Double brokering
Double brokering is when the party you booked doesn't haul the load but quietly re-brokers it to someone else. The freight moves under a carrier you never vetted, with insurance you never verified; if anything goes wrong, the chain of custody and the chain of payment both unravel, and the actual hauling carrier often goes unpaid even after the original broker pays.
Distinct from legitimate arrangements
Co-brokering with disclosure and consent is legal, and so is an entity that holds both carrier and broker authority using each openly. The defining feature of double brokering is concealment: you believed you tendered to the hauling carrier, and you didn't.
What the public record can and can't tell you
No federal dataset records "this load was double brokered"; the scheme lives in the gap between paperwork and the truck that shows up. What the record does expose is the setup that makes it possible: entities holding both carrier and broker authority, broker-only entities with no carrier operating authority on file that quote loads as if they held it, and identity mismatches between the MC number quoted and the legal name on the rate con. fleetfax shows dual authority and broker-only authority on every report where they apply, and shows the legal name behind any MC or USDOT number so you can compare it with the rate con; the dispatch-time defense (verifying that the driver and truck belong to the carrier you booked) remains yours, and no data tool can claim otherwise.
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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