Have a complaint about a broker or motor carrier?

Truck drivers complain about bad brokers or motor carriers all the time. But what can actually be done about it?

For years, the answers haven’t been great.

Yeah. You could try to file a lawsuit, but it could be costly and potentially fruitless.

Or you could submit a complaint to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s National Consumer Complaint Database. Unfortunately, it was a clunky website with confusing branding. Even worse, the response rate was not good.

The NCCDB is where complaints “go to die,” OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh told a House subcommittee in March.

“FMCSA’s National Consumer Complaint Database has proven to be an ineffective tool for motor carriers to report unscrupulous brokers and cases of freight fraud,” Pugh added in his submitted testimony. “Typically, truckers do not receive a satisfactory response when they call the NCCDB hotline or submit their problem via the online portal – if they receive one at all.”

The good news is that the U.S. Department of Transportation is pledging to change that.

The new NCCDB, which will soon have a new name, provides commercial motor vehicle drivers the opportunity to file complaints against moving companies, trucking companies, bus companies, substance abuse professionals, electronic logging device providers and property brokers.

“This overdue tech upgrade is a win for drivers, carriers and the driving public,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a news release. “The modernized database will make it easier to file complaints, access digital tools and empower individuals to speak up about unsafe practices. With your support, we will continue to take bad actors off the roads to keep the American people safe.”

Broker transparency

A noteworthy update is that NCCDB specifically mentions that truck drivers can submit complaints against brokers who fail to comply with transparency regulations.

“Is your complaint about a property broker? This could include a property broker failing to maintain transaction records or financial accounts with the required information, failing to maintain FMCSA registration or insurance, misrepresenting services or conducting improper rebating or compensation practices,” FMCSA wrote on the website.

Regulation 371.3 requires brokers to keep records of each transaction. Even more, each party to an individual transaction has the right to review the record. However, many brokers get around the regulation by requiring carriers to waive that right.

Truck drivers have complained for years that FMCSA has failed to enforce this regulation. In 2020, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association petitioned the agency to strengthen existing broker transparency rules.

FMCSA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking in 2024, but the new administration is expected to release an updated proposal in May 2026. Until then, however, truck drivers will have a place to inform the agency about brokers who are not complying with current regulations.

Pro-Trucker Package

In June, the U.S. Department of Transportation unveiled nine “Pro-Trucker” initiatives. One of those initiatives was to modernize the National Consumer Complaint Database. At the time, the DOT announced that the NCCDB was being migrated to a modern customer service platform to be user-friendly and mobile-friendly. The first updates were scheduled to be completed by Sept. 30, and the department met that deadline.

The initiative was a welcome one, as OOIDA had complained to FMCSA for years that the website needed an overhaul – including a new name to let truck drivers know they’re in the right place.

The second phase of the update, which is expected to be completed in the coming months, will introduce additional functionality and performance improvements. Maybe most importantly, however, the DOT announced that it will also introduce a new name for the database. As of press time, that name hadn’t been officially submitted to the Federal Register. LL