US FREIGHT 101
The Dry Van
Playbook
Everything you need to know before opening a freight broker company: the $75K bond, daily workflow, where money is made — and where it disappears.
EQUIPMENT
A 53-foot box that moves America
A dry van is a fully enclosed box trailer with no temperature control. The industry standard is the 53-foot dry van: 53' long × 9'2" high × 8'6" wide, with about 3,489 cubic feet of interior space. It is the workhorse trailer of US long-haul freight.
Specs at a glance
Why VAN dominates
- ~46% of US semi-trailer market (2025 data)
- ~61% of trailer production between 2017–2021
- ~1.6M+ DOT-authorized carriers can pull a dry van
- Simplest claims profile — no temperature, no securement, no oversize permits
How VAN compares
| Equipment | What it is | Typical freight | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| VAN (Dry Van) | 53' enclosed box | Retail, packaged food, paper, e-commerce | Default — easiest start |
| Reefer | Van + temp control | Produce, frozen, pharma | Premium rates, claim risk |
| Flatbed | Open platform | Steel, lumber, machinery | Tarping/securement skills |
| Step Deck | Flatbed lower main deck | Tall machinery (>8'6") | Solves height issues |
| Power Only (PO) | Tractor without trailer | Drop-and-hook, drayage | Capital-light, growing |
| Drayage | Short-haul port/rail | Ocean containers | Local, regulated |
ECONOMICS
You're not a trucker. You're not a shipper.
You're the bridge.
A freight broker is the legal intermediary between a shipper (who has freight) and a motor carrier (who has a truck). You don't own trucks. You don't own freight. You own relationships, paperwork, and risk.
Who's who
The margin math
A simple equation that runs your business:
Industry benchmark: ~13% mean gross margin on dry van, ranging 10–20%.
December 2025 reality: ~15% with ~25% excess truck capacity in the market.
Breakeven for an established brokerage: ~$210–$215 gross margin per load to cover overhead.
Per-load economics by lane
| Avg load value | Typical margin $ | Typical margin % |
|---|---|---|
| $1,800 (regional spot) | $200–$300 | 11–17% |
| $2,500 (mid-haul) | $375–$450 | 15–18% |
| $5,000+ (long-haul, project) | $600–$1,000 | 12–20% |
Where the money IS made
- Repeat shippers (contract lanes) — RFP-awarded lanes pay predictably. Less re-quote labor, sticky relationships.
- Cherry-picked lanes — Understanding backhaul economics. Outbound CA → Midwest with a known return load to LA.
- Volume — 5 loads/day × $300 = $1,500/day per broker = ~$390K/year gross profit per rep.
- Accessorials — Detention, layover, TONU, lumpers — billed correctly, this is 5–15% extra revenue.
- Claims — Cargo damage above carrier insurance. Carmack Amendment spills liability onto brokers.
- Uncollected detention — Truck sat 8 hours, you didn't bill the shipper, you still owe the carrier.
- Deadhead — Carrier drove 200 empty miles you didn't price into the load.
- Factor fees — 1–3% off the top when you factor your AR.
- Carrier non-performance — Load late, shipper claws back, you eat it.
- Customer non-payment — Net 30 turns into Net 90 while you already paid the carrier.
- Spot whipsaws — Locked in contract at $1.85/mi, spot jumps to $2.68. Carriers reject your tenders.
REGULATORY
Before you book your first load:
the four things FMCSA requires
To legally broker a load in the United States you need all four of these on file with FMCSA:
- Broker Authority (USDOT# with broker designation — MC# phased out Oct 2025)
- BMC-84 Surety Bond OR BMC-85 Trust Fund — the $75,000 requirement
- BOC-3 Process Agent Designation — legal-service agents in all 50 states
- Unified Carrier Registration (UCR) — annual fee
Plus insurance (technically not FMCSA-required, but every shipper contract demands it).
