Results are in from the more than 500 owner-operators and small fleet owners who completed Overdrive's survey this Spring probing freight frauds and broker vetting, nonpayment issues and bond claims, in addition to other big topics.
- Carrier vetting: Truckers revealed how they really feel about systems brokers use to onboard, vet and monitor carriers, and reasons middlemen give for denying business. The No. 1 and 2 systems experienced were Truckstop.com's RMIS (69%) and Highway (61%), and most owner-ops cited negative principal impacts of the proliferation of vetting.
- Nonpayment prevalence: Half of all respondents reported being stiffed by a broker for an entire load's payment, 30% a partial load.
- Nonpayment recourse: A whopping 93% of owner-operators felt the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's minimum $75,000 bonding requirement for brokers was insufficient to cover claims arising from high-profile broker failures and double brokers in the flame-out phase, with no intent to pay carriers.
[Related: Broker transparency, AEBs ...: When 2026 rulemakings are expected]
The 19-page report charts the nitty gritty of owner-operator experience in spot markets where brokers operate. Strategies to guard against fraudulent brokers seeking "free" freight movement emerge.
Almost half of respondents most commonly used load boards' and/or factoring companies' tools for credit/authority checks, yet simply avoiding brokers altogether plays a prime role for the 7% of truckers who'd learned lessons from past experience.
Policies/procedures to avoid bad/fraudulent brokers
Owner-operators have taken the vetting practices brokers apply to their own businesses to heart -- as shown, nearly a third of survey respondents reported never working with a broker without some proven time in business. Past Overdrive analysis of brokersʼ authority revocations found an average 14.5 months in business for new brokers whose authority was revoked, a good benchmark to use in insulating yourself from frauds. One survey respondent took that a step further, specifying any broker must have a “minimum number of good reviewsˮ over a certain amount of time in business, too.Overdrive's 2026 broker vetting survey
With surety requirements not living up to their intended purpose for most survey respondents, one flagged his own way to weed out the bottom-dollar brokers and frauds, sticking to middlemen with obvious skin in the game, so to speak.
"An asset-based broker knows the expense of owning equipment," he said. "Rates to transport freight for a broker/carrier are most times better.ˮ
Download the full report via the form below:
[Related: How carrier vetting changed, before and after big SCOTUS ruling]
