Working out who you are hiring
Is my moving company a broker or a carrier?
The short answer
Ask directly, and check the FMCSA record, because the two are registered differently. A carrier owns trucks and performs the move. A broker arranges it with someone else, which means the company you researched and the company that loads your belongings can be entirely different businesses.
Why it matters more than it sounds
- Who turns up. With a broker, you find out on the day, sometimes from a truck with a name you have never heard.
- Who is liable for loss and damage. It is generally the carrier that transported the goods, not the broker that sold you the job.
- Whose reviews you read. Researching a broker tells you about their sales process, not about the crew who will carry your furniture.
- Who you chase. A dispute involving a broker and a carrier can become an argument about which of them is responsible, with you in the middle.
Brokers are legal, and some are useful
Brokering is a registered activity and a legitimate one, particularly for long-distance moves where matching a shipment to available capacity is genuinely valuable. The problem is not brokers; it is undisclosed brokers. A company that tells you it brokers, names the likely carriers, and explains how liability works is doing the job. One that lets you assume it owns the truck is not.
Ask in these words: "Are you the carrier performing this move, or are you arranging it with another company?" Then ask for the answer in writing, and check the FMCSA registration type against what you were told.
Also asked
Can I insist on knowing the carrier in advance?
You can ask, and a broker may not know until the shipment is assigned. What you can insist on is knowing that a broker is involved, and on having the arrangement documented so nobody can later claim you were told.
The long version
Moving broker vs carrier: know who you hired
Learn how moving brokers and carriers differ, why it affects your move, how to identify each one, and which questions to ask.
Read the guide →General information about moving and about hiring, not advice about your move. Interstate household-goods moving within the United States is federally regulated; local, intrastate and Canadian moving is regulated by each state or province, and the rules differ. The authority for your move is the one to check.