Skip to main content
BSB
Last reviewed: Next review due: Reflects current New York freight broker bond requirements
✓ 2026 Requirements Verified
Three Freight Geographies, One Federal Bond

New York Freight Broker Bond$75,000 BMC-84 for Port, NYC & Buffalo Brokers

Every New York freight broker needs the same $75,000 surety bond filed on FMCSA Form BMC-84 under 49 U.S.C. § 13906 and 49 CFR § 387.307 that every broker in the country files — New York doesn't add a second state-level bond, despite licensing more local trades than almost any other state. What actually varies here is the freight itself: New York brokers work across three distinct geographies — Port of NY/NJ drayage off the Staten Island and Brooklyn terminals, NYC metro last-mile delivery density unmatched anywhere else in the country, and the Buffalo/Peace Bridge Canada gateway in Western New York. Compare the underlying filing mechanics in our broker authority guide.

$75,000
Federal BMC-84
49 CFR § 387.307
None
NY State Bond
No second-layer requirement
2.5M
NYC Daily Packages
Up from 1.8M in 2019
487K
Peace Bridge Trucks
First half of 2026 alone
Get New York Bond QuoteEstimate Premium

BMC-84 quote — 2-minute form, 24-hr turnaround

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
Why New York, Specifically

Three Freight Geographies Under One $75,000 Bond

Nearly every state requires the same BMC-84. New York is unusual in how much distance separates its three brokerable freight markets — a container terminal in Brooklyn, the densest last-mile delivery market in the country, and a Canadian border crossing 400 miles upstate — all covered by the same federal bond.

Producer Insight: Pick Your Lane Before You Apply

A broker running Howland Hook or Red Hook drayage carries a claims profile built around terminal free-time and NYC-specific truck-route violations. A broker dispatching last-mile freight into Manhattan is managing carrier turnover and delivery-window penalties, not port congestion. A Buffalo-based broker moving cross-border loads is underwritten on customs documentation and carrier authority that domestic-only brokers never touch. Sureties reviewing your book of business will ask different questions depending on which of these three you fall into — know your lane before you apply and the underwriting conversation moves faster.

Ready to get bonded and start booking Port, NYC, or Buffalo freight? We file your BMC-84 directly with the FMCSA.

Get New York QuoteBMC-84 Complete Guide
The Filing Confusion Unique to New York

Highway Use Tax Doesn't Touch Brokers — UCR Does

New York brokers run into a specific point of confusion almost no other state creates: two separate New York/federal filings that sound related but apply to completely different parties.

Highway Use Tax (HUT) — Not Your Filing

Under N.Y. Tax Law Article 21, any truck or tractor with a gross weight over 18,000 pounds needs a HUT certificate of registration and quarterly Form MT-903 filings with the Department of Taxation and Finance.

HUT attaches to the registered vehicle owner/operator — a carrier. A property broker who never titles or operates a truck has no HUT obligation, full stop.

UCR — This One Is Yours

New York is one of the 41 states that participates directly in the federal Unified Carrier Registration Plan under 49 U.S.C. § 14504a. Brokers register and pay their annual UCR fee directly through ucr.gov — no routing through a neighboring state, unlike New Jersey.

UCR falls into the lowest fee bracket for brokers, since they operate no vehicles of their own.

Why It Trips Up New Brokers Specifically

Brokers who came up on the carrier side of the business — or who share a back office with an affiliated trucking operation — see HUT decals and MT-903 filings around them constantly and assume the obligation extends to the brokerage entity too. It doesn't. Track UCR (yours, due annually) separately from HUT (your carriers', not yours), and keep both separate from your BMC-84 renewal.

New York Freight Broker Bond Cost

The $75,000 BMC-84 is priced as a percentage of face value — you never pay $75,000, only the annual premium. Pricing is driven by credit, not which of New York's three freight geographies you work in; see our freight broker bond cost by state guide and surety bond cost overview for broader context.

