Brokers are under immense pressure in today’s market. They’re expected to move freight quickly, while protecting shippers, carriers and their own organization from fraud. Every load comes with the challenge of ensuring it gets to the right place with a verified, trusted carrier. The stakes are high, and without the right tools, brokers are left vulnerable—balancing speed, trust and security.
Carrier onboarding is only the first step to moving freight securely. Fraud, theft, and compliance risks don’t end once a carrier passes your initial checks, they often show up after the load is booked. That’s why Highway goes beyond securing the onboarding process to protect brokers and carriers at every stage of the load lifecycle.
The Lifecycle of The Load: How Highway Protects Every Step
With an identity-first foundation, Highway starts by requiring carriers to prove who they are, their authority to act, and their equipment before any transaction moves forward. Just like a bank won’t approve a loan until it verifies your identity, credit, and ability to repay, Highway enables Brokers to know if the carrier is legitimate, authorized, and capable before moving loads. That way, they can trust the person they’re working with from the very beginning.
But the protection doesn’t stop there. Once a Carrier proves who they are, Highway protects your organization with an always-on compliance mindset throughout the entire lifecycle of the load. From tender through delivery, carriers are continuously re-verified, monitored, and checked for risks in real time. That means brokers and shippers aren’t just trusting a one-time onboarding process—they have an ongoing compliance shield that adapts to emerging threats.
How does it work?
When a load is booked, Brokers who use Highway securely send the rate confirmation through Highway’s Secure Rate Con Delivery method that requires two-factor authentication and digital acceptance, giving them an extra layer of protection against compromised inboxes. Ensuring the sensitive load information is only getting in the hands of the verified carrier protects brokers from the #1 fraud vector in 2025.
As the load progresses, Highway’s load level compliance solution, Load Lock, continues to monitor the carrier and detects potential risks as they occur throughout the lifecycle of the load. Whether there is an ownership change, revoked authority, expired insurance, or unusual updates or activity, brokers get flagged instantly, reducing the chance of fraud and a stolen load.
Finally, once the load is in transit, Highway brings visibility with ELD-powered tracking. By geofencing, monitoring location updates, and validating movement in real time, brokers can confirm that the right verified truck is moving the right load to the right destination.
The $130,000 Load Saved
Even after onboarding and vetting a trusted carrier, bad actors can find a way in. Without technology that continuously monitors risk throughout the lifecycle of the load, organizations like Sethmar Transportation would not have been able to stop a $130,000 load from being stolen.
Just weeks after implementing Highway’s Load Lock solution, Sethmar faced a real-world fraud attempt.
Here’s how the event occured:
- A carrier was vetted and initially approved for a load worth $130,000.
- On the morning of pickup, Load Lock detected a fraud alert tied to the assigned carrier.
- At 9:35am, Sethmar’s system flagged the alert.
- By 9:39am, Sethmar’s carrier sales rep had removed the fraudulent carrier from the load, alerted the shipper, and froze the pickup number, preventing the theft from taking place.
This real-world example reinforces why continuous, load-level monitoring matters. Load Lock gave Sethmar the visibility and speed to act before a six-figure loss could happen. This proactive response protected their customer, their reputation, and their bottom line.
Redefining Trust and Transparency in Freight
Highway’s fraud prevention suite goes beyond carrier onboarding—delivering continuous compliance, monitoring, and protection from onboarding through delivery and beyond. As the leader in Carrier Identity® and compliance solutions, Highway helps brokers and carriers build trusted relationships while staying protected from everyday threats across the entire lifecycle of a load.
Looking ahead, the recent launch of the Trusted Freight Exchange (TFX), Highway takes this mission a step further. We’re building not just safer transactions, but smarter ones. By creating a secure environment where trusted brokers and carriers can connect, TFX expands capacity, improves speed, and strengthens trust. Highway is setting the standard for the industry: a freight ecosystem where identity, security, and efficiency work hand in hand to power every load.
See how Highway protects every load, every time.
Schedule a demo to learn how identity, compliance and monitoring come together to stop fraud before it starts.
