Getting started as a transportation broker really doesn't require much up-front capital. The pricing and costs of transportation broker education and training will likely put a larger dent in your budget than the rest of your start-up costs since you'll most likely start your service business from a home office. This industry doesn't require any formal training/education for freight brokers, but you need to start your new business by investing in the proper education/training, or you'll doom yourself to failure.

Once you get going and build your reputation and client base, you could realistically expect to earn from $40,000 to more than $85,000 a year as a transportation broker, so count training as a worthwhile expenditure and investment to help ensure a successful business.

1. Truck broker training can teach you how and where to develop leads on clients.

2. Most transportation broker schools operate either short, week-long courses and/or online courses.

3. Many of the transportation broker training businesses will offer loans for tuition if you can't pay the total cost up front.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find a freight broker school offering short courses to save money

If you prefer a traditional face-to-face training course but can't afford to stay away for an entire week, register for a course lasting between one and three days. These courses typically range in price from $100 to $1,700, plus travel expenses.

I recommend: Consider the three-day Freight Broker 101 class with Transportation Training Systems. During the training, students receive compensation/commission for their participation in movement of real freight. Contact ShippersCarriers.com to schedule your two-day, one-on-one transportation agents training; attend training in either the company's Iowa or Georgia location.

Operate your own transportation brokerage after completing a week-long school

Week-long freight broker schools offer the benefit of in-person, face-to-face interaction with instructors and hands-on training that may include participation in an actual brokerage. Expect to pay between $2,500 and $6,000 to attend a week-long program, plus expenses.

I recommend: Learn more about the five-day training program at Brooke Transportation Training Solutions. This course falls at the lower end of the price range but promises to deliver everything you need. At the end of the course on Resource Friday, graduates find job and networking opportunities by meeting and hearing from brokers and others in the business. Start out as a transportation agent after attending the C.R. England five-day course. Upon graduation, you'll operate under its brokerage, earn weekly commissions, access England's database of daily truck postings, use England's brokerage system, receive carrier cash advances, and England takes care of your receivables/collections/accounts payable.

Get the best deal with online broker training

Attend online freight broker training so you don't have to fork over money for travel expenses like hotels, eating out, gasoline and extra wear and tear on your automobile. The prices of these courses typically run from $100 to $1,500.

I recommend: Go to Transport Training International for online freight broker training. You'll get two downloadable books, complete instruction and 10 emails you can send TTI that include an unlimited number of questions in each. Complete your freight broker classes online and via telephone through Atex Freight Broker Training. The comprehensive course includes a 36-chapter eBook, but you can also take individual freight broker training classes. For a really inexpensive training solution for transportation brokers, purchase the training package from TALTOA, a full-service transportation/logistics consulting firm. The package includes 60-day access to the Freight Broker Training E-Workshop. You also get a digital training manual, terminology guide, carrier directory and freight broker demo software.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  If you can afford to spend more and would like to go beyond basic trucker broker training, check into degree programs through online universities. Just keep in mind that these education programs will cost more, not just in terms of money, but also resource commitments like time and dedication.

Railroads once owned U.S. commerce, but with the rise of interstate highways in the 1950s, it has been trucks every since. The government figures that, on a typical day, roughly 43 million tons of goods worth $29 billion move on highways in the United States.

The ebb and flow of demand, plus the sheer chaos of managing loads in many directions, creates an opportunity for freight brokers, individuals who help shippers find empty trucks and truckers find loads to move, all for a cut of the deal.

Covered in this guide:

1. Basic qualifications and licenses for being a freight broker
2. Insurance and other costs of doing business as a freight broker
3. Financial credibility as a freight broker
4.Getting your feet wet in freight brokerage at a large shipper

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Getting started being a freight broker

Online courses on being a freight broker claim all it takes is fax machine, phone and time. Not quite. You'll need a federal license and insurance at a minimum to be a freight broker.

