What is broker-carrier agreement?
A broker-carrier agreement is the standing contract between a freight broker and a carrier that governs every load they move together. It is signed once during onboarding, not per load.
It covers payment terms, insurance requirements, liability for cargo damage, whether the load may be re-brokered, and the conditions for claiming accessorials.
Individual loads are then booked under it by rate confirmation, which fills in the price and the appointments but inherits everything else from the agreement.
What it means on a dispatch desk
Two clauses decide how painful a broker relationship becomes, and both are easy to skip during onboarding: the window for filing accessorial and detention claims, and the terms for cargo claims. A thirty-day claim window and a fifteen-day one look identical on the page and behave completely differently when a driver reports a problem three weeks later.
Related terms
- Rate confirmationA rate confirmation is the document that sets the agreed price and terms for one specific load, issued by the broker and signed by the carrier before the truck moves. It governs that load only.
- AccessorialAn accessorial is any charge for work beyond moving the freight from origin to destination. Detention, layover, driver-assisted unloading, extra stops and tarping are all accessorials.
- FactoringFactoring is selling freight invoices to a third party at a discount in order to be paid within a day or two instead of waiting thirty to sixty days. The factoring company then collects from the broker.
- Quick payQuick pay is a broker's own offer to pay a carrier faster than the standard terms, in exchange for a percentage discount on the invoice. It is an alternative to factoring, arranged directly with the broker.
- Operating authorityOperating authority is federal permission for a company to transport regulated freight for other people across state lines in exchange for payment. Moving your own goods does not require it; moving somebody else's for money does.
Knowing the term is the easy half
Knowing which carriers are worth calling this morning is the hard half.
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