No New York Add-On Bond Cost

Despite New York City licensing dozens of local trades with their own bonds, there is no state or city bond layered on top of the BMC-84 for property brokers. The only additional line item is the annual UCR fee — a flat federal filing cost, unaffected by credit score.

Getting Broker Authority as a New York-Based Broker

Because New York has no separate state track for property brokers, the entire process runs through the FMCSA, with UCR filed directly rather than routed through another state. See our full guide to getting freight broker authority for more detail on each step.

New York-Specific Steps

  1. 1

    Register for UCR Directly Through ucr.gov

    New York participates directly — no neighboring-state routing needed

New York Freight Broker Bond — Frequently Asked Questions

Questions specific to New York-based brokers working the Port, NYC last-mile, and Buffalo/Peace Bridge freight geographies

Does New York require its own broker bond on top of the federal BMC-84?

No — and this trips up brokers who assume New York's famously layered licensing (New York City alone requires separate bonds for home improvement contractors, tow operators, and dozens of other trades through the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection) extends to freight brokerage. It doesn't. Property broker authority is issued entirely by the FMCSA under 49 U.S.C. § 13906 and 49 CFR § 387.307, and neither New York State nor New York City licenses freight brokers or requires a second surety bond. Whether you're dispatching drayage out of Staten Island, running last-mile freight in Queens, or brokering cross-border loads from Buffalo, the same $75,000 BMC-84 is the only bond you need.

The Port of NY/NJ is mostly described as a New Jersey story — what's actually on the New York side?

Most of the Port of New York and New Jersey's container volume — 8.9 million TEUs in 2025 — moves through Newark and Elizabeth terminals on the New Jersey side. But two working terminals sit on New York soil: Howland Hook Marine Terminal on Staten Island, and the Red Hook Container Terminal in Brooklyn, a 65-acre facility the Port Authority has owned since the 1950s and the only working container port inside New York City proper. A broker booking drayage off either NY-side terminal deals with the same bi-state Port Authority tariffs and terminal-appointment systems as a New Jersey broker, but with New York City truck-route restrictions (idling limits, overnight parking bans, restricted bridge and tunnel access) layered on top — a compliance wrinkle a Newark-based broker never has to think about.

How does NYC last-mile delivery density change a broker's claims and dispatch exposure?

New York City absorbs roughly 2.5 million packages a day as of 2024, up from 1.8 million in 2019 — a density concentrated overwhelmingly in Manhattan, according to the NYC Comptroller's office. That growth built an entire last-mile warehouse tier: 18 major distribution facilities opened citywide between 2017 and 2022, totaling roughly 11 million square feet, with the largest facilities capable of generating up to 1,000 truck trips a day. Brokering into that density means shorter hauls, tighter delivery windows, and carrier relationships built around curb-access and loading-dock scarcity rather than long-haul lane rates — a fundamentally different underwriting profile than a broker running interstate truckload freight.

What's different about brokering freight through Buffalo and the Peace Bridge versus the rest of New York?

The Peace Bridge, connecting Buffalo to Fort Erie, Ontario, is one of the busiest U.S.-Canada commercial crossings on the Niagara Frontier — the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority's own traffic data shows 487,326 trucks crossed in just the first half of 2026, putting the bridge on pace for close to a million truck crossings for the year, consistent with its typical annual volume. A Buffalo-based broker is arranging cross-border freight, which means Canadian customs documentation, a different carrier pool (many with Ontario-based operating authority), and exposure to Peace Bridge-specific congestion patterns that a broker working purely domestic lanes never encounters — even though the underlying $75,000 BMC-84 bond is identical.

Do New York freight brokers owe the state Highway Use Tax (HUT)?

No — and this is the New York-specific filing confusion that has no equivalent in most other states. New York's Highway Use Tax, under Tax Law Article 21, requires a certificate of registration and quarterly Form MT-903 filings from any truck, tractor, or other self-propelled vehicle with a gross weight over 18,000 pounds — but that obligation attaches to the registered owner/operator of the vehicle, not to the broker who arranges the shipment. A pure property broker who never titles or operates a truck has no HUT filing obligation. The confusion usually starts when a broker's carriers mention their HUT decals and quarterly MT-903 filings, and the broker assumes the same applies to their business — it doesn't, because HUT is a carrier tax, not a brokerage tax.

