Freight 360
It's the Freight360 podcast from Freight Broker Sales tips to Sports Talk. This podcast is all about helping you grow as a Freight Broker with your hosts, Nate Cross and Benjamin Kowalski. New episodes every Friday and our Q&A series "The Final Mile" every Tuesday.Join us as we dive into the freight industry to provide you with the latest in Freight Broker education and industry news.If you have a question you would like answered on our show visit the website below or leave a comment wherever you get your podcasts.Visit our website www.freight360.net for o...
No, Highway Is Not Secretly Flagging You | Final Mile 161
🚢 How do I find carriers for port container moves?
🚛 Does Highway flag carriers for taking time off?
💰 Why do brokers pass lumper advance fees onto carriers?
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Stop Freight Fraud At Pickup (With QuikSkope) | Episode 361
We're joined by Pat Lyman and Matt Patterson from Quikskope to discuss cargo theft prevention and why traditional carrier vetting isn't enough. We explore how VIN-level verification, geofencing, camera-based checks, and real-time GPS tracking help ensure the right truck is hauling your freight. Plus, we cover QuikSkope V2, data ownership, and how brokers and shippers can better protect themselves against freight fraud and liability.
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What A Healthy Freight Profit Margin Looks Like | Final Mile 160
🖥️ Who uses McLeod, and what do you think of it?
👥 Hiring freight agents: recruiter or headhunter?
💰 What’s a healthy profit margin in today’s market?
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Noncompetes In Freight Brokerage | Episode 360
CH Robinson's planned $5.8B purchase of RXO kicks off this episode. We cover what consolidation really changes for brokers and shippers, and why AI keeps coming up in pricing and matching. Then we look at rising diesel costs and how internal silos at big shippers turn budget cuts into service failures. We close with a deep dive on noncompetes, non-solicits, and confidentiality clauses in freight brokerage, including real lawsuit stories and what to watch before you sign, hire, or quit.
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How Carriers Can Get Paid When Brokers Go Silent | Final Mile 159
🧊 Opening cold calls with zero customers or lanes
🎯 Winning at TQL when every prospect's already tagged
💸 Carrier unpaid after 50 days, broker gone silent
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What Freight Brokers Asked Congress For | Episode 359
Freight policy is moving fast, and the decisions being made now could reshape safety, fraud, and accountability across the supply chain. Fresh back from the TIA Policy Forum in Washington, D.C., we break down the Montgomery case, the Motor Carrier Safety Selection Standard Act, cargo theft legislation like CORCA, and the ongoing broker transparency fight. We also explain what these changes could mean for brokers, carriers, insurance costs, and the broader freight market.
For listeners who want to contact their members of Congress and advocate on these issues:
Motor Carrier Safety Selection Standard Act (MCSSS...A Deep Dive On Broker Insurance | Episode 358
One cargo claim can quickly expose the gap between having insurance and actually being covered. We sit down with Cameron from Pullsure to break down primary vs. contingent cargo insurance, high-value freight, trip policies, reefer claims, deductibles, and the documentation brokers need when something goes wrong.
If you move temperature-controlled freight, handle claims, or manage freight broker risk, this episode will help you understand where coverage can fail and how to better protect your customer and your company.
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Who Gets Judged When Freight Data Lies | Final Mile 157
🚛 One rollover on a new authority — still bookable?
⚠️ MOTUS says suspended, paperwork says clean — who wins?
⏱️ Clean detention, customer won't pay — who eats it?
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The Freight Broker Wake-Up Call: AI, Fraud & New Regulations | Episode 357
A single ignored alert can turn into a multimillion-dollar problem. We break down the biggest policy fights facing freight brokers, including carrier-selection standards, broker transparency, cargo theft, and double brokering—then shift into practical ways AI is already helping brokers audit TMS data, chase missing paperwork, automate follow-ups, and build searchable knowledge bases. We also cover the risks of moving faster with AI, from privacy and fraud exposure to one timeless transportation lesson: bad news only gets worse with time.
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Your ELD Is Connected Now What | Final Mile 156
🌎 Who can legally start a U.S. trucking company?
🔗 Can carriers disconnect ELD from Highway after hauling a load?
💰 Best accounting software for a small company?
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Stop Wasting Time On Bad Customers | Episode 356
Are you moving a lot of freight but not actually getting ahead? We break down how bad customer fit, weak shipper qualification, inefficient carrier sourcing, and poor credit can turn busy brokers into unprofitable ones—and how to spot the red flags before they waste your time.
