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Last updated: General Tennessee freight broker bond information — confirm current requirements with the licensing authority.
One Federal Bond, Two Freight Engines

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

Every Tennessee 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. Tennessee Code Title 65, Chapter 15 doesn't add a second bond on top — the Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity that the state issues through its Motor Carrier Division applies to carriers who physically move freight, not to property brokers. What makes Tennessee worth a dedicated page is the freight underneath it: Memphis, home to a major air-cargo hub and a multimodal complex where five Class I railroads and Mississippi River barge traffic converge, and Nashville, where three interstates — I-24, I-40, and I-65 — meet. See our broker authority guide for the full FMCSA process.

$75,000
Federal BMC-84
49 CFR § 387.307
None
Tennessee State Bond
TCA 65-15 CPCN doesn’t reach brokers
5 Class I
Memphis Rail Access
Five Class I railroads serve Memphis
3-Way Junction
Nashville Interstates
I-24, I-40 & I-65 meet in-city
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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 Tennessee or arranges loads through the state. Tennessee 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
Why There's No Second Tennessee Bond

Tennessee Bonds Carriers, Not Brokers — Here's the Statutory Line

Tennessee Code Annotated Title 65, Chapter 15 gives the Tennessee Department of Revenue's Motor Carrier Division authority to issue a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to for-hire motor carriers and private towing or wrecker services — businesses that physically transport persons or property on Tennessee roads. That certificate process requires an application, a designated agent for service of process, and proof of insurance on uniform motor carrier forms. Nothing in that chapter creates a license or bond specifically for property brokers, because a broker arranges transportation without ever operating a truck or taking possession of freight. The distinction matters for underwriting: a carrier's bond-equivalent obligation is built around vehicle operation and cargo liability, while a broker's $75,000 BMC-84 exists purely to cover shippers and carriers if the broker fails to pay for arranged transportation — a financial responsibility bond, not an operating bond.

Tennessee Carrier vs. Broker Requirements

What Title 65, Chapter 15 requires of each — and why only one of them touches a surety bond

RequirementFor-Hire CarriersProperty Brokers
State AuthorityCertificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN)None — Tennessee has no broker license or CPCN equivalent
Administering AgencyTN Dept. of Revenue, Motor Carrier DivisionN/A at the state level; FMCSA at the federal level
Surety RequirementInsurance filings on uniform motor carrier forms$75,000 BMC-84 bond (federal, 49 CFR § 387.307)
Federal FilingUSDOT number, IFTA/IRP as applicableMC number (OP-1), BOC-3 process agents, UCR

Sources: TCA Title 65, Chapter 15; Tennessee Department of Revenue Motor Carrier Division intrastate-authority guidance; 49 CFR § 387.307.

Two Genuinely Different Freight Markets

Memphis Runs on Multimodal Cutoffs. Nashville Runs on Interstate Volume.

Every state requires the same $75,000 BMC-84. What varies is the freight a broker's book of business actually looks like — and Tennessee splits cleanly into two markets that reward different broker skill sets, 200 miles apart on I-40.

Memphis: Air, Rail & River

Memphis International Airport hosts a major air-cargo sort hub. FAA landed-weight data ranked Memphis the No. 1 or No. 2 all-cargo airport in the country in most years between 2014 and 2022. Layer on five Class I railroads converging on the city and the Port of Memphis — a barge port stretching the Tennessee and Arkansas banks of the Mississippi — and Memphis brokers coordinate across three transport modes with three different cutoff cultures: flight-departure windows, rail interchange appointments, and barge-to-truck transload schedules.

Five Class I railroadsMississippi River barge

Nashville: The Three-Interstate Junction

Nashville is one of just six U.S. cities where three major interstates converge inside city limits: I-65 running north to Chicago and Indianapolis and south to Birmingham, I-40 running coast-to-coast and connecting straight through to Memphis and beyond to the West Coast, and I-24 running southeast toward Chattanooga and Atlanta. There's no air hub or river port driving Nashville's freight economy — it's pure interstate volume, and it rewards brokers who maintain carrier relationships across all three directions instead of specializing in a single corridor.

I-24 / I-40 / I-65 dry van & reefer

Producer Insight: Two Markets Mean Two Different Carrier Vetting Standards

A broker sourcing capacity to hit an air-cargo hub feeder window or a Port of Memphis barge appointment is qualifying carriers on precision — missing a departure cutoff at an air-cargo hub doesn't just run a shipment late, it can miss the flight it was scheduled to feed. A Nashville broker moving standard truckload freight through the three-interstate junction is qualifying carriers on volume and lane coverage instead. Sureties underwriting a Tennessee broker will ask different questions depending on which market the book of business leans toward: dispatch and cutoff-compliance documentation for Memphis-heavy brokers, carrier-network breadth for Nashville-heavy ones.

Ready to get bonded and start booking Memphis multimodal or Nashville interstate freight? We file your BMC-84 directly with the FMCSA.

Get Tennessee QuoteBMC-84 Complete Guide

Tennessee 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 geography; see our freight broker bond cost by state guide and surety bond cost overview for broader context.

No Tennessee Add-On Cost

Because Tennessee doesn't require a state-level broker bond, there's no second premium to budget for. The only additional line item is the $46/year UCR fee — a flat federal filing cost administered through the Tennessee Department of Revenue, unaffected by credit score.

