What is quick pay?
Quick 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.
Standard terms are commonly thirty days. Quick pay compresses that to a few days for a fee of a few per cent.
It is offered per broker rather than across the industry, so a carrier working with several brokers may have quick pay available on some loads and not others.
What it means on a dispatch desk
Compare quick pay against the factoring rate on the same load rather than against nothing, because the habit of taking whichever was set up first survives long after it stopped being the cheaper one. On a broker paying reliably, quick pay is usually cheaper than factoring; on a broker who disputes invoices, factoring with recourse protection may be worth the extra.
Related terms
- 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.
- Proof of deliveryProof of delivery is the signed document confirming the receiver took the freight, usually the delivery copy of the bill of lading. It is what an invoice must be supported by before anyone pays it.
- Broker-carrier agreementA 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.
Knowing the term is the easy half
Knowing which carriers are worth calling this morning is the hard half.
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