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Fixing Bad Carrier Reports | Final Mile 155
🚩 Fighting a false broker report on a carrier vetting platform
📞 How long to chase a prospect before cutting them
🤝 Beating the "we're happy with our current brokers" brush-off
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...What Freight Brokers Want Congress To Fix | Episode 355
We break down the biggest freight brokerage policy issues heading into the TIA Policy Forum, including broker liability, carrier vetting standards, fraud, cargo theft, and double brokering. We also discuss what Congress and FMCSA could do to create clearer rules, strengthen registration, and give brokers a more consistent federal standard to operate under.
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Freight Market Reality Check (Dean Croke of DAT) | Episode 354
Dean Croke of DAT joins us to unpack why a World Cup "micro surge" quietly disrupted freight lanes despite a soft economy, then goes boots-on-the-ground with Salinas lettuce hauls to expose the hidden realities of reefer detention, agricultural exemptions, and driver fatigue. We also cover the structural forces reshaping trucking capacity—language enforcement, drug testing, and rate resets—plus the insurance and liability risks that "vetting carriers" often misses.
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How To Cover Hot Loads Fast | Final Mile 153
⏱️ Covering Urgent, Last-Minute Loads
📦 Who Pays for Freight Damage?
🛡️ Carrier Vetting Prevents Costly Problems
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Details That Save Loads | Episode 353
An $86M verdict against a carrier despite no negligence finding kicks off a look at today's upside-down insurance and legal landscape for freight brokers. We cover practical fixes: clean email habits (load numbers in subject lines, single threads, less CC clutter), inbox rules for small brokerages, and using your TMS as the single source of truth. We also dig into data quality (like accurate cargo value) as the root of many claims and billing issues, plus coaching tips and AI tools for taming messy email trails.
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Carrier Vetting And The Highway Debate | Final Mile 152
🛡️ Why use Highway?
🎯 Best shipper prospecting software
🚐 Finding box trucks and cargo vans
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What Makes a Freight Brokerage Employee Profitable? | Episode 352
What makes an employee successful in freight brokerage? We break down how to measure whether someone is covering their true cost, why being busy does not always mean being productive, and how realistic benchmarks, incentives, and feedback can drive better performance.
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How To Handle Highway Insights Without Panicking | Final Mile 151
🛡️ Responding to Highway insights
⚖️ Is double brokering illegal and how to stop it
🚛 Older engines in newer trucks
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Problem Solving For Freight Brokers | Episode 351
Freight brokerage isn’t just about trucks, rates, and load boards—it’s about solving problems when everything goes sideways.
We break down how asking better questions, simplifying challenges, and testing different approaches can help brokers avoid analysis paralysis and get better results. Along the way, we share real-world examples involving tough loads, carrier sales, credit decisions, new technology, and value-added service.
This is a practical mindset episode for anyone looking to improve at logistics, sales, carrier sourcing, and customer service.
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If A Shipper Ignores Your Quote, Ask This | Final Mile 150
📩 What to do after quote silence
💰 How are freight brokerages valued?
👥 Is assistant commission sharing standard?
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How Freight Brokers Use AI To Work Faster | Episode 350
AI is quickly becoming a real advantage in freight brokerage. We break down practical ways brokers can use it to clean and analyze TMS data, catch accounting errors, improve reporting, summarize claims, support prospecting, search contracts and training materials, and reduce software costs—plus where AI-driven TMS and CRM tools are headed next.
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Blind Shipments Explained & More Listener Q&A | Final Mile 149
🚛 Best load board for dry vans?
📸 Share freight details before booking?
👀 Blind shipments: scam or legit?
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How Freight Brokers Find Carriers | Episode 349
Join us as we break down practical carrier sourcing strategies for freight brokers, including how to use load boards, TMS tools, market data, and AI to find capacity more effectively in the spot market. We also cover deadheading, spot market dynamics, posting loads the right way, and creative ways to turn better carrier sourcing into better margins.
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Are Brokers Keeping The Profits? | Final Mile 148
Nate Cross & Ben Kowalski answer your freight brokering questions and discuss:
🚛 Should brokers post rates or leave them off?
💰 Why can brokers profit while carriers struggle?
🛠️ Why do new broker want to see inspections for a carrier?
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How Freight Brokers Find Customers | Episode 348
Most new freight brokers don’t fail because they can’t sell. They fail because they work the wrong process, so we break down a practical way to separate lead generation from prospecting, make more effective cold calls, and focus on the activity that actually creates momentum.
We also cover the real math behind cold calling, what makes a shipper worth pursuing, why quality matters more than volume, and how to build better lead lists using niche thinking, sales tools, directories, and AI as a starting point.
