Dispatch Services for Truckers May Require Brokerage Authority

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is going to provide clarification upon the agency's  interpretation of "bona fide agents" and "brokers." All regarding the role of dispatch service, being that it connects to broker-bonding and additionally regulatory requirements in trucking. All as the agency had looked for public comment, early on through the year. This is definitely an interesting update to the age old operations of the trucking industry. The FMCSA is looking for comments in a responsive manner to the guidance while issuing more guidance, should comments demonstrate a need. All this guidance comes as a response to the requirements issued by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This is therefore asking the FMCSA to issue guidance that would clarify the defining terms. The guidance is asking for consideration into how the technology may change the nature of freight brokerage, as well as motor carriers' bona fide agents and additional forms of trucking.

As of now, the FMCSA is possibly underneath a microscope.

To examine the role of dispatch service, to such an extent where the dispatch services may be considered brokers or bona fide agents. Therefore, to clarify financial penalties for unauthorized brokerages while otherwise operating via dispatch services while not meeting bonding and additional brokerage requirements. Of course, this doesn't mean everything is changing with oversight. On a fundamental level, there's nothing changed in regards to the U.S. Code-codified and ragulatory measures may constitute what being a bona fide agent or broker actually means when working on a motor carrier. The agency's guidance therefore puts a newfound emphasis on intermediary brokers' money exchange or handling between a shipper or a motor carrier. With dispatch services, the guidance in the interim is trying hard at defining what is clearly absent in U.S. code as well as in regulartion, while offering two sets of factors for players within the multi-carrier dispatch-service space to think about. In any case, the handling of money between shippers and carriers can fluctuate. The FMCSA themselves believe that it's a factor that suggests a need for broker authority, while not being a total requirement for one to consider themselves a broker. It's actually crucial, really. Through the definition of being a "bona fide agent," the FMCSA notes that plenty of commenters seem to have a self-inflated idea of what it means to be a bona fide agents. The FMCSA however, doesn't always agree, with the statement that just because there's representation for more than one motor carrier, it doesn't mean that one can be for a broker, instead of for a bona fide agent. Bona Fides don't really represent just one carrier alone. Trucking continually changes with the impression that truckers should have more rights. And that's a positive way of viewing it. Because honestly, the way the trucking community is, it's important to just make sure that the commercial drivers are deserving of the best rights in logistics. Brokers, truckers and dispatch services all deserve to be treated in every equal respect.