court, and the deadlines that matter

The bond is not the only remedy. Under 49 U.S.C. § 14704(a)(2), a carrier or broker is liable for damages a person sustains from an act or omission that violates that part of the statute. Nothing cited here settles whether that fits a plain unpaid freight bill. For most nonpayment cases, the practical court claim is breach of the rate confirmation as a contract.

The deadline that catches truckers comes from a secondary mirror of 49 U.S.C. § 14705(a): a carrier must begin a civil action to recover charges within 18 months after the claim accrues. Confirm the current text with counsel, and do not let a slow bond process run you past that date.

One recent case gets misapplied in nonpayment threads. In Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC (U.S. May 14, 2026), the Supreme Court unanimously held that the FAAAA does not preempt state-law negligent hiring claims brought over freight brokers' choices. It is a negligent carrier selection case and creates no payment remedy. If you are weighing a lawsuit, bring counsel the dated file and the claim's accrual date, and get an answer on § 14705 timing before the bond claim resolves.

The nonpayment call that is really about who hauled your freight

Sometimes the unpaid party is a trucking company you never heard of, asking when you will pay. You tendered the shipment to one MC number. Someone rebooked it on a load board, and the truck at the dock belonged to a different company that billed a "broker" who does not exist. If the roles are unclear, see how the broker and carrier relationship is supposed to work. Here, the party who never paid is also the reason you did not know who was at the dock.

Compare the MC number on your rate confirmation to the one on the signed BOL. Review the driver and tractor information your dispatcher logged at pickup. Hold payment on that shipment until the party you contracted with explains, in writing, who hauled it. Documents requested now, while memories are fresh, save weeks if the trucking company files a complaint or bond claim naming your company.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can one broker file a bond claim against another broker that won't pay?

The regulation states the bond's purpose as payments to shippers or motor carriers. Nothing cited here confirms a broker as an eligible claimant on a co-brokered shipment. Ask the surety whether it will accept your claim, and get the answer in writing. If it declines, the rate confirmation is still a contract you can enforce in court.

Should I wait for FMCSA to rule my complaint actionable before filing a bond claim?

No. The NCCDB complaint and the bond claim are independent, and the agency does not mediate payment or bond disputes. File both at once. Waiting on the complaint review only costs days, possibly inside a 60-day claim window if the broker fails.