Double brokering

The honest version of double brokering is a carrier that took more freight than it had trucks for and gave a load to a friend. The dishonest version is a company that exists to accept loads, re-post them on a load board at a lower rate, collect the broker’s payment, and never pay the carrier that actually hauled the freight; or to take the load and the freight and disappear.

Why it matters to a broker even when the freight arrives:

• Insurance. The certificate on file belongs to the carrier on the rate confirmation. The truck at the dock belongs to someone else. A loss is uninsured.
• Payment. The hauling carrier, unpaid by the middleman, comes to the broker or the shipper for the money. Brokers have paid for the same load twice.
• Liability. The shipper’s contract with the broker promised vetted carriers.

Signs a broker looks for: a carrier whose MC authority is weeks old, a phone number or email that does not match FMCSA records, a rate accepted without negotiation, a truck at pickup with a different name on the door, a driver whose dispatcher cannot be reached at the number on file, and a load posted on a public board minutes after the broker covered it. Onboarding services check the first two; the rest come from the dock and the driver.

The rate confirmation and carrier agreement carry the prohibition. The defense is verification before dispatch and identity checks at the dock, and a tracking method that talks to the driver actually on the load.