I recommend: The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration manages licensing for freight brokers. Price freight broker contingent cargo insurance with Navigators, Gales Creek, Allianz Global Risks, CNA Financial, and Travelers Companies.

Establishing credibility in the market as a freight broker

Other than a license, you won't be really required by law to do much more. But shipper won't touch you with a 10-foot pole unless you can show you have broker authority and a surety bond.

I recommend: Get your operating authority paperwork in order with the feds through the FMCSA site. Find a surety bond provider at the Surety & Fidelity Association of America, a trade group of bond companies, or consider creating a trust-fund agreement, which allows you to put up your (higher) own cash bond instead.

Before becoming a freight broker, get your finances in order

Shippers are very wary of seat-of-the-pants freight brokers who take over their logistics but might not make it to the end of the week financially. Establishing financial credibility is as important as professional credibility as a freight broker.

I recommend: Shipper use online credit-check services to vet freight brokers. Many offer "broker memberships" which will let freight brokers take control of records online. Take a look at RTS Credit, Truckload Credit, and 247 Credit. Red Book Transportation rates freight brokers on reliability.

Experience the industry first hand to build contacts as a freight broker

One way to build a future business as full-fledged freight broker is to learn the ropes as an agent for a larger logistics provider.

I recommend: Some of the bigger national freight logistics companies include Cardinal Logistics, Celadon, and of course package shippers like UPS, DHL and FedEx. Find a smaller, local freight broker to work for in the Transportation Intermediaries Association directory online. Landstar Carrier Group provides network support to freight broker agents starting out. For more, see the Business.com directory on freight brokers, freight broker training and LTL (less than a truckload) shipping.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Being a freight broker sound like a lot of trouble for a startup business? Consider working as an agent -- a freight broker representative -- until you feel you have a command of the freight broker industry.
• •  Watch out for expensive online freight broker schools. The information they offer may be legit and even worthwhile, but short-course freight broker programs are in no position to place you in a job any more than you would find one yourself.
• •  Be ready for an immediate hit to the wallet: New freight brokers scramble to survive for the first two years or more, until clients begin to trust them. If you aren't ready to finance that curve, reconsider.

More than 14,000 licensed transportation brokers operate in the U.S. and more than 50% of them full time. If you're considering a career as a transportation broker or already work as an agent or own a transportation brokerage business, increase your success through proper education and training. The first lesson you'll learn about transportation broker education and training basics is that the industry doesn't require any formal training; you can still enhance your value, however, with appropriate transportation broker training and other education programs/degrees.

With nearly one million shippers in business, the demand for transportation brokers and agents continues growing. As demand grows so, too, will competition, and that's where education and training pay off.

1. Include property broker, truck broker and transportation brokers in your search for freight broker training classes; they're often used interchangeably, and you can also substitute the word agent for broker in any of those terms.

2. Only one level of transportation broker certification exists: Property Broker; the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration doesn't recognize any other title.

3. Not only can you work from home as a broker, you can accomplish online freight broker training, too.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Become a transport broker after attending trucker broker training

While attendance at a freight broker training school isn't mandatory, the schools provide training to increase the likelihood of your brokerage's success, and any certifications will increase your viability within the competitive industry.

I recommend: Earn certification through the Certified Transportation Broker Program developed by the Transportation Intermediaries Association. The three-month home-study program provides professional recognition, marketing advantages and career advancement. Read more about the two-day and five-day freight broker classes offered by Transport Training International. Licensed by the Alabama and Georgia Departments of Education, TTI supplies tools for running a successful brokerage. It boasts membership in the BBB Reliability Program, Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and the Alabama Trucking Association. Chat live with a freight broker (your instructor) during its Freight Broker Web Conferencing Class. Register for the online truck broker training at Gatlin Education Services. Gatlin provides career training programs to nearly 700 colleges, universities and other education sources.

