Freight Broker
A licensed intermediary that arranges transportation between shippers and motor carriers without operating trucks itself, earning the spread between the shipper rate and the carrier buy rate.
How it works — and why it matters
A broker takes a shipper's load, finds a qualified carrier with matching capacity, negotiates the rate, and manages execution — tracking, paperwork, and payment. Brokers must hold FMCSA broker authority and a $75,000 surety bond (BMC-84/85), and they carry the carrier-selection risk: vetting authority, insurance, and safety before dispatching freight.
Brokerage runs on speed and information: covering loads faster than the next broker, quoting spot rates accurately, and knowing where trucks are without phone calls. That makes brokers heavy users of digital freight matching, carrier-vetting tools, and automated status feeds — and prime targets of double-brokering fraud, which is why identity verification has become central to the model.