What you’ll learn
32 self-paced lessons · One-time price · Certificate of completion · Access never expires
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This course covers where dispatching ends and brokering begins for interstate transportation of regulated freight: why there is no federal dispatcher license, and how the statute and the regulation each define a broker; what a carrier's bona fide agent is, and why allocating traffic between carriers is at the center of it; FMCSA's 2023 guidance, with its nine signs of a bona fide agent and seven signs that broker authority is needed; what a written dispatcher and carrier agreement should cover; the penalties for unauthorized brokering, who can be liable, how enforcement actually works, and why the coercion rule reaches dispatchers; and an overview of registering as a broker. State rules and moves entirely within one state are not covered. The course is organized into six modules of short lessons, followed by a final quiz.
Broker, carrier, dispatcher and agent
5 lessons
- 1There is no dispatcher license
- 2Three kinds of registration, and dispatcher is not one
- 3What the statute calls a broker
- 4What the regulation calls a broker, and the carrier's own loads
- 5The bona fide agent
The signs you are a carrier's bona fide agent
6 lessons
- 1What the guidance is, and how to read it
- 2Allocating traffic is the center of it
- 3One carrier, or more than one
- 4The written appointment
- 5Brokers only, and your carrier only
- 6The money
The signs you need broker authority
6 lessons
- 1The seven signs, and the sentence that says "must"
- 2Dealing with shippers
- 3Taking money from the broker or factoring company
- 4Choosing which carrier gets the load
- 5Booking a load before you have a truck
- 6Load boards
The dispatcher and carrier agreement
4 lessons
- 1Put it in writing, and say what it is
- 2Pay from the carrier, set in advance
- 3Scope, direction and disclosure
- 4Logins, records, and what to take to a lawyer
Penalties and enforcement
5 lessons
- 1The prohibition and the numbers
- 2Who is liable
- 3How enforcement actually happens
- 4The coercion rule, and other safety rules, reach dispatchers
- 5Pending bills and a petition, as of September 2026
Registering as a broker, and where people go wrong
6 lessons
- 1Who FMCSA registers as a broker
- 2Applying through Motus
- 3The $75,000 bond or trust, and process agents
- 4Once you are registered
- 5Where dispatchers and carriers actually go wrong
- 6What you can do now
Final Quiz
Covers the whole course