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How to Verify a Driver or Truck Change Before Pickup (and Stop a Load Hijack)

By Connor Miller, Founder and CEO, FreightScout. Last updated 23 October 2026.

Short answer: treat any change to the driver, the truck, the phone number or the payment details after booking as a stop, not an update. Don't confirm it by replying to the message that asked for it. Call the carrier's dispatch on the number of record, get the change confirmed there, and don't give out the pickup address or a new number until it is. One phone call is cheaper than one stolen load.

Where do hijacks actually happen?

Everybody on the floor knows to vet the carrier before booking. Authority, insurance, the truck, the identity. Most brokerages are a lot better at that than they were a few years ago.

The problem is that the vetting happens once, at the booking. The theft happens later.

You book a good carrier. Clean authority, right insurance, a dispatcher who sounds like every other dispatcher. Then a few hours before pickup, something like this lands:

"Driver changed, here's his new cell."
"We swapped trucks, new unit number and trailer below."
"Please send the pickup details to this number instead."
"Our factoring changed, updated remit-to attached."

It's usually polite. It's usually short. And it lands on a rep who has a dozen other loads picking up that day. So they update the TMS, send the address, and move on. That's the moment the load stops belonging to the carrier you vetted.

Why does a change near pickup work so well for thieves?

Because it rides on trust you already gave. The carrier cleared your checks. The booking's done. The rep's brain has already filed this load under "covered." A change request doesn't feel like a new carrier. It feels like housekeeping.

It also shows up when everyone's busiest. Near pickup the rep's juggling appointments, late trucks and shipper calls. Nobody's looking for fraud in a two-line text.

And it usually comes in on a channel that proves nothing. A text from a new number. An email from an address that's one letter off. A call from someone who knows the load number, because the load number is on the rate con, and rate cons get forwarded.

What should count as a change?

Write it down for the floor so nobody has to decide on the fly. After booking, any of these is a stop until it's confirmed:

Change	Why it matters
New driver name or driver cell	The person showing up may not work for the carrier you booked
New truck or trailer number	The equipment at the dock may not belong to that carrier
A request to send pickup details somewhere new	That's how a thief gets the address
A reply from a different email domain or a new phone	The person on the other end may not be the carrier
New bank account, factoring company or remit-to	That's how the money gets redirected after the freight does

If it changes who shows up, where the details go, or where the money goes, it's a stop.

How do you verify the change?

Same order every time, by everybody, no exceptions for a friendly voice.

Don't use the contact info in the message. Not the number in the text, not the number in the new email signature, not "reply to confirm." The message asking for the change can't be the proof of the change.
Call the number of record. Pull the carrier's number from the authority record, not from the email thread. A thief would have to change the record itself to control that line.
Ask dispatch to confirm the change in their own words. Don't read them the new driver's name and ask "is that right?" Ask who's driving and what truck they're sending. If it matches, you're probably fine.
Hold the pickup address until it's confirmed. A load you never gave the address for can't be picked up by the wrong truck.
Log who confirmed it and how. Note the name, the number you called and the time on the load in the TMS. If anything goes wrong later, that note's your record.
If the line's dead or dispatch has never heard of it, stop. Don't release the load. Get a manager involved and treat the booking like it fell off.

Payment changes get the same treatment, and they go to whoever handles payables, not the rep. Never confirm a bank change by replying to the message that asked for it.

What should you check at pickup?

The phone call before pickup is the last cheap chance. Confirm the driver's name and cell, that the driver will take tracking, and that the truck being sent is the truck you booked. Then at the dock, the shipper should see the truck you were told about. A tractor or trailer marked for a different company is the time to stop and ask questions, not after the freight's rolled.

After pickup, watch for the signs a load's going somewhere it shouldn't: a tracking ping that goes stale, a truck that leaves the route, a driver who stops answering. Those shouldn't sit in a voicemail box until somebody gets around to them. They should come straight to a person.

How do you make this stick on a busy floor?

Rules like this break down for one reason: they depend on a tired rep remembering them at 3 PM on a Friday. If the check only happens when someone remembers to run it, it won't happen on the load that matters.

A few things help:

Put the rule in writing. One page, the table above, posted where reps can see it.
Make the stop the default. The TMS note isn't updated until dispatch of record confirms. No one gets yelled at for holding a load to make the call.
Take the call off the rep's plate where you can. The more the checks run on their own on every load, the less they depend on someone remembering.

That last one is where software actually helps, as long as it runs the check on every load and not just when a rep thinks to open it.

What does FreightScout do here?

FreightScout is built by a broker, not a software company. It's an AI execution layer that works the load on the TMS you already run. It's not a TMS and not a load board.

Here's what it does on this problem, and nothing more than what's on our site:

Before a rate is discussed, Cover checks authority, insurance that fits the freight, a truck that matches the load, and an identity that matches the record. A carrier that doesn't clear is held, and releasing it takes a person, on record.
When a carrier calls in, the caller's number is checked against the MC before a load word is spoken. If it doesn't match, he gets a call back on the number of record, not a booking on the number that called.
After booking, a new driver's number isn't changed because somebody called and said so. It's confirmed with the carrier's dispatch of record first. The same stop applies to a change in payment details.
During the move, Track places pickup, transit and delivery check calls, and the last check before an appointment is always a call. A stale ping or a truck that left the route comes back to a person with a reason.

We don't publish a fraud detection rate, and we don't claim fraud is solved. What we do is run the same checks on every load, so they don't depend on whether a rep had time.

It works on McLeod, Aljex, Tai or whatever TMS your team already logs into. By API where the TMS offers one, and by reading it in place where it doesn't, set up during implementation. The TMS stays the system of record. Everything runs supervised by default, you can switch it to autopilot per team and per action, and every action is logged and reversible.

The full vetting checklist is in how to vet a carrier in 2026, and the wider fraud playbook is in how to prevent double brokering.

Frequently asked questions

How do I verify a driver change before pickup?

Call the carrier's dispatch on the number of record, not the number in the message, and ask them who's driving and what truck they're sending. Hold the pickup address until dispatch confirms it, and log who confirmed it on the load.

What's the most common way loads get hijacked?

On a lot of floors it's not the booking call. It's a change request near pickup: a new driver, a new truck, a new number, or a request to send the details somewhere else. That's why every post-booking change should be a stop until the carrier's dispatch of record confirms it.

Should I trust a driver change sent from the carrier's email?

Not by itself. Email can be spoofed or come from a lookalike domain, and a real inbox can be compromised. Confirm the change by calling the number of record before you update anything or send the pickup details.

What do I do if dispatch of record doesn't know about the change?

Stop. Don't release the load or the address. Get a manager involved and treat the booking like it fell off, then re-cover it with a carrier you can verify.

How should a brokerage handle a carrier's bank or factoring change?

The same way: never confirm it by replying to the message that asked for it. Call the number of record, and route the change through whoever handles payables, not the rep on the load.

Can software stop load hijacking?

No software can promise that, and we don't publish a detection rate. What software can do is run the same checks on every load: check identity before a rate is discussed, call back on the number of record, and refuse to change a driver's number until the carrier's dispatch of record confirms it.

Does FreightScout replace my TMS?

No. FreightScout isn't a TMS and isn't a load board. It works on the TMS you already run, including McLeod, Aljex and Tai, and the TMS stays the system of record.

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