Co-brokering
Co-brokering is when one broker arranges for another broker to help cover a load, and both sides know about it. The first broker holds the customer relationship; the second broker finds and manages a carrier. Done openly and with permission, it is a legitimate way to move freight one broker cannot cover alone.
The line against double brokering
Co-brokering and double brokering look similar on the surface and are often confused, but the difference is consent and disclosure. Co-brokering is authorized: both brokers hold their own FMCSA broker registration, and the arrangement is known to the parties and typically permitted under the relevant contracts. Double brokering has no definition in federal law or regulation; FMCSA has said most people using the term mean someone acting as a broker without broker authority. It is the handoff done in the dark, without the shipper's or original broker's knowledge, so the freight ends up with a carrier nobody vetted and the payment chain can break.
Re-brokering and carrier agreements
Many broker-carrier agreements restrict or forbid re-brokering precisely to keep an authorized co-broker arrangement from sliding into an unauthorized one. For a shipper, the practical concern is the same either way: knowing which carrier actually hauled the load, and whether that carrier was vetted. The federal record identifies the carrier that ends up with the freight; the paperwork should agree with it.
A concrete case
A broker covering a customer's freight is short on trucks in a region and asks a partner broker to source a carrier, with the customer aware that a partner is involved. Payment and responsibility are set between the two brokers, and the carrier is vetted before it hauls. That is co-brokering. The same load, moved by a carrier the customer never knew about and never vetted, with the original broker unaware, is double brokering. The freight moved either way; the difference is who knew and who agreed.
fleetfax reads public FMCSA data and is not affiliated with FMCSA or the U.S. Department of Transportation. This page explains terminology; it is not legal advice.
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