Dear President Trump, Attorney General Bondi, Secretary Duffy & Members of Congress:

On May 6, 2020, the Small Business in Transportation Coalition (SBTC) filed a petition with then-Secretary Elaine Chao asking for rulemaking to stop large property (freight) brokers from coercing small motor carriers and independent truck drivers to waive their 49 CFR § 371.3 rights to see brokers’ invoices to their shipper clients, which enable carriers who are parties to the shipper broker transactions to calculate brokers’ commissions on loads hauled by those carriers, as a condition to do business. SBTC suggested this practice violates 49 U.S. Code § 14906 Evasion of Regulation of Carriers and Brokers, and has since suggested this practice may entail collusion and conspiracy to engage in racketeering and unreasonably restrain trade in violation of Antitrust Law, especially since the waiver language appears in multiple big brokers' contracts, in some cases verbatim. 

Owner-Operator Independent Drivers' Assocation (OOIDA) followed about two weeks later with a similar petition to United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) seeking stronger broker transparency rules, which also included a request for prohibition of the waivers of 49 CFR § 371.3. 

After holding a "Listening Session" in December of 2020, and opening a non-rulemaking docket and soliciting and reviewing comments from the public, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), granted the SBTC & OOIDA requests to commence rulemaking to strengthen transparency on March 16, 2023 and denied the Transportation Intermediaries Association's (TIA) request to repeal the transparency rule outright on March 17, 2023. The TIA primarily represents big freight brokers. TIA traditionally collects $14,400/year in membership dues from its large multi-billion-dollar third party logistics (3PL) members, as opposed to $600/year from its purported small members. 

In May of 2023, SBTC filed an ethics complaint with TIA (which accepts complaints from non-TIA member industry members under its policy) against TIA Member Company Total Quality Logistics LLC (TQL,) on behalf of SBTC Member Company Pink Cheetah Express LLC (Pink Cheetah), which was denied 49 CFR § 371.3 transparency on its January 2023 TQL-brokered load of ice cream. SBTC argued brokers are required to comply with 49 CFR § 371.3 while the SBTC May 6, 2020 petition for stronger transparency rules on brokers was pending, as evidenced by FMCSA's March 2022 letter to SBTC; that TIA's previous CEO Robert Voltmann had directed all members to comply with 49 CFR § 371.3 records requests (note: in response to April 2020 accusations from truckers that brokers were engaged in price-gouging, Voltmann represented that "average broker margins" were 16%); and that TIA's own "model broker-carrier contract," which does NOT require carriers to waive their rights to brokers' records under 49 CFR § 371.3, was an affirmation that language waiving 49 CFR § 371.3 is not apparently considered "BEST PRACTICES" by TIA, and that such waivers appear to violate various sections of the TIA Code of Ethics.

TIA's immediate response to SBTC was to issue a CEASE & DESIST letter, which SBTC advised TIA in reply it considered bogus and disingenuous. TIA to date (September 7, 2025) has never responded to the SBTC's complaint.

SBTC then notified International Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations (FIATA,) of which, TIA is a member in reference to FIATA's Ethics Policy for its member associations.

With the assistance of SBTC, Pink Cheetah then filed a complaint to Secretary Buttigieg asking USDOT to compel TQL to produce the requested shipper-related records for the January 2023 load of ice cream on October 31, 2023.

FMCSA Transportation Specialist Nelson Newcomb compelled compliance by TQL with respect to the documents for the load of ice cream, which, according to records SBTC received from FMCSA show TQL's take on the ice cream load was about 40% of what it received from the shipper.

Newcomb then privately (at the time) directed TQL on November 30, 2023 to cease using the waiver of carriers' 49 CFR § 371.3 rights language in its contracts as it "may" entail "Evasion of Regulation" and to comply with 49 CFR § 371.3 requests from carriers moving forward.

Pink Cheetah then requested the records on 14 additional TQL loads in December of 2023, which TQL refused to produce, and took the matter to attorney Laurence Socci who attempted to reason with TQL to no avail.  

On November 20, 2024, FMCSA published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to revise 49 CFR § 371.3 in large part suggesting the concept of transparency should be changed from a carrier's "right" to a broker's "duty." However, FMCSA stopped short of prohibiting the waivers through the proposed rule, which was requested by SBTC & OOIDA. Around that time, DAT Freight & Analytics, which operates load boards and rate-making tools, suggested Voltmann's 16% average broker margins had dropped to 14% (as of September 2025, DAT maintains that average margin statistic is now around 12.5%). 