Is New York part of the federal UCR program, and do brokers register directly?

Yes. Unlike New Jersey — one of only ten jurisdictions that opts out of administering the Unified Carrier Registration (UCR) Plan directly — New York is one of the 41 participating states, so a New York-based broker registers and pays the annual UCR fee under 49 U.S.C. § 14504a straight through the National Registration System at ucr.gov, with no need to route the payment through a neighboring state's portal. Brokers fall into the UCR program's lowest fee bracket since they operate no vehicles of their own.

FMCSA Broker Registration

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

Port Authority of NY & NJ

Official Howland Hook and Red Hook terminal operations and bi-state facility cargo data.

NY Highway Use Tax (HUT)

NY Department of Taxation and Finance — HUT registration, exemptions, and MT-903 filing details for carriers (not brokers).

A+ Rated Carriers
24-Hour FMCSA Approval
Direct FMCSA Filing
All Credit Reviewed

Freight Broker Bond Resources

Freight Broker Bond Hub

Complete BMC-84 guide — requirements, costs, claims, 2026 changes

BMC-84 Deep Dive

FMCSA filing mechanics, bond vs trust fund, personal guarantees

Cost by State Guide

How pricing varies by credit tier, not by state

BMC-84 vs BMC-85

When the trust fund makes sense — and when it never does

How to Get Broker Authority

Step-by-step FMCSA authority process from MC# to ACTIVE status

BMC-84 Premium Calculator

Estimate your annual premium by credit score tier

New York Surety Bonds Hub

Every New York bond type — contractor, dealer, mortgage, court

New Jersey Freight Broker Bond

Port Newark-Elizabeth & Exit 8A brokering, the NJ side

Eric Drummond, Licensed Surety Producer
Reviewed by
Eric Drummond, Licensed Surety Producer
Verify credentials →

All content is researched from official state and federal sources (.gov) and verified before publication. BuySuretyBonds.com works with Treasury-certified, A-minimum rated surety carriers serving all 50 states.

Read our editorial standards & corrections policy →
Port, NYC & Buffalo Freight, One Bond

Get Your New York Freight Broker Bond

BMC-84 approval in 24 hours. No second New York bond to manage — just the federal $75,000 requirement and a UCR fee filed directly through ucr.gov. Rates from $750/year, all credit levels reviewed.

Get Your New York Bond NowBack to Freight Broker Bonds
Treasury-Certified Carriers
24-hr FMCSA Approval
From $750/yr

Freight Broker Bonds by State

State-specific guidance for filing your $75,000 BMC-84 and securing FMCSA property broker authority.

California Freight Broker Bond

BMC-84 filing for California property brokers

Texas Freight Broker Bond

Laredo & Gulf-corridor brokerage bonding

Washington Freight Broker Surety Bond

Pacific Northwest broker authority

Pennsylvania Broker Bond

Northeast freight broker BMC-84 filing

Arizona Freight Broker Bond

Southwest property broker bonding

Georgia Freight Broker Bond

Atlanta & Savannah-corridor BMC-84 filing

Montana Freight Broker Bond

BMC-84 requirements & cost for Montana brokers

Wyoming Freight Broker Bond

Fast BMC-84 filing for Wyoming-registered brokers

Freight Broker Bond Resources

Freight Broker Bond GuideNational $75,000 BMC-84 overviewFreight Broker Bond CostAnnual premiums by credit tierHow to Get Broker AuthorityStep-by-step FMCSA registrationBMC-84 vs BMC-85Surety bond vs. trust fund comparedAuto Transport Broker BondVehicle-shipping broker requirementsFreight Forwarder BondForwarder BMC-84 filing guidanceFreight Broker Excess BondCoverage above the $75,000 BMC-84