Overview
Industry snapshot for small & mid-size freight brokers and independent agents. Data refreshes daily from Reddit, FMCSA, and analyst research.
Live · updated today
US Brokers (FMCSA)
26k–37k
70–85% are small
Independent Agents (est.)
15k–30k+
Under host brokerage MC
Telegram driver adoption
5–15%
Trending up
Top friction (30d)
Double brokering
214 mentions · ↑
Top friction points (last 30 days)
View all 1
Double brokering & fraud
Loads getting re-brokered by scammers, chargebacks, identity theft on carrier packets. Consistently the #1 pain point since 2023.
214
2
Missed carrier calls / no coverage after hours
Small brokers lose loads because they can't answer every dispatch call. Cited as top ops bottleneck for <10-person shops.
168
3
Rate transparency vs shipper margin pressure
Shippers demanding rate visibility, thinning margins. Small brokers can't compete with mega-brokers' spot pricing.
142
4
Manual data entry from rate cons / BOLs
PDFs, emails, faxed rate confirmations. Re-keying into TMS is the top time sink for agents.
128
5
Carrier vetting / MC verification friction
MyCarrierPackets, Highway, RMIS — tools proliferating but not integrated. Agents duplicate work across systems.
96
Channel mix
View all Phone / SMS94%
Email88%
DAT / Truckstop chat71%
Trucker Path28%
TMS-native chat (McLeod, Tai)24%
DC-area brokers to visit — high priority
View all D2R, LLC
Baltimore, MD · <10 employees · ~40–100 (est.) loads/mo
small
DMV Freight
Washington, DC · <10 employees · ~30–80 (est.) loads/mo
small
NOVA Freight
Northern VA, VA · 1–5 employees · ~30–80 (est.) loads/mo
small
FMCSA SAFER — brokers in DC/MD/VA
Multi, — · Varies employees · Verify per record loads/mo
small
LinkedIn — 'freight agent' + DC/Baltimore/NoVA
Multi, — · 1 employees · Solo, varies loads/mo
independent