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November 11, 2025 • 14 mins

Nate Cross & Ben Kowalski answer your freight brokering questions and discuss:

💸 Best cargo insurance options for per-load coverage.

📲 Top tools for creating rate cons and checking carrier compliance

🚨 Helping a carrier flagged for fraud on Highway — ELD mix-ups and review delays.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:19):
Welcome back.
It's another edition of theFinal Mile QA, all from you guys
every Tuesday.
So make sure to check out all ofour other content at
freight360.net, including theFreight Broker Basics course,
and check out the sponsors inthe description to help support
this channel.
All right, Ben.
Our first question this camefrom our Facebook group.

(00:41):
Someone asked, What is a goodinsurance company or broker for
cargo insurance per load?
So I picked this one becauseI've dealt with it quite a bit
lately within uh PierceWorldwide.
We've had let's say uh thebroker has a shipment for their
customer that it either has acommodity that's commonly
excluded, or maybe it's a highvalue, or for whatever reason,

(01:03):
they're looking to purchase aninsurance policy specifically to
cover cargo on this load andthis load only.
So we call these all-riskpolicies.
I will tell you that we've hadloadsure on the show before, and
they're integrated right intoyour DAT account.
So if you go under tools andthen insurance, you'll see
perload insurance throughloadsure.

(01:23):
You can very quickly, in lessthan a minute, up to$2 million
in coverage, um, get a quote,and it covers from dollar one.
So this is not gap insurance,this is not spike insurance,
this is a full first positionall risk policy.
Um, other companies that I'veseen offer it, you have um truck
stop has one, I think.

(01:43):
Cargo shield, uh logistic with aQ on the end offers it.
Um more you know, moreimportantly, if you already have
an insurance agent or insuranceuh company that you're a rep
that you're working with on allyour policies, ask them because
they very very often will havesome sort of ability to
underwrite a single load policyfor you or at least point you in

(02:05):
the right direction.
So um what what's interesting islike as the hate to use the word
inflation, but as inflation hashappened over the years, a lot
of shipments that have you knowbeen under that 100k of standard
insurance, like are now valuedat over that.
So and since I've been in theindustry, the 100k has just been

(02:30):
right.
I mean, that's always been likethe standard uh limit, right?

SPEAKER_00 (02:33):
Yeah, I one everything you just said, like
is pretty much what I would havesaid.
Also, like I think it ishelpful, like go to your
insurance company, like that'sthe one I think people do the
least because there's at leasttwo or three clients that I have
where like their insurancecompany was able to give them a
portal just like a third partyto do it with them.

(02:56):
And again, there's usually alower rate because they're
insuring the rest of what youdo.
So, like I've seen it be alittle cheaper in that way, but
you really want to look at twothings, I think, when you're
doing any of this.
What are the exclusions?
Because I am still kind ofastounded at how much freight is

(03:16):
moving that is underinsured oruninsured, but people believe
are insured.
In fact, I was talking with umEd and Mike the other day over
at Quickscope, and they weretelling me about like one of the
somebody they knew, like acolleague or something, was
moving like hundreds ofthousands of dollars in
pharmaceuticals.
And I think it was Ed was like,dude, like those aren't insured.

(03:37):
And the guy's like, oh no, itis.
He's like, look at your policy.
He's like, I am like 99% certainthat the policy you're using has
an exclusion for that commodity.
Yep.
Sure enough, literally had movedmillions of dollars worth of
like thankfully, nothinghappened.
But you for sure don't want toassume when you are dealing with
insurance, because it's one ofthese things that I think gives

(04:00):
you a false sense of security.
Because if you don't have aclaim, like you don't really
know.
You're like, oh, everything'sfine.
So like I've always had this.
There's never been anythingwrong.
But like as soon as the claimhappens, right?
Like all of a sudden thosedetails become super important,
right?
You're like, oh my God.
So the 20 grand in insuranceI've been paying every year
doesn't cover any of the thingthat I thought it was covering.

