Small Carriers Need Brokers

May the 4th Be With You. A 20-year veteran of the freight industry, with 60k TikTok followers, argued that small carriers can't survive without brokers. We break it down in today's feature.

Plus:

• The FBI's PSA

• Steam Logistics Sues Two of Its Own

• Ohio Turnpike Is Coming for 315 Carriers

💡

Question of the Day:

LTL rates are running 12.5% higher than a year ago and __% above May 2021 levels, the sharpest upward pressure since Yellow exited in 2023.

🍳 What's Cookin' In Freight

🚨 The FBI's PSA. The FBI issued a formal warning on April 30 about a 60% surge in cargo theft losses in 2025, $725 million across the US and Canada. Incidents up 18%. Average value per theft up 36% to $273,990. They're no longer grabbing random loads; they're deliberately targeting high-value freight. The scheme: compromise broker and carrier accounts, post fake loads by the thousands, trick legitimate carriers into handing over freight, then ransom or resell it. By the time the real carrier finds out, the load is gone. Brokers are both targets and entry points. A link to "resolve a bad review" is how they get in. As Danielle Chaffin put it: "The FBI is fashionably late, but we're glad they finally made it."

⚖️ Steam Logistics Sues Two of Its Own. Chattanooga-based Steam Logistics is suing two former employees and their new employer, HD Shipping Solutions, for allegedly poaching clients after leaving in early 2026. Jacob Backus and Emic Plemons rose to management, became "faces of the company," signed non-solicitation agreements, and then walked to a direct competitor that just opened a Chattanooga office. Steam publicly champions ending non-compete agreements and runs endnoncompetes.com. HD Ships' president called the lawsuit a direct contradiction of that brand. Steam's response: Non-solicitation and non-compete are different things. Timothy Dooner wrote on LinkedIn: "This is so Chattanooga."

💸 Ohio Turnpike Is Coming for 315 Carriers. The Ohio Turnpike handed 315 commercial trucking companies over to collections for dodging more than $5.2 million in tolls since switching to open-road tolling in April 2024. One Illinois man is already facing grand theft charges. Cargo Best Inc. (#3 on the list at $120K in owed amounts) went out of business in 2022. Somehow kept racking up tolls anyway. Its owner also incorporated TryTime Transport in Ohio in 2023. TryTime is a Super Ego carrier. NYC Trucking Inc. of Philadelphia tops the list at $155K. Their operating authority is already inactive. The Ohio Turnpike's total uncollected balance across all motorists: $17.2 million.

Presented by Trinity Logistics

Support that goes beyond. Growth that follows.

Discover why Trinity is the best-kept secret for freight agents.

Why the Carriers Who Hate Brokers Need Them the Most

Before deregulation, there were 7,000 carriers in the United States. The government controlled who could haul what and where. Small operators couldn't compete. The giants ran everything.

Deregulation changed that. And the thing that made it possible for small carriers to exist in a free market (the thing connecting them to shippers who had no interest in managing hundreds of carrier relationships) was the broker.

Steve Vest has been brokering freight for 20 years. He runs Nationwide Equipment Transportation, specializes in heavy-haul and oversized loads, and has 60,000 TikTok followers.

At Broker-Carrier Summit in Kansas City last week, he said this:

"The carriers that build relationships will survive. The ones that want to blame brokers for all their misfortunes — those are the ones that end up failing."

Craig Fuller added:

"Without brokers, small carriers will cease to exist, and the mega carriers will get bigger and bigger. Be careful what you ask for."

The carriers loudest about rate transparency and broker margins are often the most dependent on broker freight. Going direct sounds good until you realize it requires sales infrastructure, credit risk management, and the ability to absorb 60 to 90-day payment terms. Most owner-operators don't have that.

None of this means every broker runs a clean operation. Vest said that too — the top 10 brokerages could change the industry overnight if they stopped moving freight through bad actors. That's a real problem worth fixing.

But the answer isn't getting rid of the middleman. It's holding the bad ones accountable.

The carriers loudest about killing brokers are usually the ones who'd have nowhere to send their trucks if they succeeded.

Rewatch our full two-hour Freight Gong Friday episode here. Steve's interview starts around the 30-minute mark.

Presented by OTR Select

Introducing: OTR Select

"Post and Pray" shouldn't be the only way to find new capacity - and now with OTR Select, it's never been easier to find reliable capacity and market insights. 

• Real Capacity: Built on millions of invoice-backed loads from continuously vetted carriers, not self-reported or scraped data.

• Real Rates: View legitimate lane rates based on what carriers are actually accepting, helping you quote faster and protect margin.

• The Most Secure Network: Every carrier in the OTR Network is vetted on entry and continuously monitored 24/7/365.

OTR Select is a capacity and rate intelligence platform now available to a select group of vetted brokers.

 🌎 Around the Freight Web

📈 Data Centers Are Breaking Flatbed Rates. Flatbed spot rates just hit an all-time high at $4.07/mile. Craig Fuller says data center construction (now 7% of flatbed volume) is driving it.

💸 $27.2 Million in Freight Stolen Since December. TIA's Cargo & Strategic Theft Hotline tracked $27.2 million in reported freight losses between December 2025 and May 1, 2026. Computer parts and copper wire led at $2.8M, while California remains the hottest state.

💰 XPO Is Closing In on Sub-80% ORs. XPO posted an 83.9% operating ratio in Q1 (meaning it spent 84 cents to make every dollar), and management says the 70s are in sight. Their stock is up 57% year-to-date.

🤝 Tariff Refunds Are Actually Coming. CBP's new CAPE portal, built in 45 days to process refunds on tariffs the Supreme Court struck down, is running better than expected. First refunds hit as early as May 11. About 21% of submitted entries have been accepted so far.

🚛 LTL Rates Are Surging. LTL rates are running 12.5% higher than a year ago and 29% above May 2021 levels, the sharpest upward pressure since Yellow exited in 2023.

📉 Used Trucks Are Flooding Dealer Lots. FMCSA's 2026 enforcement push is forcing carriers off the road and their trucks onto dealer lots.

🎣 The FreightCaviar Corner

Issue 003 of FreightCaviar Print is almost here.

Print magazine + Caviar Circle access.

From $17/month.

Print magazine + Caviar Circle access.

From $17/month.

30-day money-back guarantee. If it's not for you, we'll refund you right away, and you still keep both Winter and Spring editions.

Subscribe → here.

Freight Humor