For licensed property brokers, freight forwarders & 3PLs
Insurance built for the freight broker, not the truck.
Your carriers are insured. You are the one holding the shipper’s claim when their policy doesn’t answer. We place the four coverages that decide whether that claim is an inconvenience or an existential event — and the bond that keeps your authority active.
Complete submissions typically return indications in 2–4 business days.
Coverages
What insurance does a freight broker need?
Four lines carry a brokerage. Contingent cargo and contingent auto liability catch what your carriers’ policies don’t. Broker liability and E&O cover your own judgment. A $75,000 bond or trust keeps your authority alive. Written together or separately, depending on what your contracts and your shippers actually require.
Submission
What underwriters will ask for.
None of this is a surprise to a market. Having it ready is the single biggest difference between a two-day turnaround and a two-week one.
- MC and DOT numbers — plus authority type and how long it has been active.
- Five years of loss runs — valued within 60 days of your requested effective date.
- Your broker–carrier agreement — the template you actually use, not a sample off the internet.
- Revenue — gross freight revenue for the trailing 12 months and your projection for the next 12.
- Load profile — average loads per month, average load value, and the share of loads over $100K, $250K and $500K.
- Carrier vetting procedure — what you check, on what platform, who can approve an exception, and how often you re-vet.
- Equipment and commodities — what you move, and anything you refuse to move.
- Geography — your top five states and lane corridors.
Process
Three steps, in this order.
You submit
Fifteen minutes on the form, or forward the application you already filled out for someone else. We’ll tell you within a day if anything is missing.
We market it
We take the risk to the carriers that actually write freight brokers — admitted where it fits, surplus lines where it doesn’t — and come back with real indications, not a range.
You bind
We walk the terms with you, flag the exclusions that matter for your commodities and lanes, and get the filings and certificates issued.
For the carriers in your network
Send us the truckers you trust.
You already know which carriers in your book run clean equipment and keep their filings current. We are a retail agency: we place their primary auto liability, cargo and physical damage with the markets that write trucking — and a properly covered carrier is one less contingent claim landing on your desk.
- Primary auto liability — the $1,000,000 filing your broker–carrier agreement requires of them anyway.
- Motor truck cargo — written properly, so your contingent policy stays a backstop instead of becoming the payer.
- Physical damage, trailer interchange, non-trucking liability — the rest of what a small fleet actually needs.
- Certificates sent where you need them — to you and to the shipper, without three days of chasing.
- No referral fee — we do not pay commissions to brokers. We work the account directly with the carrier. The relationship stays yours.
Questions
What freight brokers ask us first.
Do I need a BMC-84 bond, a BMC-85 trust, or both?
One or the other, never both. FMCSA requires $75,000 in financial responsibility from every licensed property broker and freight forwarder, satisfied by either a BMC-84 surety bond or a BMC-85 trust fund filed on your behalf. Most brokers use the bond because it does not tie up $75,000 in cash.
Isn’t the bond the same thing as insurance?
No, and this is the most expensive misunderstanding in the business. The BMC-84 protects the shippers and motor carriers you do business with. If the surety pays a claim on your bond, you have to pay the surety back — in full. Contingent cargo, contingent auto liability and E&O are what protect your own balance sheet.
My carriers already carry cargo and auto liability. Why do I need contingent coverage?
Because their policy is only as good as the day of the loss. Coverage lapses, gets cancelled for non-payment, excludes the commodity, or the carrier’s insurer denies for a reason outside your control — and the shipper still comes to you. Contingent coverage is what stands between that denial and your own money.
How fast can you turn a submission around?
A complete submission — MC number, five years of loss runs valued within 60 days, your broker–carrier agreement and projected revenue — usually comes back with indications in two to four business days. Incomplete ones take longer, which is the main reason the form asks for as much as it does. If you’re working against a deadline, say so in the notes or call 415-623-5176.
We’re a brand new authority. Can you still help?
Yes, though the market is thinner and underwriters lean harder on the owner’s prior industry experience, the written carrier vetting policy and projected revenue. Tell us the whole story in the notes field — a new authority run by a fifteen-year operator reads very differently from a true startup.
Tell us about your operation.
Fifteen minutes now saves a week later. If you’d rather talk it through first, call — you’ll get a person who knows what a BMC-84 is.