Process agent

Registered carriers, brokers and freight forwarders designate process agents on a BOC-3 filing: carriers for each state they operate in or cross, brokers for each state where they have offices or write contracts (49 CFR 366.4T). Blanket companies offer a single filing that covers every state. Changes to a designation must be reported to FMCSA within 30 days, and in some cases an entity acts as its own agent.

For a factor, the process agent is where legal papers go if you sue a client or a debtor broker. It is also a weak but real data point. Large blanket agents serve very many carriers, so sharing one means little, while a small local agent shared by a cluster of new authorities can be one thread linking related entities.

The carrier check shows the agent on file with the rest of the carrier's record.