How To Start a Freight Brokerage Service

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Get your entrepreneurial destiny really moving by becoming a freight broker with Entrepreneur Magazine's start-up guide.

Minimal investment. A phone, a computer, a fax and our guide are all you need to get started in the booming freight brokerage business. As a freight broker, you'll match carriers with shippers and collect a lucrative middleman's fee. It's that simple.

This start-up guide will show you how to:

• locate start-up funds and set your prices
• understand the legal documents you'll be dealing with
• find carriers and shippers
• market your services
• build your client base
• and much more

The need for freight brokers is a critical one in the United States and there's always room in the industry for someone who can offer reasonably priced, dependable service.

Bill T.’s brokerage in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, has employed three generations of his family. His father founded the firm in 1961 by purchasing one of the few broker’s licenses still operating at the time. Years later, Bill was working in the computer in-dustry when his father passed away unexpectedly. At first, he and his mother decided to sell the business rather than shut it down, so he helped run it while looking for a buyer. But after several months without a realistic offer, Bill decided that he wanted the company for himself. He worked out a deal to buy the company from his mother, and now his own sons work for him. “I’ve never regretted it because it has been a great business,” he says.

After holding a variety of jobs in the transportation industry, Cathy D. started her business as a consulting and commissioned sales agency in 1986 and obtained brokerage authority in 1991.

Chuck A. started his business in Indianapolis in 1993. Having spent his entire professional life working for trucking companies and railroads, he found the brokerage business tremendously appealing. “Out of all the transportation operations, a brokerage operation is very clean,” he says. “By that, I mean it’s basically a 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. operation. Very seldom do you have problems occur after that. Your operation runs Monday through Friday. When you’re on the trucking side of it, you have all the problems. If a guy blows a tire, he’s calling somebody at one or two o’clock in the morning to get money to fix it. With brokers, it’s our concern—we want the freight moving on schedule — but it’s not our problem be-cause the driver is going to call his dispatcher or his company.”

For 18 years, Ron W. worked as a corporate traffic manager and director of distribution for several major corporations. He also had experience with a railroad and a transportation consulting firm. Finally, he could no longer resist the entrepreneurial urge: He started his brokerage firm in 1981 in Bloomingdale, Illinois, and has since founded two trucking companies as well.

Here's just a sample of what you'll find inside each exciting start-up guide including How To Start A Freight Brokerage Service:

    
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