Guide for shippers

How to choose a freight broker (and verify it in 5 minutes)

Bear Shift Logistics team · Published October 14, 2026

What a broker does and doesn't do

A freight broker is a company licensed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to arrange truck transportation for other people's freight. It finds a carrier with the right equipment, agrees the price with you and with the carrier, books the pickup, shares the paperwork and follows the shipment to delivery. For a shipper, a good broker takes over the work of finding, checking and managing trucks one load at a time.

What a broker does not do matters just as much. It does not drive the truck, it does not take possession of your freight, and it is not the carrier named on the bill of lading. The carrier hauls the load under its own operating authority. That split tells you which questions to ask: the broker answers for arranging the move well — choosing a qualified carrier, getting the details right, keeping you informed — and the carrier answers for the freight while it is in its care. The checks below apply whether you send a few pallets as LTL or a partial load or a full truckload every week.

Check the authority on FMCSA SAFER (USDOT, MC, bond in L&I)

Every legitimate freight broker has a USDOT number and broker operating authority, usually shown with an MC number. You can check both for free on SAFER, the FMCSA's public company lookup:

1. Ask the broker for its USDOT number and look it up on SAFER. Searching by USDOT is more reliable than searching by name, because many companies have similar names.
2. In the company snapshot, check that the entity type includes broker and that the operating authority is active. A company registered only as a carrier has no authority to broker your freight.
3. Compare the legal name, address and phone number with the ones on the broker's quote, website and emails. A mismatch can mean someone is using another company's numbers.
4. Open the Licensing & Insurance (L&I) record for the same company. For a broker it shows the authority history and the financial security on file: a surety bond or a trust fund agreement of $75,000, the amount federal rules require of every property broker (49 CFR 387.307).

The bond is not cargo insurance. It backs payment to shippers and carriers if a broker fails to honor its contracts to arrange transportation, and a broker has to keep it in place to keep its authority. That makes it one of the simplest checks you can run before you book.

Insurance: whose policy covers your freight

When freight is lost or damaged in transit, the policy that usually responds first is the carrier's cargo insurance, because the carrier had the freight in its care. That is why the checks a broker runs on each carrier matter more than any promise in a brochure. Before we book a carrier for your load, we check its operating authority and its insurance: we only book carriers with at least $100,000 in cargo insurance and $1,000,000 in auto liability, checked on their certificate of insurance.

Three questions are worth asking any broker:

• What cargo coverage do your carriers carry? A specific minimum, checked on a certificate of insurance, is a better answer than “they're all insured”.
• What if my freight is worth more? A carrier's cargo policy has a limit, its own terms and its exclusions, and the carrier's tariff or the bill of lading can limit what it owes. If your freight is worth more than $100,000, tell us when you ask for a price; for full value, keep your own cargo policy.
• Does the broker sell cargo insurance? Some brokers do and some don't. Bear Shift doesn't sell cargo insurance.

Questions to ask before the first load

A short call tells you a lot about a broker. Before you send your first load, ask:

• Who will haul my freight, and how do you check that carrier before booking it?
• Is the price for the whole move, and which extras could be added — a liftgate, waiting time, an extra stop, a truck ordered and not used?
• How do I get the bill of lading, follow the shipment and receive the proof of delivery?
• What are the payment terms, and do new customers pay before the truck leaves?
• Who do I contact if something goes wrong, and how do you help with a damage claim?

Good answers are specific and come in writing. Our page for shippers explains how we quote, book and bill, and our about page explains our authority and our bond, and how to check both yourself. When you are ready, ask for a quote with your lane, your pallet count and your dates.

Red flags (no bond, no written rate confirmation, double brokering)

• No broker authority or no bond on file. If SAFER doesn't show active broker authority, or the L&I record shows no financial security, don't book.
• Nothing in writing. A broker should confirm the price, the pickup and delivery details and any extras in writing before a truck is booked, just as it sends each carrier a written rate confirmation. A price that only exists in a phone call is hard to hold anyone to.
• A price far below everyone else's. An unusually low quote can mean the load will be passed to whoever accepts the least, or that extras will show up on the invoice later.
• Double brokering. This is when the carrier a load was given to hands it to another company without the shipper's or the broker's knowledge. Your freight ends up with a truck nobody checked, and the carrier that hauls it may not get paid. Ask whether the broker's carrier agreements prohibit it; our guide on how brokers vet carriers explains what to look for.
• Details that don't match. An email from a free account, a phone number that differs from the FMCSA record, or pressure to pay in an unusual way are reasons to stop and verify before anything else.

Questions about choosing a freight broker

This guide is general information about freight brokerage, not legal advice. Your bill of lading, quote terms and the carrier's tariff govern each shipment.