New freight brokerage growth rate turns negative

With recent headlines, let’s take a look at active freight brokerages with the FMCSA.

After double digit growth rates in 2020 and 2021, growth in new brokerages stalled and finally turned negative in July 2023. 

In fact, there are 5.6% fewer authorized freight brokerages as of Oct 1, 2023 than in October of 2022. This is the sharpest decline in growth over the past 20 years (excluding 2014 when bonds were raised from $10k to $75k). 

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There is more to this story though.

Digging through the numbers it’s easy to see the explosive growth of freight brokerages during the pandemic. In January 2020 there were 21,229 active freight brokerages. Flash forward to October 2023 and that number is still an astonishing 29,453. For those keeping score at home that’s a 39% increase in about three and half short years. 

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The contraction in freight brokerages is real and will likely intesify over the coming months. It will be interesting to see if we find a bottom in the market near pre-pandemic levels, or if most of the new brokerages stick around for the long-haul. 

Thanks as always to Carrier Details (Mark Draeb and Kathy Sardelli) for sharing this data with Brush Pass Research.

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