Dive Brief:
- DAT Freight & Analytics is introducing new initiatives to mitigate double brokering and fraud, the company announced Tuesday.
- The firm is implementing multi-factor authentication for logons to its DAT One truckload freight network this month to help prevent improper access to accounts. The company is also now providing an online resource on fraud protection advice.
- “Fraud is on the rise, and DAT is committed to providing the resources our customers need to fight back,” DAT Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Hopper said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Trucking advocates have spread warnings about double brokering schemes in recent months, calling the issue egregious and prolific.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, in a letter to regulators about broker definitions, described the practice as illegal if a carrier accepts a load but then secretly brokers it to another carrier, unbeknownst to a shipper.
For DAT, a flurry of activity required the firm to block access from over 3,000 accounts during 2022 “because of suspected fraud,” the analytics company said. Then in H1 of 2023 alone, the business blocked access to a similar number of accounts.
“As the use of load boards has grown, so has the aggressiveness and sophistication of scammers,” Hopper said, adding that these new tools will help users validate the brokers and carriers they want to work with as well as protect their login credentials.
Other efforts by DAT to reduce harm include expanding its Network Integrity Unit over the last two years, using automated monitoring of motor carrier records and identifying trends among bad actors.
Regulators are also seeking to reduce risks.
“We’ve made great progress in identifying scam movers and brokers, but we can’t do this alone,” Robin Hutcheson, head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said in a statement July 12. “We must work with partners across federal and state government to make the greatest impact.”
