Auto Transport Broker vs Carrier
A broker arranges your vehicle's transportation and dispatches your shipment to a motor carrier; a carrier owns the truck, employs the driver and does the actual hauling. Both are separately registered with FMCSA, and one company can hold both registrations, but most companies in this business hold only one.
We're a broker. Our federal registration is MC-5573, USDOT 2962521, and you can check it yourself rather than take our word for it.
| Broker | Carrier | |
|---|---|---|
| Owns the truck | No | Yes |
| Employs the driver | No | Yes |
| Sets the price and books the shipment | Yes | Sometimes, if booked direct |
| Assigns the shipment to a company | Yes, to a carrier in its network | N/A (it is the company doing the hauling) |
| Cargo coverage in force on the vehicle | The assigned carrier's, not the broker's | Its own |
| Federal registration required | Broker authority (49 U.S.C. 13904) | Motor carrier authority (49 U.S.C. 13902) |
| Main advantage | A network of carriers, so a lane one carrier can't cover, or a truck that falls through, can be re-dispatched | Direct control over its own truck and schedule, with no intermediary |
What does an auto transport broker do?
An auto transport broker arranges a vehicle's transportation for a fee and assigns the shipment to a motor carrier, rather than hauling the vehicle itself.
A broker's job runs from the first quote through carrier assignment, price confirmation and payment: finding a qualified carrier for a specific shipment, at a specific price, and standing behind the booking through delivery. Federal regulation requires a broker to disclose that it is a broker in its advertising and bars it from representing its operations as those of a carrier.
What does an auto transport carrier do?
An auto transport carrier owns the trucks, employs the drivers, and physically hauls vehicles for compensation - it's the company whose equipment the vehicle is actually loaded onto.
A carrier can be booked directly by a customer, or it can take a load assigned to it by a broker. Either way, once a carrier accepts a shipment, that carrier's own truck and schedule are what the vehicle's move actually depends on.
What a broker does not do
A broker does not drive the truck, and the cargo coverage in force on a shipment belongs to the carrier hauling it, not to the broker who arranged it.
The two roles diverge here. A broker's job ends at finding, vetting and dispatching to a carrier, and physical possession of the vehicle, along with the insurance that follows it, passes to that carrier the moment it takes the load. A broker that says otherwise, or represents itself as the one doing the hauling, is misrepresenting its own registration.
Whose insurance covers my car - the broker's or the carrier's?
The carrier's cargo coverage is what's in force on your vehicle in transit, not the broker's. A broker verifies that the carrier it dispatches to holds active coverage, but the policy itself belongs to the carrier.
No matter which broker arranged the shipment or how the booking was made, the policy belongs to the carrier. You can ask the assigned carrier directly for its certificate of insurance ahead of pickup.
Is Wave Auto Transport a broker or a carrier?
We're a broker. FMCSA's public SAFER database lists Wave Auto Transport LLC (MC-5573, USDOT 2962521) with an entity type of Broker, zero power units on file and no drivers listed, which is the record of a company that arranges transport rather than owning trucks.
That means we find a qualified carrier for your shipment, confirm the price, and manage the booking through delivery — and we don't drive the truck ourselves. Both roles are separately licensed: we hold broker authority under MC-5573, and the carrier assigned to your shipment holds its own carrier authority and insurance, which we verify is active before dispatching your vehicle to it.
How do I check whether a company is a broker or a carrier?
Search the company's name, USDOT number or MC number in FMCSA's SAFER Company Snapshot search form. Its Entity Type field states Broker, Carrier, or both, for any company, not just us.
You can run this check in under a minute before booking with any company. See how to check if an auto transport company is legit for the fuller version of this process, including how to check operating authority, insurance and complaint history.
Should I book with a broker or a carrier?
Neither is a lesser version of the other: a broker offers reach across many carriers, a carrier offers direct control of one truck's schedule, and which matters more depends on your shipment.
A carrier controls its own schedule directly, so once that specific truck accepts your load, you're not waiting on a dispatcher to find a match. A broker doesn't own any trucks, but its network lets it cover a lane a single carrier might not run, and if an assigned carrier's truck falls through, a broker can re-dispatch your load to another carrier without you having to start the search over. The trade is reach against direct control of equipment and schedule.
Where these facts come from
The federal sources behind these regulatory claims are listed below with the date each was checked, along with Wave's own FMCSA SAFER record.
Frequently asked questions about brokers and carriers
- Is Wave Auto Transport a broker or a carrier?
We're a licensed broker (MC-5573, USDOT 2962521), not a carrier. We arrange your vehicle transportation and dispatch shipments to vetted carriers in our network rather than operating our own trucks.
- Can one company be both a broker and a carrier?
Yes, but only with two separate registrations. Federal law bars a broker from providing transportation as a motor carrier unless it has registered separately to do so.
- Who is liable if my car is damaged in transit - the broker or the carrier?
The carrier that was hauling your vehicle at the time. Federal cargo-liability rules for receipts and bills of lading place liability on the receiving and delivering carrier and don't name the broker.
- Does booking through a broker cost more than booking a carrier directly?
Neither model is inherently cheaper. Price depends on the lane, the vehicle and current carrier availability, not on whether the company itself owns a truck.
- How do I find out which carrier my broker assigned to my shipment?
Ask directly. A broker is required to keep a record of each brokered transaction naming the originating motor carrier and its registration number, and to make that record available to the parties to the transaction.
- Is booking through a broker riskier than booking direct with a carrier?
No federal rule ranks one as riskier than the other. What matters is whether the specific company, broker or carrier, is actively registered, insured and free of red flags, which you can check on FMCSA's SAFER system either way.
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