UCR for brokers & freight forwarders
Yes — brokers and freight forwarders must register for UCR. Because you typically operate no power units of your own, you're assessed at the lowest bracket: $55 for 2027, regardless of how much freight you move. You still register annually using your USDOT number, and the deadline is the same: pay before January 1, 2027.
Brokers pay the lowest bracket
UCR brackets are based on power units. Brokers and freight forwarders generally own none, so you're assessed at the $55 minimum — no matter your shipment volume or revenue.
You still register every year
The low fee doesn't mean you can skip it. Brokers and forwarders are explicitly covered by UCR and must register annually, on the same January 1 enforcement timeline as carriers.
The screen brokers have to get right
Carrier Classifications. The portal shows five checkboxes — Motor Carrier, Motor Private Carrier, Freight Forwarder, Broker, Leasing Company — pre-ticked from your FMCSA record. Pre-ticked is not the same as correct: plenty of brokerages hold dual authority, or carry a Motor Carrier tick left over from an operation they've since wound down, and leaving that box checked sends you into a vehicle screen you have no business being on. Confirm that the boxes describe what you actually do today. From there the vehicle screen is anticlimactic for a pure brokerage — the counts for "Straight Trucks and Tractors" and "Passenger Vehicles" are zero, the portal computes a Vehicle Total of zero, and you land in the $55 bracket. If you do run your own trucks alongside the brokerage, those units count and you're assessed like a carrier.
Get through it with a copilot
Enter your USDOT and EasyUCR looks up your real carrier record from the FMCSA census — including the classifications the portal is about to show you — and an AI copilot guides you through the official UCR.gov registration one screen at a time while you do every click: the USDOT re-entry on the "Is this you?" screen, REGISTER NOW on the year's row, the intrastate-only certification, the classification checkboxes, and billing (card or ACH/eCheck; American Express isn't accepted). Paste a screenshot at any point and it tells you exactly where you are. Free to start, then $49 at the broker bracket, and the government fee is paid by you directly on UCR.gov.
Frequently asked questions
How much is UCR for a broker?+
Brokers and freight forwarders pay the lowest bracket — $55 for 2027 — because they operate no power units.
Do freight forwarders need UCR?+
Yes. Freight forwarders are covered by the UCR program and must register annually like brokers and carriers.
Which classification box should a broker tick?+
Broker — and only what genuinely applies. The portal pre-ticks the five classification checkboxes from your FMCSA record, so a dual-authority brokerage or a stale Motor Carrier flag can carry over. Correcting it there keeps you out of a vehicle assessment you don't owe.
We're a brokerage with a couple of our own trucks — what do we pay?+
Your bracket follows the power units, not the brokerage: 3–5 trucks is $167 for 2027, 6–20 is $333. Tick both classifications that apply and let the portal's vehicle screen compute the total.
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