FMCSA Broker Authority
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Where to apply | fmcsa.dot.gov via Unified Registration System (URS) |
| Fee | $300 per authority type |
| Processing time | ~4–6 weeks |
| Identity check | IDEMIA in-person verification — mandatory since April 1, 2025 |
| Big 2025 change | MC# phased out Oct 2025. You operate under USDOT# with broker designation. |
| Jan 16, 2026 deadline | All brokers must use BMC-84 OR BMC-85 with federally-insured trustee. |
The $75,000 Broker Bond
FMCSA requires every property broker to maintain $75,000 in financial security. You have two ways to do it:
Option 1 — BMC-84 Surety Bond (most common): A surety company guarantees the $75K. You pay an annual premium based on your credit.
Option 2 — BMC-85 Trust Fund (rare): You post actual $75,000 in cash or qualifying assets at a federally-insured trustee. Money locked up but no premiums.
Real BMC-84 premium pricing by FICO score (2025–2026)
| FICO Score | Premium Rate | Annual Cost | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| 750+ | ~1.25% | ~$938 | Excellent |
| 700–749 | 1–3% | $750–$2,250 | Good |
| 650–699 | 3.5–5.5% | $2,625–$4,125 | Fair |
| 600–649 | 3–8% | $2,250–$6,000 | Average |
| <600 | 5–12% | $3,750–$9,000 | Poor |
Realistic budget: $560–$9,000/year by credit tier. → Calculate your bond cost
What gets your bond CLAIMED
- Non-payment of carriers — #1 cause by a wide margin. You book a $1,800 load, the carrier delivers, you don't pay within terms → carrier files BMC-84 claim.
- Breach of broker-carrier contract — taking a load away from a carrier mid-transit, deceptive practices.
- Double brokering that traces back to your authority.
- Misrepresentation of shipper or rate terms.
A single paid claim usually destroys your business. Most sureties non-renew after one claim. No bond → no authority → done.
Insurance Stack
| Coverage | What it does | Annual cost |
|---|---|---|
| Contingent Cargo | Backup if carrier insurance fails ($100K standard) | $1,200–$2,500 |
| General Liability $1M/$2M | Office liability | $500–$2,000 |
| E&O (Errors & Omissions) | Professional negligence | $500–$1,500 |
| BOC-3 | Process agents in 50 states via commercial filer | $20–$129/year |
| UCR | Annual federal-state registration (2026 broker fee) | $46/year |
Year 1 budget — the realistic total
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| FMCSA Application | $300 |
| BMC-84 Bond premium (good credit) | $940 |
| BOC-3 Process Agent | $50 |
| UCR | $46 |
| Contingent Cargo + Auto + E&O bundle | $1,500 |
| General Liability $1M | $750 |
| Compliance subtotal | ~$3,586 |
| TMS / load board (DAT One Office) | $5,000–$8,000 |
| TOTAL Year 1 (compliance + tools) | ~$9,000–$12,000 |
OPERATIONS
From cold call to paid invoice —
the 9-step VAN broker workflow
What a broker actually does, in order, every day. Each step has its own tools, gotchas, and money-leaks. Skip a step and your bond pays for it.
- Direct shippers — best margin (15–25%), hardest to win. Cold calls, email, winning RFPs.
- Load boards (spot market) — DAT One ($149–$399/mo), Truckstop.com. Thinner margin but liquid.
- Co-brokering (legal) — another broker pays you to source carrier. Must be disclosed to shipper. Banned by many shipper contracts.
- 3PL partner programs — TQL, JBH 360, Echo, RXO overflow.
Primary tools: DAT One Select/Office, Truckstop.com (stricter carrier vetting), 123Loadboard, Trulos (cheap), your own internal CRM of vetted carriers.