(04:23):
And now I'm in a completelydifferent scenario.
And like that's just notbrokers.
Like, again, we were talkingabout this on the episode.
I am still kind of shocked athow many large shippers, I mean
like Fortune 200 companies, likevery, very big companies, where
like we've worked with them aslike consultants.
I've talked to their legal teamand their insurance teams and

(04:43):
their risk teams, where theygenuinely think they have
insurance coverage forsituations that they absolutely
do not have.
Right.
And like again, just becausesomeone says like that it does
cover this, like you really wantto ask some follow-up questions.
You definitely want to look atexclusions.
And you for sure want to ask theinsurance person, not anybody

(05:04):
else involved, if it actuallycovers the thing you think it
does, because they're the onesthat are going to be able to
tell you whether it actuallywill, should something go wrong.

SPEAKER_01 (05:11):
Yeah.
And great, great discussionpoint to have with a customer.
If, you know, like you know,when you're prospecting, you
talk pain points, um, cargotheft is a big one, but also
like denied claims, right?
And um, understanding that whenthere's uh a niche, a niche
product or a high value load,um, you know, there there could

(05:33):
be the chance that they've hadum, you know, a claim denied or
or whatnot.
And you know, you can you canvalue add sell that, like, hey,
I've got the ability to getthese policies when needed on a
single load.
We'll just build everythingright into the rate.
There's no um, you know, noadditional side invoice or
anything like that.

SPEAKER_00 (05:54):
So the other thing, too, that I think not many
brokers do, or shippers, andeverybody should be doing more
of, is verifying load value.
Okay.
Like there was a situationliterally, like a couple weeks
ago, like very recent.
I was on the phone with thisbroker's client, the shipper,

(06:15):
and I asked them, this is monthsago, what's your load value?
Are any of the shipments thiscompany's moving with you over
100K?
They're director oftransportation.
Absolutely not.
Everything's below 100.
You guys are good.
Because I cared about verifyingthe carrier's insurance, not the
contingent, obviously.
And then there was a claim lastweek, truck caught on fire,

(06:35):
burned to the ground, and thenthe ship was like, Oh, that load
was$190,000.
And I'm like, that's reallyinteresting.
Because I'm like, I literallyhave in writing my notes from
the call that we had threemonths ago where you explicitly
said you don't ship anythingover 100 grand.
And not only that, but when youtendered this load, certainly
didn't tell anybody that youwere shipping twice the load
value that everybody believedyou were.

SPEAKER_01 (06:58):
Yep.
Yeah, good point, man.
All right.
Next question.
I'm setting up a brokerage andjust wondering what is the best
app I can use to do up ratecons.
I have so I guess we're talkingabout a TMS here.
I've heard of Alvis.
Also, is highway or IR RMIS thebest way to go to find out if
carriers are compliant.
All right, so we're talking ofbasically your your software

(07:18):
tech stack for a new brokerage.
Um, what I would recommend, Imean, they brought up two points
here that basically the TMS,which is going to be your
operational system, and thenyour your carrier vetting
platform, which there's morethan just high highway and RMIS.
Um, what I would recommend whenyou're new is look for the ones
that get the job done, are nothigh priced, but allow you to

(07:42):
scale, right?
So it has what you need whenyou're brand new, but you can
also scale it and add-on, andit'll help you grow.
Because what you don't want todo is overpay for a TMS, and
then your company doesn't workout and you just waste a lot of
money.
You also don't want to buy somecheap, chintzy TMS that um,
let's say things go great, andnow it doesn't have everything
that you need now that youdeveloped your brokerage and you

(08:03):
have to switch, right?
No one likes to have to switch.
So um that's my recommendationthere.
And there's a whole bunch thatare out there, and there's a lot
of new ones that are popping up.
Um, I will say the ones thatwill price you based on um your
revenue or your load count,things like that, um, or maybe a
uh seat per month per user cost,um, those are very price

(08:27):
efficient when you're startingoff and and growing.
Um, so check a bunch of themout.
Like Alvis, like they mentionedhere, that that's one of them.
Um Ascend TMS Um has a free.
Do they still have the freeversion to try out?
I think they do.

SPEAKER_00 (08:43):
I believe so.
Maybe not.

SPEAKER_01 (08:45):
I think someone actually they went away from the
free version, but it's stillit's still very, you know,
pretty good product for a decentprice.
Um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (08:53):
I was on a call with him yesterday, actually.
They have three versions with alot of added features that are
for sure useful and not a bunchof fluff.
And like I still talk to Timevery once in a while and like
in the weeds on what they'redoing, how it's working, and
like I've always really thoughtAscend is very good from a
functionality standpoint, Ithink from a cost standpoint,

(09:15):
and allows you to start and growwithout having to switch.

