Freight broker benchmarks · October 2026
How does your desk compare with other brokers?
Margins, volume, people, minutes and leaks. Public numbers from FreightWaves, DAT, SONAR, TIA, ATRI and broker earnings, all on one page. Find yourself on each line.
One load, $1,912 of revenue. Where does it go?
FreightWaves' 2026 squeeze model: 20 people, 15,700 loads a year, 9.9% marginCosts come to $209 per load. The model breaks even at a 10.9% margin derived. FreightWaves put it at about 11.3%. At 11%, the middle of Triumph's 2026 range, the same broker roughly breaks even.
FreightWaves broker P&L model, January 2026. Financing at about 7% a year on a 40 vs 30 day gap, derived from the $3.70 per load in the model.
Where does your margin sit?
Drag the slider to your blended gross margin. Each line is a real broker or a published average.
Sources: FreightWaves model Jan 2026 · RXO Q2 2026 · Triumph via FreightWaves, Jul 2026 · Triumph report Jan 2026 · C.H. Robinson Q2 2026 (derived) · TIA 3PL Market Report Q4 2024 · Tabi, Jun 2026 vendor
Trucks are tight. Freight is not growing.
Rates are up because capacity left, not because shippers ship more. Tender rejections hit 14% in October with no surge in demand behind them.
Load volume, September vs a year ago
DAT Truckload Volume Index
Over three years
Tender rejections vs truckload volume
Accepted truckload tenders since the June peak, below each of the last three years.
The market is not adding 20% more loads. Every load you add, you take from another broker.
The biggest broker grew profit with fewer people.
C.H. Robinson's North American truckload unit moved slightly more freight with 11.6% fewer people. Operating income rose 15.8%.
C.H. Robinson NAST, Q2 2026 vs Q2 2025
Productivity up more than 60% since the end of 2022, by the company's count.
The other way to grow: J.B. Hunt ICS, Q3 2026
It took share and turned a profit, but hired faster than it grew. Loads per person derived
Loads per employee a year in the FreightWaves model. Published range 650 to 800.
FreightWaves model Jan 2026 · DAT broker benchmark 2018 derived
Loads per operations rep a day in that model, if 14 of the 20 people work loads.
1,308 loads a month, 14 reps, 22 days derived
Fully loaded cost of one broker employee a year. Benefits add about 46% on top of wages.
FreightWaves model Jan 2026 · BLS, Jun 2026
About 103 minutes of people time per load. Where do they go?
Tap a block. Tracking alone eats a third of the time. estimate No public time study of broker work exists, so this split is ours. The total follows from the model: 14 reps, 160 hours a month, 1,308 loads.
Money that leaves without anyone deciding it should.
Detention nobody bills, quick pay nobody prices, one fraudulent load that wipes out a month.
100 detention incidents
Detention happens at 39.3% of stops. Here is what happens to the money.
ATRI 2024, 2023 data: 75% invoiced, 55% of invoices paid derived
One fraudulent load
Average gross cost per fraudulent load. At a $189 margin, that is the profit on about 215 good loads derived
Of brokers lost more than $200,000 to fraud in six months.
Of brokers say carriers ask about quick pay before they accept a load.
Most common quick pay fee. The usual range is 1% to 3%.
Published broker quick pay terms, 2026
Of brokers wait a month or more for shippers to pay. Carriers in the model get paid in 30 days.
The big brokers are buying scale and cutting cost per load.
Announced 5 October 2026
deal value
net cost savings targeted, through its "Lean AI" model
Everyone else
Active broker authorities in October 2026, about 200 fewer brokerages than a year earlier. vendor
One broker's liability premium after the Supreme Court's Montgomery ruling in May. Another renewal halved limits from $10M to $5M.
Now put your own numbers in.
The calculator starts from the same averages. Change any of them and see what one load really earns you, and which lever moves it most.
Questions
Freight brokerage industry statistics
What is the average freight broker margin in 2026?
Published gross margins mostly sit between 10% and 13%: Triumph's broker clients 10–12% in Q2 2026, C.H. Robinson's North American truckload 13.1%, RXO 10.7%. Spot quotes awarded through Tabi ran above 20% in May and June 2026 (vendor data).
How many freight brokers are there in the US?
About 25,081 active broker authorities in October 2026, by one public count of FMCSA data (vendor). IFA counted 5,409 brokers gone between January 2022 and January 2025.
Is freight volume growing in 2026?
No. DAT's September 2026 volume index was down 1% year over year for vans and 10% for reefers, and SONAR put accepted truckload volume in the 13th percentile of five years in October. Capacity is tight because trucks left the market.
How many loads does a broker employee handle?
Roughly 650 to 800 loads per employee a year. FreightWaves' model broker runs 15,700 loads with 20 people, about 785 each.
Where do these numbers come from?
FreightWaves, DAT, SONAR, TIA, ATRI, BLS, Truckstop and public broker earnings. Each figure on the page names its source. Vendor numbers and our own calculations are marked.
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