The Freight Broker Bond (BMC-84): Renewal, Cancellation and the 30-Day Clock
When is your bond actually due?
Free check — enter the expiry and we work the whole renewal window backwards from it.
What the requirement actually is
Property brokers and freight forwarders operating under FMCSA authority must keep $75,000 of financial security on file. The authority is 49 U.S.C. 13906; the $75,000 level was set by MAP-21. It is filed one of two ways: a BMC-84 surety bond, or a BMC-85 trust fund agreement in which the money is actually deposited with a financial institution.
Nearly everyone files a BMC-84, because a BMC-85 means putting $75,000 in cash somewhere it cannot work for you. The bond is the credit product: you pay a premium — a percentage of the $75,000 set on your credit and financials — and the surety stands behind the full amount.
This one is genuinely the same in every state
Almost nothing else in surety is uniform nationally. Contractor licence bond amounts, dealer bond amounts, notary bond requirements, mortgage bond calculations — all state law, all different. The broker bond is the exception. The $75,000 does not change when you move, incorporate elsewhere or add lanes. What can sit on top of it is a state-level broker or transportation-broker registration, and those do vary.
Who claims against it
Motor carriers and shippers, when the broker does not pay. This matters more than the dollar figure suggests, because the claims are visible. A broker with claims filed against the bond finds carriers checking before they accept a load, and load coverage tightens well before the surety takes any formal step. The bond is a public credit signal in a market that watches credit obsessively.
There is no expiry date to track
The BMC-84 is continuous: it stays on file with FMCSA until it is cancelled. There is no term end printed on the form, which sounds convenient and is in fact the problem. There is nothing for a calendar reminder to attach to. The only recurring event is the premium invoice, and the only signal that something has gone wrong is a cancellation filing you did not want.
| Stage | When | What is actually happening |
|---|---|---|
| Re-underwriting | ~90 days before term end | The surety pulls credit and financials again and prices the renewal. A changed credit picture, a new judgment or a bad year shows up here — which is the whole argument for finding out 90 days out rather than 9. |
| Renewal premium due | ~45 days before term end | A continuous bond stays in force on payment. Non-payment is the single most common cause of a cancellation filing, and it is almost always an invoice sent to a stale address rather than a decision. |
| Cancellation notice period | Set by the bond form or the state statute, commonly 30 to 60 days. Read yours — this is the number that decides whether a missed invoice becomes a suspended licence. | A surety cannot simply walk away. It cancels by written notice to the state contractor licensing board, and the obligee acts on that notice — the clock is running at the regulator before it is running with you. |
| Term end | The date on the bond | Past this the licence or authority behind the bond is exposed. |
| Reinstatement | After lapse | Generally not a late renewal but a new filing: new bond, new application, penalties, and a rate that reflects the lapse. Budget weeks, not days. |
The 30 days after a cancellation filing
If the surety files a cancellation, FMCSA notifies the broker and revokes the operating authority 30 days later unless replacement security is on file. Thirty days sounds like room. It is not, for a specific reason: the most common cause of a cancellation filing is non-payment, and the most common cause of non-payment is a credit or financial problem the surety already saw. So the broker who needs a replacement bond in 30 days is frequently a broker whom the next surety will also look at carefully, and underwriting a new BMC-84 from a standing start — application, credit pull, indemnity agreement, filing — is not a same-week exercise.
Meanwhile, a revoked MC number is not a quiet administrative state. Load boards de-list revoked authority. Carriers check it. Shippers' onboarding systems check it. The phone stops ringing for reasons nobody explains, and re-establishing the relationships takes longer than re-establishing the authority.
What to actually do
- Diary the premium date, not an expiry date — because there is no expiry date.
- Confirm the billing address and contact email with the surety once a year. Most cancellation filings trace back to an invoice nobody received.
- Watch your own credit, since that is what the renewal is priced on.
- If you hold state-level broker registrations too, track those separately — they have their own renewal cycles.
See freight broker bond renewal by state, or run the free renewal check.
Frequently asked
How much is the freight broker bond?
The required financial security is $75,000 under 49 U.S.C. 13906, set at that level by MAP-21. That is the bond amount, not the premium — the premium is a percentage of it set by the surety on your credit and financials.
What is the difference between a BMC-84 and a BMC-85?
A BMC-84 is a surety bond: you pay a premium and the surety stands behind the $75,000. A BMC-85 is a trust fund agreement in which the $75,000 is actually deposited with a financial institution.
What happens if my freight broker bond is cancelled?
FMCSA notifies the broker and revokes operating authority 30 days after the surety files the cancellation, unless replacement security is on file before then. Load boards de-list revoked authority.
Stop tracking renewals by hand
Free renewal check, then alerts at 90, 60, 30 and 7 days on every bond, licence and certificate you hold.
← All guides · Bonds by type and state →
Try BondWatch free for 14 days
Start with the free renewal-deadline check; BondWatch then tracks every bond, licence and certificate renewal and drafts the reminders. 14-day trial, no card.
Try BondWatch free for 14 days →