Broker fee versus what the carrier is paid

The total you pay to ship a car often splits into two amounts: a broker fee, and the freight charge the carrier is paid to haul the car. People meet that split after a deposit, when a carrier is finally named and the freight number is not the one in the ad. Ask for both numbers before you pay.

A broker is a person who, for compensation, arranges or offers to arrange transportation of property by an authorized motor carrier (49 CFR 371.2). The carrier is the company whose truck moves the car. A broker does not become a carrier because the website shows a photo of a trailer. Advertising has to show broker status, and a broker must not represent itself as the carrier (49 CFR 371.7).

RideShipper is neither. World Media Group LLC operates a free comparison and quote-request service. Customers do not pay RideShipper, and RideShipper does not take a deposit or a percent of the freight. A company that receives your request may pay RideShipper for the introduction. That is not a broker fee inside your shipping price. The contract you sign is with the company that books the load, not with RideShipper. If you ask for quotes, you give your name, email, and phone and tick a consent box. Licensed auto transport companies that serve the route then contact you. How that request works is on what a comparison site can promise.

What the broker has to write down#

For each shipment, a broker's record must show, among other things:

• The name and address of the consignor (the customer sending the car).
• The name, address, and registration number of the originating motor carrier.
• The bill of lading or freight bill number.
• The amount of compensation the broker received for the brokerage, and who paid it.
• Any other service the broker performed, what it was paid for that service, and who paid.
• The amount of any freight charges the broker collected, and the date those charges were paid to the carrier.

The broker keeps that record for three years. Each party to the transaction has a right to review it (49 CFR 371.3). You do not have to guess the split. Ask for the carrier's name and registration number, the broker's fee, and the freight charge. If the company will not say, you are deciding without the record the rule describes.

A broker may not provide the transportation itself unless it is also separately registered as a motor carrier (49 USC 13904). Some firms hold both. The contract should say which hat the firm is wearing on this load. The comparison is broker versus carrier.

Why the fee and the freight show up at different times#

Common industry practice works like this. You get a total. You pay a deposit or a booking fee to the broker. The broker looks for a carrier willing to take the car for a share of that total. If a carrier accepts, you should see a dispatch with the carrier's name and the rate. If no carrier accepts, the broker comes back for a higher freight number, and the deposit is already paid.

That sequence is not, by itself, against the broker definition. It is how people lose the ability to walk away. Read the cancellation line before the deposit: what is refundable if no carrier is ever assigned, and what is kept after one is assigned. There is no federal dollar amount for that deposit. The cancellation clause controls.

FMCSA's final guidance of June 16, 2023 says that handling money exchanged between shippers and motor carriers is one factor that strongly suggests the need for broker authority, but it is not an essential requirement for someone to be a broker. The same guidance says that merely making information about potential shippers publicly available, whether or not a fee is charged, does not require broker authority if that entity is not otherwise involved in any transaction between the shipper and a motor carrier (Federal Register, June 16, 2023). A comparison site that only introduces you is in that second description. A company that takes your freight charge and pays the truck is in the first.

The bond is not the carrier's pay#

To be registered, a broker must have a surety bond or trust of $75,000, on Form BMC-84 or BMC-85 (49 CFR 387.307). The section in the eCFR text is effective January 16, 2026. The security provides for payments to shippers or motor carriers if the broker fails to carry out its contracts, agreements, or arrangements for the supplying of transportation. Other claims can also be paid from that same $75,000. It is not the money set aside to pay your carrier, and it is not insurance on the car. Do not hear "$75,000 bond" as "my car is covered for $75,000."

Check the broker's authority and the carrier's authority as two lookups, not one. The company check is the place to start. A dispatch that names a carrier you cannot find is not a completed split. It is a reason to pause.

What to ask before you request quotes#

When you do ask companies to contact you, you are not hiring RideShipper to broker the load. You will still need the split from whichever company you book. Use the questions above on their order. The range you saw first is only a check on whether the total, fee plus freight, sits in a plausible band for the lane.