Every April, our desk gets a version of the same call: "Have you heard anything about Broker X — they're paying slow, can I trust them?" And every April, we give the same answer: we don't keep public lists of bad brokers, but we do run the same checks every time a new broker shows up on our boards. This piece is the framework. The names stay in our heads.
The reason we don't publish names is simple. A broker that's slow-paying one quarter is often current the next. MC numbers get confused. A "bad" broker on a forum is sometimes one who legitimately disputed a claim and won. Defamation isn't a theoretical risk in this industry — it's a real one, and the rumor mill gets people wrong often enough that the framework is more useful than the list.
So here's how we look at broker risk in April 2026.
April 2026 patterns
- Produce-season DBO scamsRamping (peak May–June)
- Brokers letting authority lapseElevated post Jan 16 rule
- Slow-pay days nationally~42 days median
- Fresh MC < 18 mo oldTreat as higher-risk by default
- Highway-blocked fraud attempts (Q1 industry)Hundreds of thousands
These are general patterns from our own desk and published industry reporting. We're not naming carriers, brokers, or platforms beyond the public-source citations.
The credit services worth running
You don't need all of these. You need one, used consistently. The names we hear most from our carriers:
- Compass / RTS Pro Credit — broad coverage, days-to-pay metrics.
- Highway — newer; carrier-identity verification, fraud blocking.
- Ansonia Credit Data — long-running broker credit reporting.
- Truckstop credit (Onboarding Plus) — bundled with Truckstop load board.
- RMIS / DAT Onboarding — onboarding-focused, common at larger brokerages.
- OnRamp — newer, focused on broker monitoring.
The actual question to answer with any of these: "Has this broker's days-to-pay average gotten worse over the last 90 days?" If yes, lower your exposure or shift to a 1-2 day factoring product.
Healthy broker signals vs. red flags
One red flag is a yellow card. Two is a no. Don't talk yourself into a load.
The five checks before a new broker
This is the actual sequence on our desk. It takes 8 minutes:
- SAFER lookup. Pull the MC on safer.fmcsa.dot.gov. Confirm property broker authority is active, not pending. Confirm the legal name on SAFER matches the rate confirmation.
- Credit service check. Pull days-to-pay and any negative reports from your credit service of choice. Look at trend, not just the snapshot.
- BMC-84 / BMC-85 status. Pull the broker's L&I record. Confirm bond is on file and current. If it shows lapsed or pending, walk.
- Two carrier references on the same lane. Ask the broker rep for two carriers who've hauled this lane recently. Call them. Ask one question: "Did they pay on time?"
- Rate confirmation in writing, before dispatch. Get the rate-con before the truck rolls. Verify shipper/consignee, accessorial terms, and detention rules. If the rep wants you rolling before a signed rate-con, walk.
If all five clear, accept the load. If any one is murky, push back or pass.
Slow pay vs. no pay
Slow pay is uncomfortable, not fatal. National median days-to-pay for brokers has been hovering near 42 days through Q1 2026 — that's worse than the contractual 30 most rate-cons specify, but it's not insolvency. Adjust your factoring product (a 1-2 day non-recourse advance vs. waiting on the broker direct), keep hauling if the relationship is otherwise clean, and update your credit service exposure.
No pay is different. The signs:
- Broker stops returning calls or pushes every invoice into "review."
- Credit service flags days-to-pay jumping 60 → 90+ in one cycle.
- Multiple negative reports inside a 30-day window.
- Authority status on FMCSA shows "in process of being revoked" or "out of service."
If two of those are present, stop hauling for that broker and file your bond claim before the 75K runs out. Bond claims are first-come/first-served. The carriers who lose are the ones who waited.
A note on double-brokering
Produce season (April–July) is peak DBO season. The classic move: a fake "broker" picks up your load through a load board, re-brokers it to a real carrier (you), pockets the spread, and either pays you slow or vanishes after the broker on the rate-con doesn't recognize the load. The five red-flag checks above catch most of it. The single biggest tell is a different name on the BOL than on the rate confirmation at pickup. If you see that, call the broker on the rate-con directly before loading — not the rep who set up the load. If they don't recognize the load, call the shipper. Don't roll until you know who you're working for.
What we maintain (privately)
We keep an internal watchlist for our carriers — direct payment history, dispatcher-to-dispatcher chatter, and the credit-service trend lines. It's not for public consumption because the moment we publish a name, we own a defamation problem we don't need. But the framework above is exactly how we build it.
If you want help vetting a broker before you commit a truck, our desk runs broker checks for our carriers daily as part of dispatch. Sign on takes about 12 minutes, or call (800) 555-0199.