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Carrier Fraud Prevention: Who’s Really Vetting Your Carriers?
Q Carrier fraud is getting a lot of attention across the industry right now. Where does the problem actually come from? A Public load boards. Carrier fraud does not typically originate with shippers—it originates on public load boards that lack user subscription vetting controls. When a broker posts a load to a public board to find capacity, they open the door to fraudulent activity. That is where identity fraud and double brokering get in. Q So for a shipper already working with a broker, what is the real concern? A The concern is that most shippers have no visibility into how their broker is actually vetting carriers. They assume that because a carrier showed up and moved their freight, someone checked them out. That is not always true. A broker who relies heavily on spot market capacity is making real-time decisions under pressure, and corners get cut. The shipper is downstream from all of that. If a fraudulent carrier picks up their load, the shipper absorbs the damage, the claim, the delay, and the hit to the customer relationship. They did not create the exposure, but they own the consequence.
Q How does PLS approach this differently than other brokers? A Our carrier network is built on relationships, not load boards. We maintain a vetted network of more than 40,000 motor carriers, and everyone goes through a rigorous onboarding process before they ever touch a PLS load. Beyond that, we built PLS IQ CarrierCheck to take vetting out of the hands of individual judgment calls and put it into an automated, AI-powered system that runs continuously. It verifies carrier identity, validates insurance directly from the agent and reacts to cancellations, monitors and validates changes in safety to ensure ongoing compliance, reacts to authority changes, and automatically updates PLS PRO to allow for real-time compliance. This is not a checklist. It is a live system that runs on every load, every time. Q For a shipper evaluating brokers, what should separate PLS from the pack? A Ask any broker where they find capacity when things get tight. If the answer involves spot boards, you have your answer about their fraud exposure. Ask what specifically happens when a new carrier requests a load. Ask whether that process is the same at 2 pm on a Tuesday as it is at 11 pm on a Friday. At PLS, the answer is yes, because the system handles it, not a person working against a deadline. Any broker can tell you they vet carriers. We can show you how and prove it does not break down under pressure.
Courtney Homan Senior Director PLS Logistics plslogistics.com 888-814-8486
To learn more about PLS Logistics and PLS IQ CarrierCheck, visit plslogistics.com or contact our team.
18 Inbound Logistics • June 2026
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