Freight Broker Authority Data: FMCSA Numbers 2019 to 2026

Between 2022 and 2025, the number of new freight broker authorities FMCSA granted each year fell by more than half. That isn't a rumor from a LinkedIn thread. It's in the agency's own public files, and so is the rest of the story below.

The short version: what FMCSA's records show

FMCSA recorded fewer new brokers than revocations in each of the last three full years. Its records show 3,875 new broker authorities granted in 2025, down 56% from 8,878 in 2022, while 4,823 were revoked. Revocations peaked at 8,694 in 2023. For shippers, the takeaway is simple: verify a broker's authority and bond on FMCSA's records before every new lane.

Here is the year-by-year picture for broker authority (property and household goods brokers combined):

Source: FMCSA authority history and revocation files on data.transportation.gov, pulled October 9, 2026. The last column is our own subtraction of the two FMCSA counts, not an FMCSA figure.

A few things stand out.

New grants peaked in 2022 and have dropped every year since. The 2025 total is 56% below that peak and 16% below 2019.

Revocations peaked a year later. The 2023 count of 8,694 was about 38% higher than 2022. By 2025 it had fallen nearly 45% from that peak, though it's still about 42% above 2019.

And for three years running (2023, 2024 and 2025), more broker authorities were revoked than granted. Add up the gaps and you get 6,837 more going out than coming in. That comes with a caveat, covered below.

First, here is exactly how we pulled these numbers, so you can check them yourself.

How we pulled these numbers

Everything here comes from datasets FMCSA publishes on the Department of Transportation's open data portal. Three of them matter:

Authority history is where the "new authorities granted" counts come from. We counted records where the first action on a broker docket was "GRANTED," grouped by the year of that action. That includes property brokers and household goods brokers.

Revocations is where the revocation counts come from. We counted broker records by the year the revocation took effect. FMCSA's data dictionary defines the effective date as the date the revocation takes hold, and the serve date as the day the first revocation letter went out. Those two dates are about a month apart, so we used the effective date.

Carrier, all with history is the snapshot of who held authority when the file was frozen.

We made three choices along the way.

We counted involuntary revocations only. The revocation file also lists voluntary ones (11,760 broker records across all years), but it almost never gives them an effective date. Across 2019 to 2025, only two broker records of that kind carry one, so we can't place the rest in a year. We left them all out rather than guess.

We counted actions on docket numbers, not companies. A company can hold more than one docket, and a revoked authority can come back. FMCSA's authority history logs 1,169 reinstatements of broker authority in 2023, 1,242 in 2024 and 1,077 in 2025. So the "granted minus revoked" column is not the change in the number of live brokers. It compares two event counts.

And we stopped where the data stops. FMCSA's own descriptions on the older files say they were last refreshed on May 14, 2026 and will no longer be updated. That's why 2026 is a partial year. Please don't read that row as a full-year trend. We haven't projected it, and nobody quoting this post should either.

When the file froze, 25,081 dockets in the carrier file showed active broker authority. Treat that as a snapshot of dockets, not a headcount of companies.

Check our math yourself

You don't need to take our word for any of this. Click either link below and your browser shows FMCSA's own count as plain text. Change 2025 in the address bar to see another year.

Broker revocations that took effect in 2025 (it returns 4,823).

Broker authorities granted in 2025 (it returns 3,875).

These only work as long as FMCSA keeps the older files online. If a link ever stops working, the dataset pages above will show where FMCSA moved them.

What changed between 2019 and 2025

The big intake years: 2021 and 2022

Grants nearly doubled from 2019 to 2022, going from 4,613 to 8,878. In both 2021 and 2022, FMCSA granted more than 8,800 new broker authorities.

The file tells us how many were granted. It doesn't tell us who got them or what happened to them afterward.

The 2023 revocation peak

In 2023, 8,694 broker authorities were revoked, up from 6,322 the year before. 2024 stayed high at 7,571. Then 2025 dropped to 4,823.

Why does a broker lose authority? The federal rule gives one clear reason to watch. Under 49 CFR 387.307, a broker must have a surety bond or trust fund of $75,000 in effect. FMCSA won't register a broker without one, and the registration lasts only while that bond or fund stays in place. A bond can be cancelled only on 30 days' written notice to FMCSA.

So a lapsed bond is one way a broker can lose authority. But the revocation file has no reason column, so we can't say how many of those 8,694 were bond-related, insurance-related or something else. Any percentage you see for the cause needs its own source, and we haven't found one.

