A worker walking among parked trucks at sunset in an industrial yard.

Safety & Compliance

Your freight, on a truck we checked

Brokering freight means putting your cargo on someone else’s truck. Mill Freight verifies every carrier’s operating authority, safety rating and insurance before its first load and again at every tender, prohibits re-brokering outright, and holds the surety bond federal law requires of property brokers.

What we verify Talk to our compliance team

Why it matters to you

Vetting isn't our paperwork — it's your protection

Behind every check is a concrete outcome for your freight. Here's what our controls buy you.

Your freight goes on a vetted truck

No carrier hauls for us until its operating authority, safety rating and insurance have been verified — and all three are re-checked automatically at every tender, because any of them can lapse between one load and the next.

Re-brokering is prohibited, not discouraged

Every broker-carrier agreement forbids handing your load to a carrier we never vetted. Double-brokering is how freight disappears and how a cargo claim ends up against an uninsured entity — so we treat a breach as grounds for immediate termination and offset.

A bond that pays carriers if we don't

Federal law requires every property broker to hold a $75,000 surety bond, and it exists to pay carriers when the broker fails to. We disclose the bond and surety on request. A carrier we have not paid can claim against it.

What every carrier must hold

What we verify before a carrier hauls

Every item below is a federal registration or an insurance filing we check ourselves, free of charge, in public FMCSA systems — not something a carrier buys from us.

MCLicensed

Interstate operating authority

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

A carrier crossing state lines for hire needs operating authority in active status, not merely applied for or reinstated-pending. We check it in FMCSA Licensing & Insurance at onboarding and again at every tender, because authority can be revoked between one load and the next and a revoked carrier is an uninsured one.

Checked in FMCSA Licensing & Insurance before the first load and again at every tender — authority can be revoked for an insurance lapse between one load and the next, and a revoked carrier is an uninsured one.

USDOTLicensed

USDOT number in active status

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

The USDOT number is how a carrier's safety record is tracked — inspections, violations, crashes and out-of-service rates. We check status and rating in SAFER before dispatch. A carrier rated Unsatisfactory or Unfit is not tendered freight, and deteriorating BASIC scores are reviewed rather than ignored.

Status and safety rating checked in SAFER before dispatch. A carrier rated Unsatisfactory or Unfit is not tendered freight, and deteriorating BASIC scores get reviewed rather than ignored.

INSLicensed

Cargo and auto liability insurance

The carrier's insurer, certificate filed with us

We require a certificate of insurance sent directly by the carrier's agent, naming Mill Freight as certificate holder so we are notified on cancellation. Minimums are $1,000,000 auto liability and $100,000 cargo, higher on commodities that warrant it. A certificate forwarded by the carrier rather than the agent is not accepted — that is the single most commonly forged document in freight.

The certificate must come directly from the carrier's insurer or licensed agent, naming us as certificate holder so we are notified on cancellation. A certificate forwarded by the carrier itself is not accepted — it is the most commonly forged document in freight.

HMLicensed

Hazardous materials registration

PHMSA and FMCSA

Carriers moving placarded hazardous materials need current PHMSA registration, hazmat authority on their operating authority, drivers holding a hazmat endorsement, and cargo coverage that does not exclude hazmat. We check all four before tendering regulated freight, and we do not tender it to carriers who are not set up for it.

Four separate checks before any placarded load: PHMSA registration, hazmat on the operating authority, a driver with the endorsement, and cargo cover without a hazmat exclusion. The insurance exclusion is the one most often missed.

Standards & controls

The standards we hold ourselves to

Beyond carrier vetting, these are the regulatory obligations we work under as a licensed property broker and the internal controls we operate on every load.

Broker authority

FMCSA property broker licence

49 CFR Part 371

Mill Freight operates as a licensed property broker. We arrange transportation provided by authorised motor carriers; we do not operate trucks and we do not employ drivers. Our MC number appears on every rate confirmation, so any shipper or carrier can verify our authority and its status directly in FMCSA SAFER.

BMC-84

$75,000 surety bond

49 U.S.C. 13906 and 49 CFR 387.307

Federal law requires every property broker to maintain a $75,000 surety bond or trust fund, which exists to pay carriers if the broker does not. The bond number and surety are disclosed on request, and a carrier who is not paid can claim against it. We regard that as the correct order of protection, not a formality.

Carrier vetting

Carrier qualification & continuous monitoring

Controls we operate — not an external certification

Every carrier is qualified before its first load — authority status, safety rating, insurance verified with the agent, and a signed broker-carrier agreement — and re-checked automatically at each tender. We monitor for authority revocation, insurance lapse and deteriorating safety scores between loads. These are internal controls we operate and can walk you through, not an audited certification.

FMC OTI

Ocean transportation intermediary licence

Federal Maritime Commission, 46 CFR Part 515

Handling US ocean freight as an NVOCC or ocean forwarder requires an FMC licence and a bond, and a non-US-domiciled NVOCC is bonded at a higher figure than a US one — which applies to us, since the registered office is in Hong Kong. Any shipper can verify our OTI licence in the FMC's own database.

Air cargo

Indirect air carrier security programme

TSA 49 CFR Part 1548, and IATA accreditation

Air cargo tendered in the US moves under a TSA-approved security programme, with known-shipper and screening obligations that sit on the forwarder, not the airline. Where we hold airline stock we do so under IATA accreditation.

Cargo liability

Three liability regimes, not one

Carmack (49 U.S.C. 14706) · COGSA / Hague-Visby · Montreal Convention

Who pays for damaged cargo, and how much, depends entirely on the leg it happened on. Inland US road freight falls under the Carmack Amendment, where the motor carrier is liable for full actual loss subject to its tariff. Ocean freight falls under COGSA or Hague-Visby, where the limit is per package or per kilo and is usually far below the value of the goods. Air falls under the Montreal Convention, limited by weight. On a door-to-door move a single shipment can cross all three. We tell you at booking which regime applies to each leg and where the limit sits, because that is the point at which you can still decide to buy cargo insurance — not after a claim.

A trained team

Good freight moves on good carriers. Haul with us.

We pay net 30 on a clean POD, disclose quick-pay terms before you accept a load rather than after, and put every accessorial on the rate confirmation instead of arguing about it at the dock. If that is how you want to be treated, we’d like to hear from you.

Contact carrier relations

Two colleagues manoeuvring a trolley through a large warehouse filled with boxes.

Move your freight without wondering who is hauling it

Every load we cover carries the full weight of our vetting behind it. Tell us your lane — we'll show you exactly who would haul it and what we checked.

Get a rate Haul with us