SBTC explains the differences among broker load commissions, average broker gross margins, and average broker net margins here.

Just under 7,000 comments were filed during two comment periods for the November 2024 broker transparency rulemaking (the second of which, being commenced at the request of the SBTC after trucker advocates asked SBTC to seek more time for truckers to comment). 

The SBTC filed its own comment to the docket on the last day of the first comment period in January of 2025 directly with the then-newly-sworn President Trump (The Donald Trump Administration 2.0). 

In January of 2025, SBTC Member Company Pink Cheetah obtained from FMCSA under FOIA a copy of the November 30, 2023 directive to TQL, which ordered them to comply with 49 CFR § 371.3 thereafter and remove the evasive waiver language from their contracts. Because Pink Cheetah requested documents on 14 loads thereafter and the company believes TQL defied the FMCSA directive, it filed a currently-pending Federal lawsuit against TQL on February 25, 2025 (1:25-cv-00552-SLS PINK CHEETAH EXPRESS, LLC v. TOTAL QUALITY LOGISTICS, LLC, Sparkle L. Sooknanan, presiding) seeking for the Federal court to enforce the DOT order.

Thereafter, the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy held a "Roundtable Discussion" in April of 2025, attended by SBTC & TIA, among others. However, no small brokers were in attendance. Nonetheless, SBA Advocacy issued a letter to Secretary Duffy in May 2025 (and later to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice) addressing the pending property broker transparency rulemaking, suggesting, in part, on behalf of "small freight brokers" that USDOT might consider scrapping the November 20, 2024 rulemaking and starting over with a new "negotiated rulemaking" to hear 'small freight brokers'' concerns.

Through a FOIA request, SBTC has learned that TIA has been attempting to exert undue influence on SBA Advocacy since February of 2024 in a second backdoor attempt to kill the rule.

SBTC immediately took issue with TIA representing to SBA Advocacy that it was representing the interests of "small freight brokers" and SBA Advocacy followed suit in the letter to USDOT, when the position being advocated for was, in fact, the position of big brokers using the waiver language in their contracts, not small brokers as SBA Advocacy had purported to USDOT. SBA Advocacy staff admitted via email to SBTC that there were no small freight brokers actually in attendance at the Roundtable Discussion, only representatives from the big brokers' lobbyists from TIA.

SBTC then filed a complaint with the SBA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) alleging an appearance of impropriety because SBA seems to have picked up the torch of big brokers over independent truckers and small carriers, which accepted the complaint and advised SBTC the information and issues we presented were "of concern." SBTC maintains TIA exerted "undue influence" over SBA Advocacy and that there may have been government employee misconduct involved here. SBTC believes the OIG investigation remains open given recent documents received from the SBA OIG FOIA Unit. 

On May 25, 2025, SBTC appealed once again to President Trump

...to act through executive order, reminding him that he previously ordered a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into this matter in May of 2020 and that big brokers continue to violate transparency rules with impunity five years later.

The latest news is that USDOT has, as of September 4, 2025, now advised the public through the "Spring" 2025 Unified Agenda that it intends to issue a second NPRM on broker transparency in May of 2026 rather than complete the current rulemaking. FMCSA is therefore kicking the can on this issue, which is more than 5 years old, further down the road. And it appears TIA was successful in exerting what we believe is undue influence over SBA Advocacy. And, it appears SBA Advocacy has now convinced USDOT to go back to the drawing board on broker transparency at the 11th hour.

COME NOW, concerned members of the transportation industry, and the consumer public, requesting the President and Secretary of Transportation reconsider this decision, act to prevent big brokers' Evasion of Regulation; the Attorney General investigate the apparent loose-knit cartel calling itself "#FreightX" for apparent Criminal Antitrust and Racketeer-Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) violations; and for Congress to consider passing legislation that prohibits further unlawful evasion of transparency regulations in broker-carrier contracts  and make them punishable as criminal racketeering and/or unreasonable restraint of trade.   

Note: The original petition seeking legislation in furtherance of freight broker transparency was modified on September 7, 2025 to reflect the latest developments.

Brought to you by the: #FreightATeam.