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Last updated: General Arkansas freight broker bond information — confirm current requirements with the licensing authority.
Built on the NWA Carrier-Alumni Pipeline

Arkansas Freight Broker Bond$75,000 BMC-84 — No Separate State Bond

Every Arkansas freight broker needs a $75,000 surety bond filed on FMCSA Form BMC-84, as required by 49 U.S.C. § 13906 and 49 CFR § 387.307. The Arkansas Motor Carrier Act, 1955 (Ark. Code Ann. § 23-13-201 et seq.) doesn't add a second bond — the intrastate authority the Arkansas Highway Police issues applies to for-hire carriers that physically move freight on Arkansas roads, not to property brokers. What makes Arkansas worth a dedicated page is who's filing that bond: experienced freight-industry professionals launching brokerages with carrier relationships already in hand, and a Little Rock freight economy built where I-40 crosses I-30. See our broker authority guide for the full FMCSA process.

$75,000
Federal BMC-84
49 CFR § 387.307
None
Arkansas State Bond
ACA 23-13-201 doesn’t reach brokers
I-49
NWA Corridor
Bella Vista to Fort Smith
I-40 × I-30
Little Rock Interstates
East-west meets southwest-to-Dallas
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BMC-84 quote — 2-minute form, quote within one business day

Quick answer
A BMC-84 freight broker bond is the $75,000 federal surety bond FMCSA requires before it will grant or keep a property broker's operating authority, whether your brokerage is based in Arkansas or arranges loads through the state. Arkansas does not add a separate state freight broker bond. You pay a yearly premium that is a small percentage of $75,000 (an estimate; the carrier sets the final price), not the full amount.
  • Who requires it: FMCSA, for every property broker and freight forwarder in interstate commerce (49 U.S.C. 13906; 49 CFR 387.307).
  • Amount: $75,000, set by federal law. A BMC-85 trust fund of $75,000 is the alternative.
  • Typical cost (estimate): about 1%–4% of $75,000 per year with good credit, roughly $750–$3,000. The carrier sets the final price.
  • Timing: We submit complete applications to the carrier promptly; most quotes within one business day.
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Official Federal (FMCSA) Requirements

"A broker shall provide a surety bond, trust fund agreement, or other financial security in the amount of $75,000 in a form, manner, and amount as the Secretary may prescribe."
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration — 49 CFR § 387.307, implementing 49 U.S.C. § 13906 • 49 CFR § 387.307
The Moat Isn't the Bond — It's the Carrier Book

Many Arkansas Brokers Start With a Carrier Book Already in Hand

Northwest Arkansas and the Fort Smith area are home to a concentration of trucking, retail and food-supply employers. People who work in dispatch, pricing, and carrier sales there sometimes leave to start or join independent brokerages. They don't start from zero — they start with lane knowledge and carrier phone numbers already in place. Vendor-side freight staff who have managed inbound and outbound carrier relationships for large shippers add a second talent stream.

Producer Insight: Underwriters Read a Carrier-Alumni Application Differently

The $75,000 bond amount and the credit-based rate table don't change because of where a broker worked before — a surety doesn't discount the percentage for a trucking-industry résumé. What does change is the startup-surcharge conversation. New brokers without operating history typically carry a surcharge for their first 12–18 months because sureties can't yet verify claims history or capacity depth. An applicant who can document existing carrier relationships and lane volume from a prior role gives an underwriter something to evaluate beyond a credit score — and that can shorten the surcharge period even at an identical FICO band.

Arkansas Bond Cost: Credit Sets the Base Rate, Operating History Sets the Surcharge

The $75,000 BMC-84 is priced as a percentage of face value — you never pay the full $75,000, only the annual premium. Personal credit drives the base rate, and it's not affected by geography; see our freight broker bond cost by state guide and surety bond cost overview for broader context.

Excellent (750+)

1.0%–1.5%

$750–$1,125/yr

Good (700–749)

1.25%–2.5%

$938–$1,875/yr

Average (650–699)

3%–5.5%

$2,250–$4,125/yr

Fair (580–649)

5%–8%

$3,750–$6,000/yr

Challenged (<580)

8%–15%

$6,000–$11,250/yr

Where the NWA carrier-alumni pipeline actually moves the needle is the surcharge new brokers carry on top of that base rate — and it phases out faster with documented carrier relationships than without them:

Whether you're bringing an existing carrier book from Lowell or Fort Smith, or building one from Little Rock, we file your BMC-84 directly with the FMCSA.

