From the shipper’s perspective, are freight agents something you should be concerned with or worried about? The answer is no.
The Freight Industry has many different jobs within in it and common practice is for a freight agent to sign on in an independent contractor or employee capacity with a freight broker. The freight agents and the jobs they do are vital to the industry. The freight agent is not usually an employee, but uses a freight company that the agent can get a competitive rate to move shipments for their book of clients in order to pass along better pricing to their customers. Indeed, freight agents are definitely wanted.
As long as the freight company is using top line carriers then there shouldn’t be any any problems out of the ordinary.
In the freight industry, business is done like this all day long.
Why would it be done like this? Let’s give you the basic run down. An agent may have years of familiarity with a specific company. The freight agent has great expertise in handling that particular shippers freight and so the shipper is comfortable letting the freight agent handle the freight. The freight agent doesn’t have any of his/her own rates in place with any major carriers. That said, the agent will look for a reliable broker that has freight rates already negotiated down and in place with major freight carriers. This is very common within the freight industry.
Remember, what should be most important to you is that good top line freight carriers are used. This is one of the ways you, the shipper, can protect yourself.