SPEAKER_01 (09:19):
Yeah, yep.
And then as far as your carriercompliance, so RMS, highway, my
carrier portal, and carriershare.
What are there any other ones?
I mean, you could do it themanual process.
I would highly recommend, youknow, at a minimum, like you
know, highway, you can get liketheir base level where it's not

(09:41):
integrated in, but you can stilldo all the all the searching and
MCP, same thing.
Um RMIS, I I haven't worked withpersonally, so I I can't speak
to it.
I don't know.
I know that the a lot of the bigbrokerages use it.
Um so I don't know.
Any experience with RMIS?

SPEAKER_00 (10:00):
Yeah, it's pretty good.
I mean, we can go down into theweeds of the specific things I
think I don't like about any andall of them, but that's like a
whole episode we could do atsome point.

SPEAKER_01 (10:11):
Yeah, you have to, I mean, we always say, like, you
know, software's great, but ifyou don't have a process, um,
because data, you know, youmight you might think that what
you're seeing from a certaincarrier vetting platform means
one thing, and the reality is umit's not always exactly what you
think it is.
And you and I have both, withoutuh without blowing anybody up on

(10:32):
air here, we we've both, youknow, been misled on certain
things.

SPEAKER_00 (10:37):
So yeah.
Like again.

SPEAKER_01 (10:39):
We digress.
All right.
Last question trying to help outa regular carrier that I worked
with that is currently flaggedon highway for potential fraud.
Last week she was notified thatthere were three ELDs connected
from Samsara, but they useinfinity ELD.
She has corrected the issue onHighway and connected seven
infinity ELDs, but the accountis still under review by
Highway.

(11:00):
Um, well, here's the deal.
Like, if you anyone who's who'soperated in Highway, um, this is
gonna make sense to you, but ifyou haven't, I'll explain it.
So, one of the options inhighway is for a carrier to
connect their ELD to highway.
And what that does is it allowsthe vetting process to basically

(11:21):
skip a bunch of steps, right?
The broker knows that they haveassets because they can see
where they're located.
Um, and there's a whole bunch ofother stuff with like, you know,
tracking and how close are theyand what kind of equipment, etc.
Right?
You can do it, you there's allthis stuff, and it it just
helps, you know, it shorten thetrust process.

(11:42):
So what they're saying here isthat someone logged in to the
wrong ELD provider, which isonly possible if legitimately a
user for that carrier on highwaylogged into the wrong ELD
provider.
My guess is they might have hada dispatcher that logged in and
maybe connected to the wrong umprovider for the wrong carrier.

(12:03):
And yeah, that's going to flag acarrier on highway.
So if you're a carrier, you wantto make sure that anyone logging
into any of your any of thesecarrier uh vetting platforms,
including your ELD information,right?
Make sure that that person'strustworthy and is doing the
right, the right stuff.
Same thing with brokers.
Like brokers will get flagged orhave their account flagged if

(12:25):
they try to log in as the wrongentity as well.
So um this is not like it was ayou know a highway screwed up.
This is someone on the carrier'slogin tried to connect the wrong
ELD account, which is it couldbe for it could be fraudulent,
it could be an inside job, or itcould just be that like most

(12:46):
likely a dispatcher that'srepresenting more than one
carrier, right?
That's that's what my guesswould be.
So have you ever have you everseen that one before?

SPEAKER_00 (12:57):
Yeah, I mean, I would say it's most likely that,
but I wouldn't be I wouldn't saywith 100% certainty.
I think that's the only way youcould recur.

SPEAKER_01 (13:06):
But yeah, I mean what I would do is I would uh I
would try to reach out to uhhighway, like the support at
highway.com, um or call them andjust say, hey, I'm trying to get
my account um fixed here.
I think someone will mydispatcher logged in with
someone else's ELD.
So yeah.
But anyway, good questions, keepthem coming our way, and we'll

(13:27):
keep answering them.
Final thoughts, man.

SPEAKER_00 (13:30):
Whether you believe you can or believe you can't,
you're right.
And until next time, go bills.
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