Broker authority renewal · Carrier compliance
Renew your MC authority — surety bond, BOC-3, and UCR, on one calendar.
Mileafi tracks the FMCSA docket for the 1–50 truck fleet. We track the MC number, the $75K surety bond on Form BMC-84, the BOC-3 process agent, and the biennial UCR — so a lapsed bond or a missed December 31 never catches you at the scale.
What renewal requires
Four filings keep your MC number legal to operate.
None of these are optional; skip any one and the docket flips. Each lives on its own cycle — the bond renews on the surety provider’s calendar, UCR lands every other December 31, the BOC-3 lives until you change agents.
MC-001
An active MC number
MC authority begins with an MC number issued by FMCSA. Property carriers file Form MCS-150 (biennial update); household goods and passenger carriers file Form OP-1 to apply. The MC number is what brokers and shippers check — your USDOT number alone will not let you broker loads.
MC-002
Surety bond on file
Property-carrying brokers post a $75,000 surety bond (Form BMC-84). Passenger-carrying brokers post a $10,000 bond on Form BMC-85. The bond must be active for the life of the authority — a lapsed bond silently takes your MC inactive, without a separate reminder from FMCSA.
MC-003
BOC-3 process agent
Every MC-authorized carrier designates a process agent in each state it operates through, via Form BOC-3. The agent receives legal service on your behalf. Remove a state you no longer serve — FMCSA does not check whether you actually still operate there, but roadside inspection does.
MC-004
Biennial UCR registration
Unified Carrier Registration is paid every two years and is due on December 31 of each even-numbered year. The fee scales with fleet size. Late payment stacks a state assessment on top of the registration fee; chasing the assessment is what bites the small carrier, not the registration itself.
Track it on a deadline calendar
Push your MC renewal onto Mileafi’s broker authority track — once your MC number and bond tier are seeded, the four filings above appear as a single deadline board, with a 30-day, 14-day, and 72-hour alert on each.
Common pitfalls
The three things that flip an MC authority out from under a small fleet.
Each of these is a filing the docket reflects — the consequence never arrives through FMCSA, only through a load, a roadside inspection, or a billing statement.
PITFALL-01
The surety bond lapsed — and the MC went inactive without a warning
Surety bonds run on the surety provider’s cycle, not FMCSA’s. When the bond fails to renew, the FMCSA docket flips the MC to inactive within days — and there is no separate notice. A dormant MC still appears in the SAFER system; what changes is whether you can legally broker a load.
PITFALL-02
UCR was missed because it is biennial, not annual
UCR due dates land on December 31 every two years, and many small carriers set their reminder on the off-year. The base fee is rarely the actual cost — most states layer a non-payment assessment that doubles what you owed before you ever sat down to pay it.
PITFALL-03
BOC-3 process agent is gone, and roadside caught it
A BOC-3 process agent can change address, close, or simply stop accepting service. FMCSA does not chase this; roadside inspection does. An out-of-service order at the scale is the first time most small carriers learn their BOC-3 is out of date.
FAQ
The questions brokers raise before they sign the renewal.
Anyone can quote a fee — what you need is the order of operations: which filing triggers which docket state, and what to do first when something flips. These are the five that come up most often on the broker authority track.
Page URL: mileafi.com/broker-authority-renewal
Ready when you are
Start with Mileafi’s broker authority track.
Sign up, drop in your MC number and bond tier, and the matching filings light up inside your account. The 30 / 14 / 72-hour alert cadence is on by default; you can hand off the filing or do it yourself — Mileafi gives you the audit-ready packet either way.