Freight Broker

A freight broker connects shippers who need to move goods with carriers who have available capacity. The broker doesn't own trucks or handle freight directly – they operate as a matchmaker, leveraging their carrier network, market knowledge, and technology to find capacity at competitive rates. Brokers are licensed by the FMCSA and must hold a surety bond or trust fund to operate legally.

When a shipper tenders a load to a broker, the broker sources a carrier from their network, negotiates a rate with that carrier, and manages the shipment through delivery. The broker's revenue is the spread between the rate the shipper pays and the rate the carrier accepts – typically ranging from 12–20% depending on market conditions and lane competitiveness. Brokers handle carrier vetting, insurance verification, tracking, and often freight claims coordination on the shipper's behalf.

For shippers, brokers provide flexible capacity without the overhead of managing hundreds of direct carrier relationships. They're especially valuable for overflow freight that exceeds contract carrier commitments, lanes with inconsistent volume, or specialized equipment needs like temperature-controlled trailers. The tradeoff is cost – broker rates carry that margin – and sometimes reduced visibility, since tracking quality varies widely across brokerages.

The key consideration when working with brokers alongside a TMS is whether your platform treats brokers as just another carrier in the network or forces them into a separate workflow. The most efficient approach is querying your direct contract carriers and your broker partners simultaneously, letting cost, transit time, and performance data – not relationship politics – drive the decision.