How much a freight broker makes depends on which kind of broker you mean. An employee at a brokerage is paid a salary plus commission. An independent freight agent keeps a share of the margin on each load. A brokerage owner keeps what is left after paying carriers, people and overhead. The three can earn very different amounts for moving the same freight.
This guide explains what a freight broker salary looks like in each case, what the official wage data shows, and what decides where a broker lands in the range.
Freight broker salary: the short answer
The closest official figure comes from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks "cargo and freight agents". In its May 2023 data the median annual wage was $48,330. The lowest 10 percent earned about $36,520 and the highest 10 percent about $72,820.
Treat that as a floor for the question, not the full answer. The category covers salaried freight roles in general, and it does not capture commission-heavy brokers, independent agents or owners, whose income varies far more.
Three ways freight brokers get paid
Employee broker | Independent freight agent | Brokerage owner | |
|---|---|---|---|
Paid by | A brokerage, as an employee | A brokerage, as a contractor | The business itself |
How | Base salary plus commission | A share of gross margin on each load | Profit after all costs |
Needs own authority and bond | No | No, works under the brokerage's | Yes |
Income risk | Lowest | Higher, no base pay | Highest |
Upside | Limited by the commission plan | Grows with the book of business | Grows with the whole company |
Employee brokers: salary plus commission
Most people start here. A brokerage pays a base salary and adds commission once the broker covers a threshold, often tied to the gross margin the broker brings in. New brokers earn mostly base pay in the first year while they build a customer list. Our guide to freight broker training covers what a course does and does not teach. Experienced brokers with steady accounts earn most of their income from commission.
Independent freight agents
An agent runs their own book of customers under a brokerage's authority, bond and back office. In return the brokerage keeps part of the margin. Splits commonly quoted in the industry leave the agent with roughly 50 to 70 percent of the gross margin on their loads, with newer agents toward the lower end and agents with an established book toward the higher end.
There is no base salary. An agent with no customers earns nothing, and an agent with a strong book can out-earn most employees.
Brokerage owners
An owner holds the broker authority and the $75,000 bond, and keeps the gross margin on every load the company moves. Out of that margin come salaries, commissions, software, insurance, credit losses and the cost of money tied up while customers pay.
Owner income is profit, so it can be the highest of the three, or nothing in a bad quarter. Our guide to starting a freight brokerage covers the costs.
How the money on one load works
Every broker's pay starts with gross margin: what the customer pays minus what the carrier is paid.
A customer pays $2,000 for a load and the carrier is paid $1,700. The gross margin is $300, or 15 percent of the customer rate.
An employee broker might earn a percentage of that $300 as commission, on top of salary.
An agent on a 60 percent split keeps $180.
An owner keeps the $300, then pays everyone and everything else from it.
You can run your own numbers with our free freight margin calculator. The difference between margin and markup is explained in margin vs markup for freight brokers.
What decides how much a broker makes
Loads per month. Income is margin per load times volume. Volume is the lever most brokers can pull.
Margin per load. A few points of margin on every load adds up to a large difference over a year. Margins are thinner on common lanes and wider on specialised or urgent freight.
The customer list. Repeat shippers with steady freight are worth far more than one-off loads. Building that list is covered in freight broker lead generation.
Time per load. A broker who spends an hour on each load can only cover so many. Less manual work on entry, check calls and paperwork means more loads from the same day.
Losses. One unpaid invoice, one cargo claim or one double-brokered load can wipe out the margin from dozens of good ones.
The market. When trucks are scarce, carrier rates rise and margins on contracted freight shrink. When trucks are plentiful, the reverse happens.
Freight broker vs freight agent vs dispatcher pay
These roles are often confused. A broker or agent is paid from the margin between customer and carrier. A dispatcher works for carriers and is usually paid a percentage of the carrier's revenue or a flat fee per load. The work and the earnings model are different; see freight broker vs dispatcher.
Can you make six figures as a freight broker?
Yes, and many do, but not in the first year and not on salary alone. It takes a book of repeat customers and enough volume for commission or margin to exceed base pay. For an agent or owner the arithmetic is simple: the number of loads a month, times the average margin, times the share you keep, less your costs.
The harder part is the first year. Most of it goes to building a customer list, so plan for income to be low and uneven at the start.
Where software fits
Software does not set a broker's pay, but it limits or raises how many loads one person can handle and how many mistakes reach the margin. A TMS that builds the load from the customer's email, tracks it, files the documents and shows margin by customer removes hours of work from each day. Our guide to TMS software for freight brokers explains what to look for.
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