Carrier Packet Tracking Requirements: What to Agree Before Pickup

If you already ask for tracking on the phone at booking, we cover that conversation, and how to handle the pushback, in setting tracking expectations with carriers. This guide is about the paper behind the call: what the carrier signs once when it joins your carrier list, what it signs on every load, and how the two fit together when tracking drops halfway through a run.

Which document should carry the tracking requirement?

A small brokerage usually works with two documents:

• The carrier packet and broker-carrier agreement. Signed once, when the carrier sets up with you. It holds the terms that apply to every load: insurance, payment terms, no re-brokering, and the general duty to share status.
• The rate confirmation. Signed on each load. It holds the rate, the stops, the appointments and anything specific to this freight.

Tracking needs both. The agreement makes it a standing obligation, so no carrier can say it never applied. The broker-carrier agreement Flock Freight publishes does this with one sentence: “To allow Broker to comply with customer requests regarding shipment status, Carrier shall provide contact information for any driver transporting cargo pursuant to this Agreement.”

But the agreement alone is weak where money is concerned. On a Freight 360 episode on rate cons that prevent surety bond claims, one host said the broker-carrier agreement does not carry much weight here, but the rate confirmation should list the expectations and what each one is worth. The other described a load where the carrier threatened a claim on the bond over a deduction, and the brokerage expected to lose because no charge for that failure was listed. The lesson for a small desk: the packet sets the rule, the rate confirmation sets the price.

One more line belongs in the agreement: which document wins if they disagree. If your rate confirmation says the tracking terms on it apply to the load, a carrier cannot point back to a looser packet signed a year ago.

What should the carrier packet say about tracking?

Keep it to terms that are true for every load you will ever give this carrier:

1. Tracking is a condition of every load, from the start of the tracking window to delivery, unless the rate confirmation says otherwise.
2. Which methods you accept. A driver app through your link, an ELD share, or the carrier’s own platform if you can receive it. Name them, so “we track through our own system” is either on the list or it is not.
3. Driver contact details for every driver on your loads, given before pickup. This is the Flock Freight clause in your own words.
4. The driver is the carrier’s driver. The phone you track must belong to a driver of the carrier you booked. A tracking link that lands with a stranger’s driver is a warning sign, which we cover in how load tracking exposes double brokering.
5. A named tracking contact at the carrier, usually dispatch, who answers when the driver cannot.
6. The carrier tells its drivers that loads with you are tracked, so the first time the driver hears about it is not the text with the link.

Leave amounts, windows and gap lengths out of the packet. They change with the customer and the lane, and a number that fits a dry van in Ohio may not fit a reefer load into a grocery warehouse.

When should tracking turn on?

Before pickup, not at it. If the first ping is supposed to come from the shipper’s yard, you find out the link was never accepted when the driver is already loaded and rolling. Write the start in the rate confirmation as a point you can check, for example “tracking connected before arrival at the shipper”, and check it before the appointment.

The end belongs on the same line: delivery, or delivery plus the POD. Drivers object to being tracked off the load, and a clear end time answers part of that objection in writing. The LBOARD carrier app page tells drivers that tracking runs only during active loads, and that location is collected within the time frame the broker defines, usually starting a few hours before pickup and ending at delivery.

Who owns tracking on the carrier side?

The driver holds the phone, but the carrier signed your packet. Split the job that way in writing:

• The carrier’s dispatch confirms the driver’s name and number at booking, makes sure the driver accepts the link before pickup, and fixes a drop when the driver cannot be reached.
• The driver keeps tracking on, with the location permission the app needs, from the start of the window to delivery.
• Your desk checks the connection before pickup and owns the follow-up when it drops.

Without the first line, every drop becomes a hunt for a driver who is driving. With it, you have a second number to call and someone who agreed to answer.

What counts as a tracking drop?

“Tracking required” without a definition of failure invites the argument the Freight 360 hosts describe: the carrier says the truck crossed an area with no signal, and the customer says nobody knew where the freight was. Put three things in the rate confirmation:

1. The gap. How long without an update counts as a drop. Pick a number of hours that fits the lane and the customer, and write it down.
2. The cure. What the carrier must do when you report a gap: restore tracking, or give a location by phone within a set time.
3. The exceptions. Areas with no coverage, a breakdown reported before the gap, or a stop you were told about. A drop the carrier warned you about is not the same as a driver who went quiet.

Then follow the same order every time: alert, call the driver, call the carrier’s tracking contact, write down what you were told and when. That order, and what to do when it fails, is in when a driver goes dark. The note is what you will need if pay is ever questioned.

What happens to the carrier’s pay if tracking drops?

There are two common ways to write it, and both only hold if the carrier saw them before pickup:

• A deduction. A flat amount taken off the rate if tracking fails as defined. Simple, but it reads to carriers as a fine.
• An itemized rate. The rate is split into lines, and tracking is one line the carrier earns by tracking. On the Freight 360 episode, one broker described a rate confirmation itemized as line haul, on-time delivery with team drivers, and “successful tracking from dispatch to delivery”, each with its own amount.

Carriers push back on both, and the size of the amount is where they push. When FreightCaviar shared a rate confirmation split into $700 line haul and three $300 lines, one of them for tracking, 56% of more than 2,700 voters said the setup was not fair. Some replies said a smaller amount would feel fair; others pointed out that shippers fine brokers similar amounts.

That last point is the defensible way to set the number. The Freight 360 hosts were clear that charges like these are not a way for the broker to make money: they pass through what the customer charges the broker when the carrier fails. If your shipper does not penalize missed tracking, a large tracking line is hard to justify to a carrier you want to keep.

Whatever you choose, keep the evidence with the load: the rate confirmation the carrier signed, the timestamps of the gap, and your call notes. A broker already keeps a record of each transaction under 49 CFR 371.3, so store the tracking evidence in the same load file.

Where does LBOARD fit?

LBOARD is load tracking built for independent brokers. You enter a shipment and the driver’s phone number, with no TMS needed, and it works standalone or inside your TMS, with an optional API for McLeod, Turvo, Tai, Rose Rocket and Ascend. Delays and route deviations are flagged in real time, all events are timestamped, and shippers can follow the load on a shareable tracking link. Drivers use the carrier app, which is free for them.

The first 25 loads are free with all features and no contract.

Frequently asked questions

Should tracking terms go in the carrier packet or the rate confirmation?

Both. The carrier packet makes tracking a standing condition and names the accepted methods, the driver contact duty and the carrier’s tracking contact. The rate confirmation sets the tracking window, what counts as a drop and any pay tied to tracking for that load.

Can a broker deduct carrier pay for missed tracking?

Only on terms the carrier agreed to before pickup. Write the condition and the amount on the rate confirmation, keep the timestamps of the gap and your call notes, and tie the amount to what your customer charges you. A deduction added after delivery is easy for a carrier to dispute.

What if the carrier will not agree to tracking?

Treat it as a booking decision, not a dispute to settle after pickup. Ask which methods they can accept, and if none works for your customer, book another carrier. How to have that conversation is covered in our guide to setting tracking expectations with carriers.

When should tracking end?

At delivery, or at delivery plus the POD if you need the driver’s upload. Put the end on the rate confirmation next to the start, so the driver knows tracking does not continue after the load.