Ask the broker for the record: your right to see the paper on your own load

What the record contains

The broker must keep a record of each transaction: the shipper's name and address, the carrier's name, the bill of lading or freight bill, the amount of compensation the broker received from the shipper, the amount of any freight charges collected, and the date of payment. In plain words: what the shipper paid, what you got, and when. The margin question, per load, answered from the broker's own books — the only place it can be answered honestly.

How to ask

1. Ask in writing — a letter or email in your name, from your carrier, about your load. Third parties do not hold this right; you do.
2. Name the load exactly: rate confirmation number, pickup and delivery dates, origin and destination, your invoice number and amount.
3. Ask plainly for the record of the transaction under 49 CFR 371.3, including the compensation the broker received from the shipper for this load.
4. Keep the dated copy with your claim file. What happens next — a record received, a waiver cited, or silence — is itself a fact worth having on paper.

When a FileTheBond claim is filed, this letter is prepared from the same file at no extra charge — the companion filings are free because charging for them would be charging for the exercise of your own right.

Honest limit one: the waiver

Many broker-carrier agreements contain a line waiving the carrier's right to review the records — signed away in the setup packet, usually unread, before the first load. If your agreement has it, the broker can lawfully answer your request by pointing at your own signature. The letter does not override your contract, and we say so before one is ever sent on a claim. Read your setup packet; know which side of this line your loads sit on.

Honest limit two: no deadline

The current rule sets no deadline for the broker to answer. Read that twice, because it changes what the request is. A broker who answers in a week and a broker who never answers are, today, in the same legal position — which means a non-response is a fact to record, not a violation to wave. We record it exactly that way: request sent on this date, no response as of day 30. Nothing stronger, because nothing stronger is true. (The rule has been under review, with a fast answer deadline proposed; if a final rule sets one, this page changes the same week — a deadline existing changes what silence means.)

Questions people ask

Can the broker charge me for the record?

The rule gives parties the right to review the transaction record; it is your own transaction's paper. A broker who answers with an invoice for it is telling you something — write that down too, with the date.

Will the record help my bond claim?

It can. The record shows what the shipper paid and when — useful where a broker claims the shipper never paid him, a common reason given for not paying you. The claim itself still stands on your five papers.

I signed a waiver years ago. Dead end?

For loads under that agreement, largely yes — the waiver is the broker's answer. It is still worth knowing it is there: it belongs in your decision about whose loads to haul next season.