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Filing With the FMCSA — and the One Filing That Isn't the Highway Police Permit

Because Arkansas has no separate broker license track, the entire authority process runs through the FMCSA. The single Arkansas-administered filing that does apply to brokers is the Unified Carrier Registration (UCR), required under 49 U.S.C. § 14504a. Arkansas participates in the UCR program, so an Arkansas-based broker registers with Arkansas as their base state rather than routing through a neighboring state.

Arkansas-Specific Steps

  1. 1

    Register for UCR With Arkansas as Base State

    $46/year for brokers — smallest UCR fee bracket, separate from your BMC-84 renewal date

Why the Highway Police Permit Doesn't Apply

The intrastate certificate issued under Ark. Code Ann. § 23-13-201 et seq. requires every covered vehicle to carry a Highway Police receipt and pay a per-vehicle insurance filing fee — obligations that only make sense for a business operating trucks. A broker who arranges transportation without ever taking possession of freight or dispatching its own fleet has nothing to file under that chapter.

Since Late 2023, FMCSA Enforcement Has Tightened

FMCSA's November 2023 final rule (88 FR 78656) requires immediate suspension of broker operating authority when the BMC-84 bond or BMC-85 trust fund drops out of compliance, with all provisions now in full effect as of the January 16, 2026 compliance date. Letting the bond lapse — even briefly, even during a carrier transition — carries real authority risk.

Two Freight Geographies, One State

Little Rock Runs on Two Interstates. Northwest Arkansas Runs on a Supply Chain.

The $75,000 BMC-84 is identical everywhere. What differs is the freight a broker's book of business actually looks like — and Arkansas splits into two distinct markets roughly 190 miles apart on I-40.

Little Rock: I-40 Meets I-30

I-40 runs east through Little Rock toward Memphis and west toward Fort Smith and Oklahoma City. I-30 begins in Little Rock and runs southwest through Texarkana into Dallas-Fort Worth. A Little Rock broker can source eastbound, westbound, and southwestern freight without leaving the metro area — and the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System adds a barge dimension the interstates don't: a 445-mile channel from the Port of Catoosa near Tulsa down through the Port of Little Rock and the Port of Pine Bluff to the Mississippi River, moving an estimated $1–2 billion in trade through Arkansas each year. Freight coming off a barge still needs a truck for the last leg.

Port of Little Rock & Port of Pine Bluff barge transload

Northwest Arkansas: Supply-Chain Freight

NWA runs on I-49 — the Bella Vista-to-Fort Smith corridor redesignated from I-540 in 2014, part of a planned Kansas City-to-Shreveport route — but the freight itself is driven less by the interstate and more by the region's retail vendor networks and food-supply cold-chain logistics. A broker here is less likely to be booking generic dry van and more likely managing vendor-compliance freight tied to a retail or food-supply calendar.

I-49 vendor-network & reefer freight

Arkansas Freight Broker Bond — Frequently Asked Questions

Questions specific to Arkansas-based brokers, the NWA carrier-alumni pipeline, and the Little Rock/NWA freight split

Does Arkansas require its own freight broker bond on top of the federal BMC-84?

No. The Arkansas Motor Carrier Act, 1955 — Ark. Code Ann. § 23-13-201 et seq. — gives the Arkansas Department of Transportation's Arkansas Highway Police Motor Carrier Services division authority over intrastate operating authority: a certificate or permit required of for-hire motor carriers that physically transport property on Arkansas highways. Applicants pay a $25 processing fee (for carriers that didn't hold authority as of December 31, 1994) plus a $5-per-vehicle insurance filing fee, and every truck has to carry a copy of its Highway Police receipt for roadside inspection. That entire regime is built around vehicles operating on Arkansas roads — a property broker who arranges transportation but never owns a truck or takes possession of freight doesn't fall under it. The bond that actually applies to an Arkansas-based broker is the federal $75,000 BMC-84, required under 49 U.S.C. § 13906 and 49 CFR § 387.307.

Why do so many new Arkansas freight brokerages get started by people who already work in freight?

Northwest Arkansas and the Fort Smith area have a large concentration of trucking, retail and food-supply employers, so many people there work in dispatch, pricing and carrier-sales roles. Some of them eventually start or join independent brokerages, bringing lane knowledge and carrier contacts with them instead of building a network from zero. Underwriters notice: a broker whose capacity relationships predate their MC number can be a different risk than a first-time broker cold-calling carriers.

How does the Little Rock crossroads change what an Arkansas broker's book of business looks like?

