Rate Confirmation Checklist: What to Check Before You Sign

The rate confirmation is the only written deal you have with the broker for that load. If a term isn't on it, you're negotiating after the fact, usually while you're sitting at a dock or waiting on a short pay. A two-minute read before you sign and dispatch saves a lot of those calls.

The must-haves

Don't roll until these are on paper:

• Load number. Your invoice, BOL, and any detention or lumper claim have to match it.
• Broker legal name and MC number. You need them to invoice and to look up the broker's authority and bond. A rate con with no MC number is a warning sign for double brokering.
• Total rate. The all-in number, not just a per-mile rate. Per-mile quotes invite a fight over whose miles count.
• Pickup and delivery: full addresses, dates, and appointment times. The appointment is what late fees and detention are measured from. “Tomorrow” or “appt TBD” isn't a time.
• Detention: free hours and hourly rate. Also any cap and what proof they want, usually in and out times signed on the BOL.
• Payment terms. Days to pay, what paperwork starts the clock, and the quick pay fee.
• Reefer temperature, for any reefer load. The set point and continuous or cycle, in writing.

The should-haves

• Line haul and fuel surcharge split out, or a clear note that fuel is included.
• Layover pay per day, if pickup or delivery slides.
• TONU (truck ordered, not used) if the load cancels after you're dispatched.
• Lumper handling. Who pays, and whether the broker sends a payment code or reimburses you against a receipt.
• Equipment, commodity, and weight, so you show up with the right trailer and know what you're insuring.
• Every accessorial priced: extra stops, tarps, driver assist.

Clauses to read twice

Look for any line with fine, late fee, penalty, deduct, chargeback, withhold, or forfeit. Common ones: a flat fine for a missed check call, a per-hour late fee, “failure to provide tracking will result in a penalty,” or “broker may deduct claim amounts from carrier pay.” You can often get these struck or capped before you sign. After you sign, you've agreed to them.

Worked example

A flatbed rate con reads:

• Linehaul $1,650, fuel included, tarp pay $100, total $1,750
• Total miles: 540
• Detention: 2 hours free, then $40/hr, max $400/day
• Late fee: $100 per hour late to appointment, charged back to carrier
• Quick pay 5% fee; standard pay 30 days

Rate per mile: $1,750 ÷ 540 = $3.241 per loaded mile. If your own route is 575 miles, it's $1,750 ÷ 575 = $3.043. Always run it on your miles, and add the deadhead to get there.

Detention: if you sit 5 hours at the shipper, that's 5 − 2 = 3 billable hours × $40 = $120, under the $400 cap.

Quick pay: 5% of $1,750 is $87.50. That's the price of getting paid in a day instead of 30. Compare it with your factoring rate in the factoring calculator.

The late fee: two hours late would cost $200, more than the detention you'd collect for sitting 5 hours. Ask for it to be removed, or at least for delays caused by the shipper to be excluded.

The rate confirmation checker does this read for you: paste the text, and it lists what it found, with the line it came from, what's missing, and the question to send the broker. It runs in your browser, so the rate con isn't uploaded anywhere.

After you sign

• Save the signed rate con with the BOL. You'll attach both to the invoice.
• If anything changes, like a new appointment, an added stop, or a rate change, get a revised rate con. A phone promise won't hold up in a pay dispute.
• Log arrival and departure times at every stop. You'll need them for detention, and the detention calculator turns them into an invoice line.

What the broker has to keep

Federal rules require a broker to keep a record of each transaction for three years. That record includes the compensation the broker received and the freight charges it collected. Each party to a brokered transaction has the right to review that record (49 CFR 371.3). The rate con is still your main proof of what you agreed to be paid, so keep yours.