Brokerage
What freight brokers make in the first year, and how to do the math yourself
Nobody can tell you what you will earn. What anyone honest can do is show you the formula and let you run your own numbers.
I am not going to give you an income figure, and you should be suspicious of anyone who does. Results depend on your market, your hours, your credit, your call volume, and a freight cycle none of us control. There is no typical result here.
What I can do is show you the arithmetic, because once you see it you stop asking what brokers make and start asking what your own inputs need to be.
The formula
Your revenue is not the value of the freight you move. It is the spread.
Gross margin per load = what the shipper pays you, minus what you pay the carrier
Then:
Monthly gross margin = loads per month x average margin per load
That is the whole business. Everything else in brokering exists to increase one of those two numbers or to stop you from giving the spread back through mistakes.
Running it yourself
Take one lane you understand. Write down what a shipper pays on it and what a carrier accepts on it. The difference is your margin per load. Now ask the only two questions that matter:
- How many loads a month can I realistically cover at that margin?
- What comes out before I keep any of it?
What comes out before you keep it
This is where first year projections usually fall apart, because people model gross margin and spend it like income.
- Bond premium, annual
- Insurance, general liability and contingent cargo
- Load board subscription
- Phone, software, and a basic accounting setup
- Factoring fees, if you factor to cover the cash gap
- Your own taxes, quarterly
The cash gap is the one that hurts. Carriers commonly want paying in 15 to 30 days. Shippers commonly pay you in 30 to 45. You are financing that difference out of your own pocket, so a profitable month on paper can still be a month where your bank account goes backwards. That is why factoring exists and why working capital matters more than margin in the first year.
What it actually costs to run, worked
Same lane, two brokers, same gross margin, very different take-home. Illustrative arithmetic, not a projection, and not an income claim.
| Line | Broker A, 8 loads/mo | Broker B, 20 loads/mo |
|---|---|---|
| Gross margin at $300/load | $2,400 | $6,000 |
| Bond and insurance, monthly share | $300 | $300 |
| Load board and software | $350 | $350 |
| Factoring at 2.5% of $2,400 invoices | $480 | $1,200 |
| Left before tax | $1,270 | $4,150 |
| Working capital tied up in the payment gap | roughly $19,000 | roughly $48,000 |
Two things fall out of that table. Fixed costs do not care about your volume, so low volume gets eaten alive by them. And the more you book, the more of your own cash sits in the gap between paying carriers and getting paid, which is why growth feels like being broke.
Why year one specifically is hard
Year one is not a smaller version of year three. It is a different job. Most of it is spent doing unpaid work.
| Phase | Where your time goes | Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Months 1 to 2 | Paperwork, authority, bond, insurance | None |
| Months 2 to 4 | Building a list and calling it daily | Usually none |
| Months 3 to 6 | First covered loads, learning what you priced wrong | Sporadic |
| Months 6 to 12 | Repeat freight from a handful of accounts | Starts compounding |
The variable that moves this timeline most is dials per day. Not talent, not market knowledge, dials. 30 to 50 a day to small and mid-size shippers in the $5M to $100M revenue range. Part time on the side of a job stretches every phase, because shipping managers answer the phone during business hours only.
The honest bottom line
Some people build something real in twelve months. Some people quit in month three because they never made the calls. Most of the distance between those two outcomes is activity, not information.
We publish no income claims anywhere on this site, and our full earnings disclaimer says exactly that. Run the formula with your own inputs and trust that over anybody's screenshot.
Common questions
How much does a freight broker make in the first year?
There is no typical figure and we make no income claims. First year earnings depend on your margin per load, how many loads you cover, your operating costs, and the freight cycle. The honest way to answer it is to price one lane you know, find your margin per load, and multiply by the loads you can realistically cover.
How do freight brokers get paid?
A broker keeps the spread between what the shipper pays and what the carrier is paid. That gross margin per load, multiplied by monthly load count, is the entire revenue model. Operating costs, factoring fees, and taxes come out before any of it is income.
Why do new freight brokers run out of cash while profitable?
Because of the payment gap. Carriers commonly expect payment in 15 to 30 days while shippers pay in 30 to 45, so you finance the difference yourself. A profitable month on paper can still drain your bank account, which is why working capital and factoring matter more than margin early on.
How long before a freight broker earns anything?
The first two months are usually paperwork with no revenue, first covered loads commonly land somewhere in months three to six, and repeat freight starts compounding after that. Part time work stretches every phase, because shippers only answer during business hours.
What margin per load should a new freight broker expect?
Margin is a percentage of the linehaul, not a flat number, and it moves with the market and the lane. Price one lane you actually know, take the spread between shipper rate and carrier cost, and use that figure instead of an average you read somewhere.
Want the whole system instead of the summary?
The Brokerage Accelerator is the full build, from authority paperwork to the call scripts that get you your first shipper. 500+ members inside.