Dehan recommended that carriers learn more about their broker partners to build relationships and acquire more consistent freight. (TippaPatt/Getty Images)
Truckstop stressed the importance of carriers building trust with brokerage companies after releasing a survey showing fraud as their top issue April 9.
The Broker Insights Survey found that two-thirds of brokers cite fraud as their top issue. Double brokering is the most reported threat, with 86% of brokers experiencing this type of fraud. Nearly 50% of brokers have been impacted by other types of fraud, including identity theft and stolen loads. The takeaway is that carrier trust is becoming increasingly important.
“This idea of relationships is not so abstract as it is very concrete,” said Sean Dehan, vice president of corporate strategy at Truckstop. “Who are the people at a specific brokerage that you can call? Do you have a main point of contact who you can ask for support from, who you can ask for more freight from, who you can ask what you can do more of to get more of their freight?”
Truckstop revealed the survey during a presentation at the TIA 2025 Capital Ideas Conference. The presentation also included demos showcasing how its integrated platform helps to mitigate risk while also growing the business, such as vetting, authority filtering, onboarding and monitoring tools built into the platform.
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“Those are the key things that we think about for carriers,” Dehan said. “You’ll continue to see innovations from Truckstop along the lines of, ‘How do we help carriers represent themselves the best way they possibly can?’ You also see what we’re doing with some of the product improvements, and some of the product enhancements we’re making, like the authority filter requirement.”
Dehan also recommended that carriers learn more about their broker partners to build relationships and acquire more consistent freight, such as asking what lanes best match their book of business to then adapt operations.
“The really good carriers, in my experience, the really good truckers, are building relationships to the future too,” Dehan said. “So if I’m a carrier and I have a 12-month authority, there’s probably a lot of freight available to me, but there’s also some freight that’s not available to me because maybe it requires 18 months or 24 months authority. The impact of that is, I can actually call those brokerages.”
Dehan explained that carriers should focus on laying the groundwork for future relationships. Getting on brokers’ radar is an initial step, but carriers can also use this opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the broker’s business. By understanding the broker’s needs, carriers can better position themselves to be a strong partner when they become eligible to carry the broker’s freight.
“I’d love to learn a little bit more about your business so I can make sure that in 12 months, I’m ready to take your business on and be a really good partner to you,” Dehan said. “That’s the type of things that brokers don’t experience a lot. And it’s the carriers that do that kind of relationship-building on a long-term basis that end up winning.”
