Glossary

Common vs contract authority

For-hire motor carriers operate under a grant of operating authority from FMCSA. Historically that grant came in two forms: common authority and contract authority. Common authority is permission to haul freight for the general public; contract authority is permission to haul under continuing contracts with specific shippers. FMCSA still tracks the two as separate status fields on a carrier's record.

Why the distinction has faded

The split between common and contract carriers carried real regulatory weight before deregulation. Today, for a property (non-household-goods) carrier, the practical question is simpler: does the carrier hold an active for-hire authority of either kind? A property carrier with active common authority, active contract authority, or both is authorized to move regulated freight for hire. fleetfax reads a carrier's authority as active when either the common or the contract status is active.

Where it still matters

Household-goods (moving) carriers are a separate case with their own authority requirements, and the common-versus-contract label carries more meaning there. For general freight, the split rarely changes a vetting outcome. What matters is the presence of an active for-hire authority in the correct category, and whether that authority has ever lapsed or been revoked.

The distinction that does matter

The trap is not common versus contract. It is confusing a carrier's authority with a broker's authority. A company can hold active broker authority and no active motor-carrier authority at all, which means it is licensed to arrange freight, not to haul it. When you book a truck, the entity that will carry the load needs active motor-carrier authority, common or contract, not solely broker or freight-forwarder authority.

A concrete case

Take a dry-van carrier quoting a load. On the federal record it might show common authority active and contract authority not requested, or the reverse, or both active. For a general-freight booking, any of those combinations means the same thing: the carrier is authorized to haul for hire. What would change the answer is a carrier showing neither active, or showing only broker authority active, which is the case where the entity can arrange freight but is not federally authorized to carry it on its own trucks. That is the read that matters, not which of the two for-hire categories the authority happens to sit in.

Related terms