Double brokering

The term covers two situations that carry very different weight. Illegal double brokering is a carrier re-brokering a load it was hired to haul, without broker authority and without telling anyone. Co-brokering is a broker passing a load to another broker with proper authority and the shipper's knowledge, which is lawful. People use "double brokered" for both, so ask which one is meant.

In practice. The carrier at the end of the chain hauls the freight and then finds nobody will admit to owing them. The party that hired them has no authority and no bond. The original broker says they already paid, and their payment went to the middle party.

Warning signs show up before you haul: a rate confirmation whose company name does not match the entity on the load board posting, a request to send the BOL to a different email domain, or a rate noticeably above the lane.

Example. A broker pays $2,400 to a middle party who booked the load. The middle party offers you $2,100, collects the $2,400, and disappears. You have no contract with the broker who actually paid, and their debt is discharged.

Why it matters for your cash flow. This is one of the few situations where the money is simply gone. Bond claims and factoring both assume a legitimate debtor exists, and in a double brokered load the debtor you invoice may never have owed you anything.