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Double brokering
Double brokering is when a carrier or broker that accepted a load gives it to someone else to haul without the shipper's or the original broker's consent.
Last updated 11 October 2026.
The shipper tendered the freight to one company. A different company shows up, or a different company is quietly hauling it. You may not know until there is a claim, or until a carrier you never checked asks to be paid.
Consent is the line. Handing off a load you told the shipper you would cover, without telling them, is the problem. The MC number on the rate confirmation should be the MC number of the truck that loads.
The ordinary tells are dull. A dispatch number that does not match the carrier of record. A packet that belongs to a different company. A driver who cannot name the carrier you booked. None of that needs a theory. It needs the check before you talk rate.
The harm is practical. A cargo claim gets denied because the wrong company had the freight. The carrier you vetted never touched the load. The one that did may have no insurance you can collect on.
FreightScout checks authority, insurance, and identity before a rate is discussed, and a mismatched caller gets a call back on the number of record. That does not make the handoff impossible. It makes the unchecked one harder. How FreightScout vets a carrier before booking.
Questions people actually ask
What should match before a truck loads?
The carrier on the rate confirmation and the truck that actually loads. If the dispatch number, the packet, or the driver points at a different company, stop before the rate.
Does vetting make double brokering impossible?
No. It makes the unchecked handoff harder. Authority, insurance, and identity still get checked on this load, not assumed from last month.