Updated October 2026
Selling a freight brokerage: the quote and dispatch history
When a brokerage sells, the price follows shippers, lanes and margin. The email behind those numbers is a separate asset: every quote, every carrier negotiation, every load that went sideways and how your team fixed it, and AI companies now pay to license a copy of records like these. Pewter says a 100-person freight broker was paid $650,000, as reported by its licensing partner.1,2
What they want
Quotes, rate cons and the night-shift Slack
In practice that is your TMS notes in McLeod or Turvo, the load board history, the rate confirmation emails, the recorded carrier calls and the Teams channel where a night rep asked how to handle a detention claim. Buyers list rate quotes, dispatch logs, call recordings and email among the records they want, and several name logistics outright.3,4,5
What brokerages were paid
What freight firms say they got
Pewter puts a 100-person freight broker at $650,000 and lists a third-party logistics company at $500K. It names no company or buyer and says its market table repeats publishers' own statements, so treat these as signs of demand, not a quote. Published ranges across buyers mostly run $100K to $2M, also as the buyers' own claims.1,6,7,8,9,10
| Fact | Value and source |
|---|---|
| Pewter's example payouts | A 60-person accounting firm paid $350,000, a 70-person engineering firm $450,000 and a 100-person freight broker $650,000, as reported by its licensing partner |
| 3PL payment (Pewter's table) | A third-party logistics company: $500K |
| Pewter: strongest demand | Logistics, distribution, construction, engineering and accounting |
Who fits
We trimmed staff before the sale. Do we still qualify?
Often, yes. Pewter takes firms with 20+ staff now or at their peak, in any status including downsizing, and names logistics first among its strongest demand. Most other buyers want 20 to 30 or more people on current staff, and a few state no minimum. Ask each buyer how it counts, and let the quiz introduce you to the ones that take a brokerage your size.11,2,12,4,13,5
What stays out
Shipper rates and contracts
Rate sheets and shipper contracts often carry confidentiality terms, and shipper data is held on behalf of clients, which buyers say can be left out. Expect the license to centre on how your team works, with shipper names and rates removed. Buyers commonly strip names, contact details and account numbers, show you a before-and-after sample and delete the originals after processing.14,15,16,17
It moves faster than a brokerage sale. Offers usually come within a few days to two weeks, the owner's part is mostly an export of about 1-3 hours by the buyers' own count, and payment usually follows around 3-6 weeks after signing, sometimes longer.7,18,19,20
FAQ
Questions, answered with sources
Every business is different, so this one is best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over it with you before anything is signed.
Before you sign
Questions to talk through with your buyer
Every business is different, so these are best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over them with you before anything is signed.
Questions for this kind of business
- Does a license of operations email survive a sale of the brokerage, and who receives future payments?
- Do customer, vendor or platform contracts, NDAs or API terms restrict this?
- How does a license affect a sale of the business: reps and warranties, change of control, earnouts, exclusivity?
Questions for any buyer
- Is the license exclusive, and for how long?
- Can you sublicense the data, and to whom?
- Which AI labs will receive it, and will you tell us?
- How long do you keep it, and how is it deleted?
- What is your liability cap, and who indemnifies whom?
- Will the contract ban re-identification of people in the data?
- Who removes personal data, by what method, and do we approve it first?