For scale, there's a precedent. When the bond limit rose from $10,000 to $75,000 in 2013, DC Velocity reported that nearly 8,200 brokers had their licenses revoked over about a month, roughly 38 percent of the 21,000 or so brokers then in business. According to the same article, the Transportation Intermediaries Association said many of those authorities were already stale or duplicates.

That's a fair reminder that a revocation count and a count of working brokers are two different things. Our 2023 figure is spread across a full year, not packed into a few weeks, and nothing in the file ties it to a single rule change.

More out than in

From 2023 through 2025, gross revocations ran ahead of gross grants every year. The gap was widest in 2024, at 3,603, and narrowed to 948 in 2025. In the first four and a half months of 2026, the two counts were close: 1,607 granted against 1,722 revoked.

For a shipper, that points to fewer new brokers entering and, likely, a smaller pool of brokers with active authority than in 2022. We say "likely" because of the reinstatements and multiple dockets covered above. We can't give you an exact count of live brokers from these files.

We also don't know why grants fell. The file records what happened, not the reason, and we'd rather leave that as an open question than offer a theory we can't back up.

What these numbers can't tell you

A revocation doesn't mean the broker was a bad actor. The record shows that authority was revoked on a date. It doesn't say whether the cause was a missed filing, a lapsed bond or something worse, and revoked authorities are sometimes reinstated.

An active authority doesn't mean a good broker, either. Active status tells you the federal filings are in place. It says nothing about how a broker treats carriers or whether it pays on time.

And a grant doesn't prove there's a working business behind it. A docket is a registration.

A registration system change you should know about

The older files froze because FMCSA is moving registration to a new system called Motus. FMCSA's Move into Motus page explains the transition. The agency now publishes a separate set of "Motus" datasets, and its data dictionary says they're targeted for daily updates.

Here's the catch for anyone comparing numbers across the change. FMCSA's own Motus dictionary says the old system allowed more than one operating authority per docket number, while Motus assigns a unique docket number to each authority. A count from the old files and a count from the new ones may not measure the same thing. We didn't combine them. When a like-for-like series exists, we'll update this post.

What to check before you tender freight to a broker

Knowing the market is shifting is useful. Acting on it is a short checklist.

1. Look up the MC number on FMCSA's own system. FMCSA's lookup guidance explains where to search for a broker's authority, insurance and process agent. Because registration is in transition, check FMCSA's site for the current lookup page.

2. Confirm it's broker authority, and that it's active. A company can hold carrier authority without broker authority. If someone is arranging freight for you, they need the broker authority.

3. Confirm the $75,000 bond or trust fund is on file, as 49 CFR 387.307 requires. If the filing isn't there, don't ship.

4. Look at when the authority was granted. A newer authority isn't automatically a problem. It is a reason to ask more questions, such as who their carriers are and how long the people running it have worked in freight.

5. Match the details. The legal name, address and phone on FMCSA's record should line up with the quote, the rate confirmation and the person on the phone. If they don't, call the number FMCSA lists, not the one in the email. Our posts on spotting a freight scam and detecting and preventing freight fraud cover the red flags in more detail.

6. Check again before each new lane or contract. Statuses change, and a bond can be cancelled on 30 days' notice, so something can move between your first shipment and your fifth. Our guide to the BMC-84 bond explains how the bond works and what to look for on the filing.

If you already have a broker you like

Run the same lookup anyway. It isn't a vote of no confidence. Filings lapse, statuses change, and that can happen to a broker you've used for years.

A good broker won't mind the question. Ask for the MC number, look it up while you're on the call, and ask which company holds their bond. If they can't or won't answer, that tells you something. Keep a dated note of what you saw, so if the status changes later you know when it happened and which loads were in motion.

If you're choosing between brokers

Our guide on how to choose the right freight broker covers the questions to ask beyond the federal record.

Bottom line

We'll rerun these counts once FMCSA's new Motus files carry enough history to compare like for like, and update this post when they do.

FMCSA's public records show a broker market that took in a lot of new authorities in 2021 and 2022, lost a lot of them in 2023 and 2024, and has been quieter on both sides since. We can see what happened. We can't see why, and where the data runs out we've said so.

The practical part doesn't change. Look up the MC number, confirm the broker authority and the $75,000 bond, and check the details against what you were told.

You can do the same for us. The American Truck Inc. is a licensed freight brokerage, MC 1631835, USDOT 4221571, based in Lincolnshire, Illinois. If you'd like to see how we handle freight, request a quote or contact us.

Data notes: all counts come from FMCSA datasets on data.transportation.gov, queried on October 9, 2026. The legacy files were last refreshed by FMCSA on May 14, 2026. Percentages and the "granted minus revoked" figures are our own arithmetic on those counts.

Cover photo: Quintin Gellar on Pexels.