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When Freight Goes Wrong Who Owns The Damage | Final Mile 147
Nate Cross & Ben Kowalski answer your freight brokering questions and discuss:
💼 Starting a freight brokerage without experience in 2026
📞 Cold calling without direct carrier relationships
🚛 Handling forklift damage to your box truck
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Freight Claims Explained | Episode 347
A rejected load can quickly become a five-figure loss, and the outcome often comes down to documentation, evidence, and how the claim is handled from the start. We break down freight claims, OS&D, cargo insurance, reefer issues, USDA inspections, carrier cooperation, and the practical steps brokers can take to prevent small mistakes from turning into expensive disputes.
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<...The Pipe Stake Hustle That Won A Customer | Final Mile 146
Nate Cross & Ben Kowalski answer your freight brokering questions and discuss:
🏗️ Pricing steel coil loads and accounting for added challenges
🚛 Fair owner-operator splits, insurance, and operating under your MC
📞 Overcoming the “customer-routed” or “vendor-routed” objection
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Your SOPs Only Work When You Enforce Them | Episode 346
One bad shortcut can turn a routine load into a claim, stolen freight, or a cash-flow disaster. We break down how brokerages should handle policy violations, strengthen SOPs, use technology to reduce risk, and determine when mistakes are correctable versus grounds for immediate termination.
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Real-World Crisis Calls In Freight Brokerage | Final Mile 145
Nate Cross & Ben Kowalski answer your freight brokering questions and discuss:
⚠️ Handling carrier threats professionally
✅ Building defensible carrier vetting
📈 Responding to rising rate pushback
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Freight Brokerage Finance From Startup Costs To Profit | Episode 345
Freight brokerage is often called a sales game, but the brokers who last understand the finance behind every load. In this episode, we break down margins, startup costs, cash flow, hiring, compensation models, and the money decisions that help brokerages survive rate swings and grow profitably.
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How Much Risk Can A Broker Really Ignore | Final Mile 144
Nate Cross & Ben Kowalski answer your freight brokering questions and discuss:
🚛 Why brokers hide commodity details from new carriers
⚠️ What brokers fear most with new MCs
📋 Can brokers verify cargo exclusions before onboarding carriers?
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Modern Day Carrier Vetting That Protects Freight Brokers | Episode 344
DOT Blitz Week inspections sideline roughly one out of every three trucks, tightening capacity and driving spot rates higher across all equipment types. In this episode, we break down what those out-of-service numbers really mean, how broker liability and negligent hiring are evolving after recent court rulings, and why your carrier vetting process needs to be practical, documented, and built around the data brokers actually have access to.
We also cover how to interpret CSA scores, where carrier vetting tools like Highway and RMIS help or fall short, and how to build a scalable compliance workflow that...
Who Pays When Freight Rates Rise | Final Mile 143
Nate Cross & Ben Kowalski answer your freight brokering questions and discuss:
📈 Are shippers absorbing higher freight rates?
📞 When brokers ghost detention rate updates
📞 Five-month broker wants honest progress gut check
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Broker Liability After The Supreme Court Ruling (with Danielle Spinelli) | Episode 343
The Supreme Court’s 9-0 decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC just changed the liability conversation for freight brokers, especially around negligent hiring and what “reasonable care” really means. We sit down with Danielle Spinelli from GenLogs to break down the ruling, the limits of carrier safety data, and why brokers need a documented, provable carrier vetting process before claims, insurers, shippers, and regulators start asking harder questions.
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Is AI In Your TMS Helping Or Risking Everything | Final Mile 142
Nate Cross & Ben Kowalski answer your freight brokering questions and discuss:
📄 Starting A Brokerage + Factoring Questions
🚛 Handling Carrier Deadhead Pay Requests
🤖 Using AI To Automate Brokerage Operations
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What Contingent Cargo Insurance Actually Covers | Episode 342
Most freight insurance problems start long before a claim ever happens. In this episode, we break down contingent cargo insurance, coverage gaps, excluded commodities, theft claims, and why many brokers and carriers misunderstand what’s actually protected when freight moves. We also cover practical risk management strategies for verifying coverage, handling high-value freight, and avoiding costly surprises when a shipment goes sideways.
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If The Carrier Breaks Down, How Do We Settle The Bill? | Final Mile 141
Nate Cross & Ben Kowalski answer your freight brokering questions and discuss:
🚛 Carrier Breakdown Payment Dispute
🏢 Selling An Inactive Trucking Authority
📉 Broker Lowered Rate After Agreement
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Reco...
How To Scale A Brokerage With SOPs, Outsourcing, And Applied AI | Episode 341
Your brokerage doesn’t need more shiny tools. It needs systems that actually match the reality of freight operations. In this episode with the Togo crew, we break down why so many logistics AI tools fail, what automation actually works for brokers, and how SOPs, process mapping, and smarter staffing can help teams scale without sacrificing service.
We also look ahead at the future of AI in freight brokerage, including data ownership, vendor lock-in, and why smaller brokerages that start building now may have the biggest advantage.
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