Freight brokers are under more pressure than ever. Years of soft freight rates have compressed margins, and brokers have had to scrutinize all of their operational processes for inefficiencies to keep a competitive edge. On top of margin strain, brokers are also feeling the squeeze from the alarming increase in fraudulent activity. Fraudsters are finding new ways to exploit the industry, often by targeting its weakest points.
“A challenging first half of 2025 left many carriers and brokers scrambling to maintain margins or recover from what seems like a year-long, never-ending bloodbath,” wrote Rob Carpenter, adviser to the Department of Transportation, in a recent article for FreightWaves. “The pullback reflects the reality of operating in a margin-compressed environment where cash preservation often trumps expansion plans.”
This prolonged contraction has reshaped the freight landscape, exposing deep vulnerabilities across the industry.
“Over the last several years of depressed freight rates, the industry has been forced to grapple with inefficiencies in their processes to maintain a competitive advantage and stay in business,” said OTR Solutions Chief Technology Officer Drew Bingham. “Along with the margin pressures, the industry has been run rampant with sophisticated, ever evolving fraud problems.”
The dual pressure of shrinking margins and escalating fraud has prompted brokers to take a hard look at their day-to-day workflows. There are unfortunately plenty of weak points that could be costing many brokers money and exposing them to risk. One area that often flies under the radar: the inbox.
The problem with email
For brokers, one of the most vulnerable spots is email. It remains the default way many companies communicate and manage their workflows, and it comes with serious risks.
“Email is by far the easiest, the most vulnerable technology for fraud,” Bingham said. “Email addresses are easily spoofed, and brokers and carriers alike suffer the consequences, with zero recourse, further exacerbating tight margins or worse, putting otherwise good companies out of business.”
A spoofed email is a fraudulent message that’s been disguised to appear as though it’s coming from a trusted sender, often tricking recipients into sharing information or transferring funds.
Email fraud of all types is increasingly prevalent. In 2024, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported over $16 billion in losses from internet crime, with phishing and business email compromise among the top contributors. In fact, business email compromise alone accounted for nearly $2.8 billion in reported losses.
Beyond fraud exposure, email creates its own set of operational headaches. Using it to manage documents and verifications is slow, clunky and almost impossible to track at scale. Conversations get buried, ownership is unclear and version control often slips.
That’s why more brokerages are rethinking how they communicate with carrier and shipper partners, moving into centralized platforms that provide visibility and accountability. Beyond improving communication, these tools also serve as organizational and workflow hubs, streamlining critical processes like invoicing, payment tracking and dispute management.
Relying on email creates gaps that make it impossible to see the full picture. Important context ends up scattered across threads, siloed with individuals,or lost in volume.
“Organization and important context around carriers, payables, or receivables are often non-existent and impossible to track efficiently via email. Important updates can be buried in threads, missed due to volume, or lost in individual inboxes,” Bingham said. “When you add in the challenge of attaching documents and images, version and sizing constraints and the clumsiness of managing one of the most important operational controls comes into full view.”
Attachments make the problem worse. Files are hard to track down, large ones get rejected, and outdated versions slip through. Without a central hub, brokers risk making decisions with incomplete or old information.
Why growth stalls in an inbox
Perhaps the biggest long-term issue with email workflows is that they simply don’t scale. What works for a small brokerage quickly falls apart as operations grow.
“Relying on an inbox to manage invoicing is one of the fastest ways to cap a company’s growth,” said Grace Maher, chief operating officer at OTR Solutions. “Email was never designed to be a financial workflow tool because it’s unstructured, hard to track, and impossible to scale.”
As volume rises, the risks multiply.
“When invoices and documents live in inboxes, approvals slip through the cracks, payments get delayed, security is compromised, and duplicate or fraudulent invoices are far more likely to be missed,” Maher explained. “What works at fifty loads per week, simply breaks at five thousand”.”
Maher emphasized that moving away from email and into structured platforms not only reduces fraud and compliance risks but also gives brokerages the visibility and efficiency to scale sustainably. The right technology frees teams to focus on relationships and growth instead of back-office chaos.
Innovation on the horizon
Brokers need systems designed for their business, not just general communication. Tools built for freight workflows create structure, visibility and security that email can’t offer. They provide automation, centralized dashboards and real-time collaboration.
“True scalability comes from structured systems like Epay Manager that remove the manual guesswork and let brokers grow without adding the same linear headcount,” Maher said.
Epay Manager takes what normally lives in scattered email threads and spreadsheets and pulls it into a single, automated platform where invoices, approvals and payments can actually move at the speed brokers need.
Structured systems reduce fraud, keep documents and payments visible in one place, and create consistency no matter the transaction volume.
OTR Solutions continues to push for new technology to help brokers and carriers accelerate growth. This fall, the company will launch OTRintelligence, described as “a truly instant funding solution for carriers” that will provide “funding to any bank account within minutes of upload, at any moment. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”
That drive for innovation reflects the company’s broader philosophy.
“OTR Solutions never stops looking for new, innovative ways to help our clients maximize their success in the trucking business,” Maher said.
For brokers who want to grow, ditching email-centric workflows isn’t just about improving efficiency. It’s about protecting their businesses, supporting long-term growth and staying competitive in a tough market.
Those who embrace purpose-built systems will be better positioned to avoid fraud, streamline operations and scale sustainably. In an industry that leaves little margin for error, that shift can make all the difference.
Click here to learn more about OTR Solutions.
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