There is a practice that is destroying the portfolios of thousands of carriers and almost no one talks about it with the clarity it deserves: double intermediation, or as it is called in the United States, double brokering .
Here’s how it works: a freight forwarder receives a shipment from a shipper, but instead of assigning it directly to a trucking company, they re-intermediate it with another freight forwarder or broker, sometimes without your knowledge. You move the shipment, deliver on time, do everything right, and when it’s time to get paid, you discover that your actual counterpart isn’t who you thought, that the original broker has already been paid and disappeared, and that the person who hired you has neither the authority of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) nor the funds to pay you.
Your freight business has become a chain of intermediaries where the last link—you, the one who provided the truck, the diesel, and the driver—ends up not getting paid . This isn’t an isolated case. It’s an epidemic that in the United States has led the FMCSA to tighten regulations, and which operates with total impunity in Mexico because the regulatory structure still can’t distinguish between a legitimate intermediary and one who simply resells loads without operational capacity or financial backing.
The most dangerous aspect of double intermediation is that you don’t see it until it’s too late. You receive a freight order, verify that the broker’s name exists, and assume everything is in order. But you don’t investigate who was originally behind that shipment, you don’t ask if the shipment passed through another intermediary before reaching you . And when payment doesn’t arrive within 30 days, you start calling and discover that the freight forwarder has already been paid by the shipper, has no intention of paying you, or worse, that their phone line is disconnected and the company is no longer operating. At that point, you’ve already lost.
You have no contractual relationship with the original shipper, your documentation points to an intermediary who vanished , and your right to payment is left floating in a legal vacuum that may take months or years to resolve, if it is ever resolved at all.
What can you do before this happens to you?
First, and this is non-negotiable: verify your counterparty before moving a single kilometer of cargo . In the United States, check the status of the MC and DOT number in the FMCSA database; it’s free and takes five minutes. Confirm that the BMC-84 bond is active, identify the insurer, and document everything. If the broker is not listed, or if their authority is “Not Authorized” or “Inactive,” do not move that cargo .
In Mexico, verification is more difficult because there isn’t a federal equivalent with the same transparency, but you can check the intermediary’s history on the Transportation Bureau website (burodeltransporte.com) , verify at least three references from other trucking companies, and ask the trucking community if anyone has had experience with that company. It’s not perfect, but it’s infinitely better than blindly trusting an email with a rate confirmation that no one has verified.
Second, protect your documentation as if it were money, because it is . Every shipment you move should have a Bill of Lading signed at origin and destination, a rate confirmation that clearly identifies the parties, and a record of communication that proves who hired you and under what terms. If something seems suspicious—if the broker asks you to invoice to a different name, if they change the payment instructions mid-service, if they offer you a rate that seems too good to be true—document everything and take the time to verify. In collections, one of the most common reasons an account becomes unrecoverable is that the carrier cannot prove the chain of contract. Without solid documentation, your claim becomes a story, not an enforceable right .
Third, understand that double intermediation doesn’t just affect you; it affects the entire industry . Every shipment that moves through a fraudulent chain of intermediaries weakens trade trust, distorts rates, and creates a market where legitimate freight forwarders compete against unscrupulous operators offering unsustainable rates because they never intended to pay the trucking company. It’s a structural problem that isn’t solved with a collection call; it’s solved with prevention and verification .
If you already have unpaid freight charges because you fell into a double-intermediation scheme, act quickly. Don’t wait 90 days thinking “they’ll pay eventually .” Every week that passes, the intermediary distances themselves further, the paperwork goes cold, and your legal position weakens. Assign those accounts to a specialized freight collection agency that understands the fraud structure and knows where to apply pressure. And thinking about the future of your company, make pre-payment verification a mandatory process: not a recommendation, not something done “when there’s time,” but an operational policy that no one can ignore . Double intermediation is a silent cancer, but like any cancer, it’s best fought with early detection rather than late treatment.
Until next time .
See Salvador Bañuelos’ previous column: Your client is from Texas. He owes you for three freight shipments. Do you know how to collect?
*The author is a founding partner of the binational collection firm specializing in freight transport, AFS International, with offices in Mexico and the United States ( www.cobranzadeltransporte.com and www.freightcollections.com ) .
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