Find transportation broker or third-party logistics education through professional organizations

Don't think that because continuing education/training/certification isn't required, you don't have any more to learn. You'll find it difficult at best to locate a freight broker school offering advanced courses, but you can find classes and seminars offered through transportation/logistics professional organizations that will increase your knowledge and give you the tools to make you even better.

I recommend: Consider membership in Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) to further your education while enjoying many other benefits. As the only organization representing transportation intermediaries doing business in the U.S. and abroad, TIA's members include brokers, forwarders, intermodal marketing companies and others. Join the American Society of Transportation and Logistics to take advantage its seminars and conferences. These educational events will increase your knowledge of the transportation logistics world beyond the scope of your immediate job.

Look for advanced classes through freight broker schools and online universities

Very few advanced or follow-on freight broker classes exist, but you can find plenty of transportation logistics-related programs through colleges/universities.

I recommend: Consider the Freight Broker advanced training at Brooke Transportation Training to polish your skills. Think about earning a Bachelor's degree from Sullivan University in Business Administration -- Logistics and Distribution. If you already possess a college degree, climb to the next level with a Master of Science in Management -- Transportation Management from the Florida Institute of Technology; earn the degree via distance learning at the school's virtual campus.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Besides any training you obtain, keep in mind that to legally become a transportation broker, you'll also have to apply for your authority through the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, post a $10,000 Surety Bond and file your BOC-3, a processing agent upon whom court papers would be served in any proceeding against a motor carrier, broker or freight forwarder.

The transportation industry is filled with much industry-specific jargon. As a transportation broker, it will be necessary to have a command of lingo that exists within the world of air cargo, ocean transport, rail and truck transportation, as well as intermodal, which uses a variety of transportation methods to get products from point A to point B. Understanding industry-specific key terms are an essential part of transportation broker education and training.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Automated Commercial Environment

More commonly known as A.C.E., the automated commercial environment is the system for processing commercial trade introduced by the CBP (Customs and Border Control). The purpose of A.C.E. is to tighten up security at our borders by requiring that every carrier submit an electronic manifest prior to entering or exiting the country.

I recommend: LoadedTruck has an FAQ document explaining all the nuances of A.C.E.

Bonded warehouse

A bonded warehouse is where products with unpaid duties get stored. Goods at bonded warehouses get stored under bond and are jointly owned by the importer, its agent and U.S. Customs officials. A Customs bonded warehouse can either be managed by a governmental agency or by a private third party and is run much like any other warehouse. Understanding the rules and regulations around bonded warehouses is essential to transportation broker training and education.

I recommend: The law firm Fuerst Humphrey Ittleman discusses bonded warehouse applications as well as the classes of bonded warehouses recognized by the U.S. government.

Bill of Lading

The term 'bill of lading' often is written in transportation documents as B/L or BOL. It is an itemized list of goods or products that are contained in a shipment. A bill of lading serves as a contractual agreement and as a receipt to the carrier for shipment.

I recommend: Duhaime is the website of Attorney Lloyd Duhaime. Read his article explaining bill of lading and its legal ramifications.

Factoring

You will learn to understand the challenges of cash flow in this industry as part of your transportation broker education and training. Waiting to get paid is challenging when there are bills and salaries to pay. Freight factoring provides you with money up front at a low interest rate so you have cash on hand.

I recommend: Commercial Capital, a factoring company, includes an article about freight factoring on its website.

Freight bill auditing

Freight bill auditing can save you as a transportation broker as well as your client money when done correctly. Freight bill auditors are good to have on hand, as they are able to review all bills of lading and freight bills to make sure you are not overpaying.

I recommend: Software Solutions Unlimited features two articles in PDF format that deal directly with the subject of freight bill auditing.

International freight forwarder

An international freight forwarder helps the transportation broker and exporter move goods out of the country. Freight forwarders are familiar with import rules and regulations and often specialize in a particular global region.

I recommend: Informed Trade International does an excellent job of explaining the role of an international freight forwarder.