Little Rock is where I-40 — running east from Memphis and west toward Fort Smith and Oklahoma City — meets I-30, which begins in Little Rock and runs southwest through Texarkana into Dallas-Fort Worth. That gives a Little Rock-based broker simultaneous access to Memphis-bound eastbound freight, OKC/Texas Panhandle-bound westbound freight, and DFW-bound southwestern freight without ever leaving one metro area. It's a different setup from Northwest Arkansas, where I-49 (the Bella Vista-to-Fort Smith corridor redesignated from I-540 in 2014, part of the planned Kansas City-to-Shreveport route) channels retail and food-supply freight north-south instead. A broker's carrier network — and the questions a surety underwriter asks about it — looks different depending on which of Arkansas's two freight economies the business actually runs on.

Does the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System create broker opportunities that pure trucking states don't have?

It's a smaller piece of the picture than the interstates, but it's real. The McClellan-Kerr system is a 445-mile barge channel running from the Port of Catoosa near Tulsa, Oklahoma, down the Arkansas River through the Port of Little Rock and the Port of Pine Bluff to the Mississippi River, moving an estimated $1–2 billion in trade through Arkansas annually. Freight coming off a barge at Little Rock or Pine Bluff needs a truck for the final leg, and a broker who understands transload scheduling at a river port is solving a coordination problem that a broker working purely interstate freight never encounters. It's not the volume driver I-40 and I-30 are, but it's one more reason an Arkansas broker's carrier network needs more range than a single-corridor state requires.

How much does an Arkansas freight broker bond cost, and does prior carrier relationships actually lower the price?

The $75,000 BMC-84 is priced as an annual percentage of face value, driven by personal credit — not by state or by who your carrier contacts are. Excellent credit (750+) runs 1.0%–1.5%, or $750–$1,125/year. Good credit (700–749) runs 1.25%–2.5%, or $938–$1,875/year. Average credit (650–699) runs 3%–5.5%, or $2,250–$4,125/year. Fair credit (580–649) runs 5%–8%, or $3,750–$6,000/year. Challenged credit (below 580) runs 8%–15%, or $6,000–$11,250/year. Where an existing carrier network helps isn't the credit-based rate — sureties don't discount for it directly — it's the startup surcharge new brokers without operating history typically carry for their first 12–18 months. An underwriter reviewing an application from an experienced carrier-sales rep with documented lane relationships may see lower operational risk than a first-time broker with the same credit score, and that can shorten or soften the surcharge period even though the base rate table stays the same.

What do I file, and in what order, to get broker authority as an Arkansas-based broker?

File your broker authority application (the OP-1) through Motus, the FMCSA's registration portal at motus.dot.gov, paying the $300 fee and completing Login.gov identity verification. Obtain and file your $75,000 BMC-84 bond — approval timing is set by the carrier. File Form BOC-3 designating process agents in every state you plan to operate in. Register for Unified Carrier Registration (UCR) — brokers fall into the smallest fee bracket, $46 for the 2026 registration year — through Arkansas as your base state if you haven't already. Wait out the FMCSA's 10-day protest period; your authority activates once SAFER shows an ACTIVE status. None of this touches the Arkansas Highway Police's intrastate-carrier permit process, since that authority doesn't reach brokerage activity. Most Arkansas-based brokers clear the full sequence in 4–6 weeks.

Who needs an Arkansas freight broker bond?

Property brokers and freight forwarders based in Arkansas that arrange interstate freight. It is required by FMCSA, under 49 U.S.C. 13906 and 49 CFR 387.307. The bond amount is $75,000, set by federal law (BMC-84 surety bond; a BMC-85 trust fund is the alternative).

How do I get an Arkansas freight broker bond?

Request a quote with the form on this page. A licensed agent submits your application to a Treasury-listed surety carrier; once the carrier issues your bond, file it as the requiring agency directs.

What happens after I apply?

We submit complete applications to the carrier promptly; most quotes come back within one business day. The carrier decides approval and the final premium, and you pay only when your bond is issued.

FMCSA Broker Registration

Official FMCSA portal for broker authority applications, BMC-84 filing status, and SAFER system lookups.

Arkansas DOT — Intrastate Authority

Official Arkansas Highway Police Motor Carrier Services portal for intrastate carrier authority and permits in Arkansas.

Treasury-Listed Carriers
FMCSA Sets Processing Time
Direct FMCSA Filing
All Credit Reviewed

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Eric Drummond, Licensed Surety Producer
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Eric Drummond, Licensed Surety Producer
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BMC-84 quotes within one business day. No second Arkansas bond to manage — just the federal $75,000 requirement. Premiums commonly run about 1%–4% of $75,000 with good credit (the carrier sets the price), all credit levels reviewed.

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Treasury-Listed Carriers
FMCSA Sets Processing Time
Est. 1%–4% of $75K (good credit)

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