Before you book ANY load:
- FMCSA SAFER lookup — by USDOT# (safer.fmcsa.dot.gov)
- Active operating authority
- Insurance on file (BMC-91 auto, BMC-32 cargo)
- CSA/SMS safety scores
- Out-of-Service rate + Crash history
Fraud-detection tools: MyCarrierPortal, Carrier411, Highway, RMIS, CarrierAssure
Identity verification (the step new brokers skip):
- Call the phone number on FMCSA record — NOT the phone on the email signature
- Verify factoring company / Notice of Assignment (NOA) — confirms where to send payment
- For loads >$10K — request video verification
- Brand-new MC# (under 12 months) on a "10-year-old" carrier
- Phone area code that doesn't match the registered state
- Email domain registered <90 days ago
- Refusal to do video verification
- Same-day signing eagerness
- Address is a virtual office / mailbox service
Negotiate per-mile or all-in. Carriers prefer all-in (linehaul + fuel + accessorials). Issue the Rate Confirmation (RC / RateCon) — binding agreement. Carrier signs RC, returns before dispatch. No signed RC = no load.
RC must include: Load #, origin/destination, appointment times, commodity, weight, equipment type, rate + payment terms, accessorial schedule, POD requirements.
Update your TMS (McLeod, Aljex, Tai, MercuryGate, Revenova, Alvys, Transport Pro, Logistically). Tender to the carrier driver/dispatcher. Confirm: driver name, truck #, trailer #, cell phone.
Manual check calls — phone the driver at dispatch, pickup, in-transit, delivery. Legacy but still common, especially for smaller carriers.
GPS / ELD tracking — Macropoint (Descartes), Project44, FourKites, Trucker Tools. Pings carrier ELD or driver app. ~70% of large shippers require it. Plus EDI 214 status updates to shipper TMS.
The trifecta you need for everything (payment, factoring, claim defense):
- RC (you have this from Step 4)
- Signed BOL — Bill of Lading signed by receiver = becomes POD (Proof of Delivery)
- POD upload — via TMS, carrier email, or Macropoint
No POD = no payment. Period.
Invoicing the shipper: Net 30 typical. Net 45/60 common with big shippers.
Paying the carrier (three ways):
- Standard: Net 30 from POD receipt
- QuickPay: 1–5 day pay for 1–3% fee (you keep the discount)
- Carrier factor: carrier sells invoice to a factor (RTS Financial, OTR Solutions, TBS, Apex). You pay the factor directly under Notice of Assignment.
Broker's own factor: If your shipper pays slow, you can factor your AR — typical 1–3% off the load. Solves the cash gap but eats margin.
OS&D (Over, Short, Damaged) noted at delivery on the BOL.
Carmack Amendment timeline:
- Claimant has 9 months minimum to file
- Carrier has 30 days to acknowledge
- Carrier has 120 days to pay or decline
- Concealed damage: 5 days to notify carrier
Broker's role: facilitate between shipper and carrier; sometimes broker pays the claim and chases the carrier's cargo policy.
RISK
The 8 ways a new VAN broker
goes broke in Year 1
Industry data, not marketing. 15,419 broker authorities revoked between 2022–2025 — $4 billion in losses. These are the patterns.
in losses from 15,419 revoked broker authorities (2022–2025)
What happens: A carrier you booked re-posts your load to ANOTHER carrier without your consent. They take your payment, vanish. The actual hauling carrier never gets paid and files against your bond.
- Call the FMCSA-registered phone — never accept email-only carriers
- Verify identity via Highway / CarrierOK / MyCarrierPortal
- Freeze the rate-con if the name on the COI doesn't match the FMCSA record
- Require driver name + truck# + trailer# before dispatch
- Use Macropoint with carrier-of-record matching
What happens: Scammers steal credentials of a legitimate, well-rated carrier (clean SAFER record, real insurance), pose as them on load boards, take the load legally, sell it on the spot market, and disappear with the payment.
Recent enforcement: FMCSA's April 2025 IDEMIA identity verification rule cut fraudulent registrations from 45/week to 3/week. But identity theft of existing carriers continues — different vector.
Estimated US cargo theft losses in 2025 (~60% surge from $455M in 2024)
2024 hot zones: California, Texas, Illinois = 46% of all US cargo theft. Dallas County up 78%.
