Selling by industry

Selling a freight brokerage? Price the load history separately

A brokerage sale is priced on margin, lanes and shipper accounts. The chat and email behind those figures (every quote, every rate negotiation with carriers, every load that went wrong) is an asset of its own.

AI companies license it to learn how real logistics problems get solved.

AI Data Offers research deskChecked against our methodology Updated October 28, 2026 2 min read 7 sources

In this guide

Quotes, rate confirmations and the night-shift chat

Quote requests and how they were priced
Carrier negotiations and rate confirmations
Exceptions: late loads, damage, detention and how each was handled
After-hours chat between dispatch and drivers

Pewter cites $650,000 for a freight broker with 100 staff and $500K for a 3PL. Both come from the publishers themselves, with no buyer identified.

Downsized ahead of the sale: can you still qualify?

Possibly. Pewter looks at your largest-ever headcount. Nearly everyone else counts current staff, usually needing 20 to 30.

Shipper rates and contracts

Shipper contracts and rates are commercially sensitive and often confidential. Buyers say client data can be excluded. Troveo has published notes on how logistics companies approach licensing.

Questions to put to any data buyer

Is this a license of a copy, or a sale of the records outright?
Is it exclusive, and for how long? Can I license the same data elsewhere later?
Which systems and date ranges are in scope, and can I leave folders or whole tools out?
Who removes names and personal details, how, and do I approve a sample before anything leaves?
When does payment arrive, and does the clock start at signing or at your acceptance of the delivery?
Do I pay anything, and does anyone in the chain take a cut?
How long do you keep the copy, and what happens to it if you are acquired?

FAQ

Questions, answered

What have freight brokers been paid?

Pewter cites $650,000 for one with 100 staff. Not verified, and the buyer is not named.

Is my company big enough?

The usual floor is somewhere from 20 to 30 staff. Some buyers publish none at all. Mode accepts law firms with 6 people and accounting firms with 10, and Pewter goes by your highest-ever headcount. Our match quiz sorts it out in two minutes.

Will a license lift what the brokerage sells for?

Nobody has measured it. The data gets its own price.

Do I pay anything to license?

Typically no. Direct buyers rarely charge sellers. Middlemen are different: brokers and marketplaces may keep anywhere from 8% to 30%. Have any fee written down before a sample changes hands.

Find the buyers that fit your company

Answer a few questions about your size, tools and history. We show which buyers want a company like yours. Free, no files.

Match my company What is my data worth?

Keep reading

Sources

Every number on this page links back to one of these.

Spot something wrong? See our corrections policy. Some buyers pay us a referral fee. How we make money.