Dispatcher or Broker? Check Who Is Arranging the Load

The definitions behind the guidance

Under 49 CFR 371.2, bona fide agents are persons who are part of a carrier’s normal organization and perform duties under its direction under a preexisting agreement for a continuing relationship, precluding the agent from exercising discretion in allocating traffic between the carrier and others. A broker is a person who, for compensation, arranges or offers to arrange transportation by an authorized motor carrier.

FMCSA’s guidance applies those definitions: a dispatch service that arranges transportation for several carriers and allocates traffic among them is not a bona fide agent and must obtain broker authority. The guide to double brokering covers the related definitions and the arrangements that put a second company between a tender and a truck.

Sources: 49 CFR 371.2: broker and bona fide agent definitions; FMCSA: Definitions of Broker and Bona Fide Agents, final guidance (88 FR 39368, June 16, 2023)

Factors that point to an agent

FMCSA lists factors that generally indicate a dispatch service is a bona fide agent and does not need broker authority. The list is not exhaustive and a dispatcher need not meet every factor:

• A written contract appoints it as the carrier’s agent, often long-term, and states insurance and liability responsibilities.
• It goes through a broker to arrange shipments and does not solicit shippers.
• It is paid by the carrier under that contract, not by the broker, a 3PL or a factoring company, and is not an intermediary in the payment between broker and carrier.
• It discloses that it is a dispatch service working for a specific carrier and arranges the load for that carrier only.
• It does not reassign the load to another carrier.

Sources: FMCSA: Definitions of Broker and Bona Fide Agents, final guidance (88 FR 39368, June 16, 2023)

Factors that point to broker authority

Under 49 U.S.C. 14916, a person providing interstate brokerage without registration and financial security is liable for civil penalties and for valid claims of injured parties. FMCSA’s guidance says a dispatch service found to be providing unauthorized brokerage is subject to those penalties. Suspected unauthorized brokerage can be reported to FMCSA as a property broker complaint.

FMCSA lists the opposite factors as indicating the dispatch service should obtain broker authority:

• It negotiates any shipment directly with a shipper or the shipper’s representative.
• It takes compensation for a load from the broker or a factoring company, or is involved in the payment between them.
• It arranges freight for a carrier without a written contract appointing it as agent.
• It accepts a shipment without a truck and then looks for one.
• It accepts a shipment that more than one of its carriers could haul and assigns it to one of them.
• It is a named party on the shipping contract, or solicits the open market of carriers.

Sources: FMCSA: Definitions of Broker and Bona Fide Agents, final guidance (88 FR 39368, June 16, 2023); 49 U.S.C. 14916: unlawful brokerage activities; FMCSA: Eligible complaints for the National Consumer Complaint Database

What a broker can check

Contract with and pay the carrier, not the dispatcher. A request to pay a dispatcher directly is itself one of FMCSA’s broker-authority factors, and any change of payee should go through the independent verification described in the guide to a change in payment instructions.

Confirm the appointment with the carrier at the phone number on its FMCSA record, not the number the dispatcher supplied, as FMCSA’s fraud guidance recommends. Ask which carriers the dispatcher works for: a dispatcher offering the same load to whichever of several carriers is free is allocating traffic. Then check the carrier’s authority status for the role on this load, as described in the guide to carrier authority statuses.

Sources: FMCSA: Definitions of Broker and Bona Fide Agents, final guidance (88 FR 39368, June 16, 2023); FMCSA: Broker and carrier fraud and identity theft

When the dispatcher holds broker authority

A dispatch company that holds its own broker authority is a broker for loads it arranges that way, and the arrangement is co-brokering. Check its broker authority status and its bond or trust, as the guide to the 2026 broker financial-responsibility rules describes, and record which company holds which role.

An illustrative note: “Dispatcher called for Carrier A; Carrier A confirmed at FMCSA-listed number that dispatcher is its contracted agent, paid by A. Rate confirmation and payment to Carrier A. Dispatcher does not hold broker authority; none needed on these facts.”

Sources: FMCSA June 2026 FAQ; FMCSA: Definitions of Broker and Bona Fide Agents, final guidance (88 FR 39368, June 16, 2023)