The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration confirmed to Truckinginfo.com that it plans to issue an advance notice of proposed rulemaking as a step toward possibly raising broker bonds

from $10,000 to $300,000 and possibly as much as $500,000. The agency did not provide a timetable for the rulemaking.
The Owner Operator Independent Drivers Assn. reported the FMCSA rulemaking initiative last month, saying it came in response to a January 2004, OOIDA petition. OOIDA said that unscrupulous brokers used the low bond requirement to rip off truckers.
“We had a broker go out of business before Thanksgiving owing $500,000,” said OOIDA’s Gary Green. The low bond requirement allows brokers to go out of business, acquire a new bond under a new business name and re-open for business. Enforcement is so lax, Green said, that some brokers simply re-open without any bond at all.
Earlier this month, FMCSA Administrator Annette Sandberg told OOIDA that FMCSA had reviewed the association’s request and she had accepted the agency’s recommendation to open an advance notice of proposed rulemaking.
On its web site, OOIDA said it believes a bond of at least $300,000 to $500,000 would be necessary to cover the amounts of unpaid transportation charges incurred by brokers today. According to OOIDA, the broker bond was set at its current $10,000 limit in 1977. At that time, there were only 70 registered brokers. Today there are more than 15,000.
OOIDA president and CEO Jim Johnston is quoted on the OOIDA web site saying he expects strong opposition from many in the brokerage industry. However, broker George Imperatore, president of New Jersey-based Old River LLC, an agent for Land Transportation, told Truckinginfo.com that an increase was “long overdue.” However, he said, “it should not be raised all at once. The increase should be incremental over time so that good people are not hurt.”