Top 2024 targets: copper, electronics (audio + servers), crypto-mining hardware, food/beverage, household goods.
Prevention (high-value loads): team drivers (no overnight stops), GPS-tracked seals, no-stop-within-200-miles-of-pickup policy, known/dedicated carriers only.
What happens: Shipper holds the truck 8 hours past free time, refuses to pay detention. You still owe the carrier $50–$100/hr beyond the free 2 hours.
Prevention: in-and-out times logged with timestamped photos OR Macropoint. Detention rates ON the rate-con AND in shipper agreement. Hard cutoff at appointment time + 2 hour free + meter starts.
What happens: Net 30 turns into Net 90 with a slow shipper. You already paid the carrier on Day 5 via QuickPay or Day 30 standard. Result: $50K–$200K trapped in AR while operating costs keep coming.
Prevention: Credit-check every new shipper (Ansonia, RMIS, AnsonLogic, D&B). Cap exposure per customer (max $X open AR). Factor your AR if the shipper insists on long terms.
What happens: New brokers chase margin by paying carriers slow or short. Bond claims pile up → surety non-renews → authority revoked → done.
What happens: Broker factors AR at 1–3%. Pays carriers via QuickPay at 1–3%. Net effect: eats 6%+ of revenue when gross margin is only 15%. Or worse: overleveraged at 8–10× earnings via credit facilities. Margin compression hits → insolvency.
CARB (California Air Resources Board): January 1, 2025 — vehicles entering CA need a passing emissions test (Clean Truck Check). Brokers must only dispatch CARB-compliant carriers to CA. Penalty hits all three: shipper, broker, AND carrier.
IRP / IFTA: Carrier responsibility, but you must verify carrier is current. Bad standing = weak carrier signal in vetting.
PROFITABILITY
What a solo VAN broker actually earns
No spreadsheet fantasy. Industry-sourced numbers.
Per-load math (van, April 2026 market)
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Avg van spot rate (national) | $2.68/mile all-in | DAT Trendlines |
| Midwest van rate | $2.88/mile | DAT |
| Northeast van rate | $2.42/mile | DAT |
| Avg load length | ~700 miles | DAT |
| Avg revenue per load | ~$1,876 | calc |
| Avg broker margin (~15%) | ~$281 | calc |
| Avg carrier payout | ~$1,595 | calc |
Lane economics — what changes the math
Deadhead radius: A load requiring the carrier to drive 150 empty miles to pickup needs $300–$500 extra to keep the trip profitable. Brokers who ignore deadhead pay in tender rejections, late trucks, and blacklisting by good carriers.
Fuel surcharge math: 1¢/mile FSC for every ~6¢/gal increase above ~$1.20/gal baseline. With diesel ~$3.80, FSC ≈ $0.40–$0.50/mile.
Backhaul lanes: Cheaper outbound rate, made up on the return. Example: LA → Chicago at $2,200, Chicago → LA backhaul at $2,000. Combined trip = $4,200 / 4,000 miles round-trip.
Annual revenue benchmarks
Gross profit (14% margin): $42K–$140K
Take-home after expenses: $30K–$80K
Example: $1.3M × 14% = $182K gross profit → ~$134K net. Most who survive Year 1 land here.
Net: $200K–$1M. Never had a bond claim. Own their carrier relationships.
Working capital — the make-or-break number
Shippers pay Net 30 (often Net 45/60). Carriers expect Net 7 (or Net 1 if QuickPay). You need to float 3–4 weeks of revenue. At $1M run-rate that's ~$80K–$100K of float.
Three solutions:
- Broker-factoring — 1–3% off invoice, paid in 24h. Solves cash gap, eats margin.
- Credit line — bank line of credit secured by AR
- Equity capital — founder savings, partner investment
Want to model your own numbers? → Open the margin calculator
REFERENCE
50 terms every broker has to know
Interactive: type any term or partial match — results filter live.
WHAT NOW
Your first 30 days
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