The Filing Step That Isn't a Bond: Unified Carrier Registration Through TN Revenue

Tennessee doesn't add a second surety bond, but it does have one filing step that's easy to miss: the Unified Carrier Registration (UCR), required for brokers under 49 U.S.C. § 14504a and administered in Tennessee by the Tennessee Department of Revenue.

What UCR Requires of Brokers

  • Annual registration, separate from the BMC-84 bond and FMCSA authority
  • Brokers pay the smallest fee bracket: $46 for the 2026 registration year
  • Filed through the Tennessee Department of Revenue as your base-state UCR contact
  • Registration window runs October 1 through December 31 each year

Why It Trips Up New Brokers

A new broker can have a perfectly filed BMC-84 and still get flagged if UCR lapses, because the two filings run on independent renewal clocks and neither system automatically reminds you about the other. UCR is federally mandated but state-administered, so Tennessee brokers file through the Department of Revenue specifically as their base-state UCR contact — even though the bond itself goes straight to the FMCSA, and the CPCN process (which doesn't apply to brokers at all) runs through the same Motor Carrier Division. Track all renewal dates separately.

Getting Broker Authority as a Tennessee-Based Broker

Because Tennessee has no separate state track for brokers, the entire process runs through the FMCSA. See our full guide to getting freight broker authority for more detail on each step.

Tennessee-Specific Steps

  1. 1

    Register for UCR Through Tennessee Department of Revenue

    $46/year for brokers; separate from your BMC-84 renewal date

Tennessee Freight Broker Bond — Frequently Asked Questions

Questions specific to Tennessee-based brokers, the Memphis-Nashville freight split, and UCR filing

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

No. Tennessee Code Annotated Title 65, Chapter 15 governs motor carriers — the Tennessee Department of Revenue's Motor Carrier Division issues intrastate operating authority (a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity) to for-hire carriers and private towing companies that physically transport property or passengers within the state. That certificate process applies to carriers running trucks, not to property brokers who arrange transportation without ever taking possession of freight. Tennessee doesn't layer a state-level license or bond onto brokers the way some states do to carriers. Your $75,000 BMC-84 bond, filed with the FMCSA under 49 U.S.C. § 13906 and 49 CFR § 387.307, is the surety requirement that applies to a Tennessee-based broker — whether you're sourcing feeder capacity into the Memphis air-cargo hub, drayaging Port of Memphis barge freight, or running loads through Nashville's three-interstate junction.

Air-cargo operators run their own fleets — so why does Memphis still generate broker demand?

Because an operator's own network and the independent freight market solve different problems. Air-cargo sort operations rely on contracted linehaul and feeder capacity to meet their sort windows. Layer on top of that the Memphis multimodal complex: five Class I railroads serve Memphis, and the Port of Memphis moves barge freight that has to transfer to truck for the final leg. A broker fluent in air-feeder cutoffs, rail drayage appointments, and barge-to-truck transloading is solving a coordination problem that no single carrier's owned fleet is built to solve alone.

How does Nashville's three-interstate junction change what a Tennessee broker needs to know, versus a single-corridor state?

Nashville is one of only six U.S. cities where three major interstates converge — I-24, I-40, and I-65 meet inside the city, giving brokers based there simultaneous access to Chicago and Indianapolis freight via I-65, coast-to-coast east-west freight via I-40 (which also connects straight through to Memphis), and Atlanta/Chattanooga freight via I-24. That's structurally different from a state like Kentucky or Ohio where the through-traffic runs on one or two corridors. A Nashville broker's carrier network has to cover three distinct freight directions simultaneously, which means qualifying carriers on more lanes but also gives brokers more flexibility to backfill a canceled load by rerouting to a different interstate rather than waiting for capacity on the only road out of town.

Do Tennessee freight brokers need the same Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity that Tennessee carriers need?

No — this is the distinction that trips up brokers new to Tennessee. The Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity, issued through the Tennessee Department of Revenue's Motor Carrier Division under TCA Title 65, Chapter 15, authorizes for-hire carriers and towing/wrecker operators to physically transport property or passengers within Tennessee. A property broker never takes possession of the freight or operates the truck, so the CPCN requirement doesn't apply to brokerage activity. Where Tennessee brokers do have a filing duty is the federal Unified Carrier Registration (UCR) under 49 U.S.C. § 14504a, filed annually through the Tennessee Department of Revenue as the state's UCR administrator — separate from both the CPCN and the BMC-84 bond.

Where does a Tennessee broker file the authority application and UCR?

The broker authority application — still commonly called the OP-1 — is filed through Motus, the FMCSA registration portal at motus.dot.gov that replaced the Motus registration system in May 2026; the $300 filing fee and the Login.gov identity-verification step carried over unchanged. UCR is separate, filed through the Tennessee Department of Revenue, with brokers in the smallest fee bracket. The federal sequence itself is identical in every state and is walked through step by step in our guide to getting freight broker authority.

Who needs a Tennessee freight broker bond?

Property brokers and freight forwarders based in Tennessee 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 a Tennessee 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.

Tennessee Dept. of Revenue — Motor Carrier

Official Motor Carrier Division portal for intrastate authority, IFTA/IRP, and UCR filing in Tennessee.

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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All content is researched from official state and federal sources (.gov). BuySuretyBonds.com works with Treasury-listed surety carriers.

Memphis & Nashville Freight, One Bond

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BMC-84 quotes within one business day. No second Tennessee 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
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Est. 1%–4% of $75K (good credit)

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