05/12/2021
Unauthorized Re-Brokering is probably the biggest liability issue that we encounter as brokers. Broker's cargo insurance generally will not insure re-brokered loads. This hurts the hauling carrier, broker, customer, everyone but the illegal operators in the middle. Unfortunately, the FMCSA refuses to do anything significant to shut these bad actors down. It's up to all of us to remain diligent and to know who we're working with. We are thankful that in over 10 years of business that we have had very few instances of carriers illegally re-brokering our loads.
For the carriers - one red flag that we've discovered from these bad actor brokers, are their cargo insurance is often listed as "Freight Broker Cargo Legal" - the Legal tag indicates cargo that will only pay via court order. It technically is sufficient coverage, but we've only ever encountered it for these double brokers.
We remain hopeful that the FMCSA and other enforcement arms will begin to address this problem - until then we will continue to scrutinize every detail during our carrier qualifying process.
Frustrated with load-board scammers, one broker is warning others to do their due diligence as the list of suspect companies has grown to nearly 500.
