A load being re-brokered to another carrier without the shipper's knowledge, often to steal the payment.
You haul the freight, deliver it clean, and the entity that dispatched you was never authorised to broker it. The money goes to them and the real broker has no obligation to you.
Estimates put losses in the billions in recent years and most of it lands on small carriers. In an Overdrive survey of 500-plus owner-operators and small fleets, half reported being stiffed for a whole load.
The defences are unglamorous: verify authority against the federal record, be suspicious of rates well above market, confirm the entity on the rate confirmation matches the entity that called you, and check that contact details match the registered record.
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Inteleri works out what a load actually pays you once things like this land. See how it works.