You sign this before your first load, and it governs every load after that with the same broker until someone terminates it. Most new carriers scroll to the signature line. Do not be most new carriers.
Independent contractor status
You are not their employee. You pay your own self-employment tax, carry your own liability, get no benefits, and answer for your equipment, your drivers, and your compliance. Standard across the industry and not negotiable. Read it as what it is: being your own boss and carrying the entire bag are the same sentence.
FMCSA compliance
You agree to keep active authority, valid insurance, and compliance with hours of service, ELD rules, drug testing, and maintenance records. Let your authority lapse or your insurance expire and you are in breach, not merely inconvenienced. See FMCSA insurance requirements.
Cargo liability and the Carmack Amendment
The Carmack Amendment (49 U.S.C. 14706) is federal law making you liable for loss or damage to freight in interstate commerce, with limited exceptions. Your agreement states your cargo liability limits, and $100,000 per occurrence is standard for dry van.
Make sure your cargo insurance actually covers what the agreement says you are liable for. Signing a $250,000 liability limit with a $100,000 policy means the $150,000 gap is yours.
No re-brokering
You cannot pass a load you accepted to another carrier without written permission. Double brokering is illegal, and breaching this clause can end the agreement and expose you to criminal liability. If you accepted a load you cannot cover, call the broker. Quietly handing it off is the version that ends careers. See avoiding double brokering scams.
Payment terms
Net 30 from receipt of your signed delivery documents is standard. Some agreements say net 45 or net 60, and finding that out in week six is worse than finding it out now. Read this clause specifically. See how net 30 works and quick pay vs factoring if 30 days is too long to wait.
Indemnification
You hold the broker harmless for anything arising out of your operations. Accident, property damage, injury: yours. Their exposure ends the moment the freight is on your truck.
This clause is the entire reason "adequate insurance" is not a suggestion. The agreement has already decided who pays.
Governing law
Names whose state law applies, usually the broker's. Matters less than it appears, since federal transportation law governs most trucking disputes regardless. Know which state is on there anyway.
When a broker does not pay
It happens. In order:
- Formal demand letter
- Complaint with the FMCSA
- Claim against the broker's surety bond, which every licensed broker must carry at $75,000
- Transportation attorney
Move fast on the bond. $75,000 does not go far when a broker fails owing money to a queue of carriers, and it is first come, first served in practice. Check the broker before you haul, not after: how to verify a freight broker.
The signed agreement lives in your packet alongside your COI and W-9. See what a carrier packet is.