Booking direct with a carrier, or through a broker: what each one gets you

Seven hundred and twenty people a month search for an LTL quote from a specific named carrier, which tells you that going direct is an obvious option and that people take it. It is a perfectly good option. Here is what each route actually gives you.

What booking direct gets you

• No intermediary margin. The rate is the rate.
• A direct relationship, which on high volume in a single lane can beat anything a broker offers, because discounts are negotiated off a base tariff.
• One system to learn, and consistent paperwork.
• Clarity of liability. One company is responsible and you are their customer.

If you ship regularly on lanes a single carrier serves well, direct is frequently the right answer and any broker telling you otherwise is selling.

What a broker gets you

• Multiple carriers on one lane, which matters because carrier strength is geographic. No carrier is best everywhere.
• Coverage where your volume is too small to earn a direct rate.
• Someone whose job is the exception. A missed pickup, a re-rate dispute, a damage claim, a shipment that has stopped moving. This is most of what the margin buys, and it is invisible until something goes wrong.
• Mode comparison. A carrier quotes their own service. A broker can quote LTL against partial, which on awkward freight changes the answer. See the mode comparison.

The question worth asking any broker

What is your margin on this shipment? It is a reasonable question, it has a numerical answer, and the willingness to give it tells you most of what you need to know. Some brokers work on a disclosed margin, some on a buy-sell spread they do not reveal. Neither is wrong; not knowing which is.

The two things a broker must be able to show

Federal brokerage authority, by number, and a surety bond. Operating without them is a violation, and both are checkable in a public federal register in about a minute. Ours are on the about page, and checking them is a better use of your time than reading testimonials.

The honest summary

High volume, few lanes, robust freight, in-house shipping expertise: go direct. Variable lanes, awkward freight, no time to manage exceptions, or volume too small for direct rates: a broker earns its margin. Anyone who answers this question the same way for every shipper is not answering it.