Clauses · DFARS · Supply chain and sourcing
DFARS 252.247-7003 Pass-Through of Motor Carrier Fuel Surcharge Adjustment to the Cost Bearer
Does the regulation require it to flow down?
Yes
(c) Subcontracts: 'The Contractor shall insert the substance of this clause, including this paragraph (c), in all subcontracts, including subcontracts for commercial products or commercial services, with motor carriers, brokers, or freight forwarders.' The mandate is filtered by counterparty, not by dollar value: it bites on every carrier, broker or forwarder you engage, at any tier and at any price, and on none of your material suppliers. That is why it is the one clause in this batch with a real flow-down duty attached — 6 of 43 corpus documents carry it, including Honeywell's commercial supplemental provisions.
- Form
- substance, including paragraph (c) itself — self-perpetuating
- Reaches
- all tiers, down the carrier / broker / freight forwarder chain
Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-05 · edition JAN 2023 (no alternates; page compiled at DFARS Change 5/7/2026, effective 2026-05-07) · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗
What it makes you produce
One item for your checklist.
Nothing to send, ever
There is no paperwork here. It is a rule you follow while you perform the work.
A rule that runs on every shipment under the order: a fuel-related surcharge collected on it goes to whoever directly bore the cost of the fuel, unless the contracting officer authorized an exception
DFARS 252.247-7003(b)
When it is used
Prescribed at DFARS 247.207(1) for carriage contracts 'in which a motor carrier, broker, or freight forwarder will provide or arrange truck transportation services that provide for a fuel-related adjustment'. No dollar threshold. Read the prescription literally, because it is unusual: as printed on 2026-08-05, 247.207(1) says 'in solicitations and contracts using FAR part 12 procedures for the acquisition of commercial products and commercial services' — commercial only — while the very next paragraph, 247.207(2) for 252.247-7028, uses the standard wider formula 'in solicitations and contracts, including solicitations and contracts using FAR part 12 procedures'. The contrast inside one section is on the page; whether the narrow wording in (1) is deliberate or a drafting artifact of the current compilation is (unconfirmed). DFARS 212.301(f)(xxi)(A) independently confirms it reaches commercial acquisitions. The clause implements section 884 of the FY2009 NDAA (Pub. L. 110-417). For a manufacturing sub it is dormant on its face and bites only through paragraph (c), when you engage a carrier, broker or freight forwarder under the order.
Read closely
(c) carries the clause into every subcontract with a motor carrier, broker, or freight forwarder, commercial ones included, at any dollar value — filtered by counterparty rather than by price, and reaching none of your material suppliers. The clause sets no form and no deadline; what an auditor reads is the carrier invoice bringing the surcharge in beside the payment record sending it on.
The 5 templates that name it, with the line
Source: acquisition.gov, DFARS 252.247-7003, DFARS 247.207 (read both on the clause page and in the Part 247 compilation), DFARS 212.301(f)(xxi)(A) (verified 2026-08-05)
This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.