Broker liability basics for carrier selection

due diligence is a file, not a feeling

Broker liability after a cargo loss or a fraud event turns on what you checked, when, and whether the carrier you dispatched was the carrier you vetted. 49 CFR Part 371 is the broker rule set. It is not a substitute for a documented check.

A claimant will read the folder. "We usually look them up" is not a dated L&I screen. "The board was green" is not QCMobile. Write the work.

You cannot contract out of a check you advertised and skipped. Do not advertise a check you did not perform.

If a tool looked green and you skipped L&I, write that you skipped L&I. Then do not skip it next time. The honest file is ugly and usable. The pretty file that omitted a door is the one that fails in a dispute.

what 371 actually requires of brokers

Part 371 sets broker recordkeeping, transaction records, and rules against misleading parties. It does not replace motor-carrier authority rules in Part 365 or insurance rules in Part 387.

Keep records of the transaction: parties, rates, and the carrier you used. Keep the identity of that carrier aligned with FMCSA. A rate con that names a different company than the check is a file that works against you.

This page is desk practice, not a legal opinion. Your counsel owns the lawsuit language. Your desk owns the timestamps.

Transaction records under Part 371 are not the same as a vetting file, but they should not contradict it. The carrier on the transaction record should be the carrier on L&I that night.

the minimum file on a covered load

Dated L&I screen. QCMobile snapshot. Rate con. The phone you called. If you skipped L&I because a tool looked green, that is the file a claimant will read.

Match legal name, MC, and DOT across those documents. If a factoring NOA is in play, it names the same entity. If a dispatch service sat on the call, the motor carrier is still the carrier on the paper.

Authority type must fit the lane. Insurance filings must fit 49 CFR 387.9 for the commodity. Cargo is separate and contractual. Record both liability stories.

identity failures are liability failures

If the person who picked up was not the MC you vetted, the check on the original MC does not describe the haul. Double-broker and identity-theft files look like this: good snapshot, wrong truck.

Callback to the census telephone and driver acknowledgement before pickup are how you keep the file honest. After-hours shortcuts that skip identity are how the file goes empty.

Do not hide a mismatch in chat. Put it in the denial note or the load note. The next cover decision needs it.

what not to tell a shipper

Do not recite an SMS percentile as a safety rating. Do not claim continuous monitoring you do not run. Do not invent a shared-phone count.

Say what you opened and when. Say what failed closed. Short sentences. Facts, then meaning.

If you used a lookup tool, say you pulled the public census record and opened L&I. Do not call it a government certification.

consistency beats heroics

A written desk rule — 30-day re-check, first-time after hours fail closed, L&I on every interstate cover — is easier to defend than a brilliant exception you cannot reconstruct.

Denied-carrier notes that cite system, field, and date help the next broker apply the same rule. "Looks sketchy" does not.

When you make an exception, write why. Exceptions without notes are how two similar loads get two opposite covers and no explanation.

cargo, liability, and contingent policies are three files

Public liability on L&I is the federal BI&PD filing. Cargo is usually a commercial policy you require by contract. A broker contingent cargo policy is yours, not the carrier's. A loss file that mixes the three is hard to defend and hard to claim on.

If you told the shipper the carrier had cargo and you only have BI&PD, that sentence is the problem. Record the cargo limit and named insured, or do not claim the cover exists.

Fraud losses (wrong MC at the dock) are identity failures first. Insurance arguments come after. The dated census callback is the document that shows you tried to dispatch the vetted entity.

Keep the same names on the agreement, the rate con, the check, and the payment. Four names for one haul is how a claimant shows you did not know who you hired.

desk checklist

• Every covered load has a dated authority and insurance check.
• Rate con identity matches that check.
• Census phone call is noted when identity was in question or the carrier is first-time.
• Do not advertise a check you did not perform.
• Lane authority type matches this shipment's commerce.
• BI&PD and cargo recorded as separate lines.

what belongs in the load file

• Dated L&I screen.
• QCMobile snapshot with checked-at time.
• Rate confirmation.
• Note of the census telephone called, when identity work was done.

fail closed

• No dated L&I check on an interstate for-hire cover.
• Rate con names a different entity than the snapshot.
• You described monitoring or a database you do not have.
• Pickup identity not confirmed and the carrier is not a known, recently checked relationship.