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Search for the best freight agent programs and you’ll find plenty of lists, plenty of promises, and very few ways to tell them apart. Every program advertises strong splits, great support, and unlimited growth. On the surface, most look similar.

So let’s be honest about two things up front.

First, “best” depends on your book, your customers, and your goals. No single program is the right fit for every agent, and any page that tells you otherwise is a recruiting pitch wearing an article’s clothes.

Second, Somerset Logistics runs a freight agent program. We’re not a neutral party. What we can offer instead is the comparison framework experienced agents actually use, the specific terms to verify in writing, and the questions that expose the difference between a program that recruits well and a program that supports agents well. Use it to evaluate anyone, including us.

What Every Freight Agent Program Offers (Table Stakes)

Most established programs in the U.S. provide the same foundation: access to a TMS and load boards, back-office support for billing, collections, and carrier setup, some level of onboarding and training, and a commission split based on experience.

These are table stakes. You shouldn’t join a program that lacks them, but their presence tells you almost nothing about which program is best for your business. The real differences live in seven areas that rarely make it onto a recruiting brochure.

How to Compare the Best Freight Agent Programs: Seven Criteria

1. Commission Splits vs. Real Earnings

Commission percentages get the most attention and deserve the most skepticism. A higher split doesn’t automatically mean higher income.

Real earnings depend on what surrounds the number: chargeback and bad-debt policies, fees deducted before or after the split, how quickly and reliably you’re paid, and whether operational support helps you move more freight. A lower split with zero fees, strong systems, and protected relationships can outearn a higher split in a chaotic environment.

Verify in writing: the exact split, every fee, what triggers a chargeback, and the settlement schedule.

2. Fees and Chargebacks

Some programs advertise a headline split and recover margin through the fine print: technology fees, insurance charges, admin deductions, or bad-debt chargebacks that put customer credit risk on the agent.

Ask for a complete fee schedule and the bad-debt policy in writing. If a customer doesn’t pay, whose loss is it? The answer varies more between programs than the splits do.

3. Customer Ownership and Book Protection

For most experienced agents, this is the criterion that matters most. Your book represents years of relationship building, and programs handle it very differently.

Verify: how customer ownership is documented, whether house accounts and conflict checks are clearly defined, whether internal sales teams or other agents can pursue your accounts, whether accounts can be reassigned if volume dips, and what happens to the relationships if you leave.

Related Reading: What Happens to Your Customers When You Leave a Freight Brokerage?

4. Contract Terms: Non-Competes and Restrictions

The agreement itself deserves as much attention as the compensation. Some programs include non-competes that can restrict your ability to work in freight after leaving. Others use non-solicitation clauses. Some use neither.

Read the contract before you commit, and have an attorney in your state review any restrictive language. If a recruiter’s verbal answer and the written agreement don’t match, the contract wins.

Related Reading: Do Freight Agent Programs Have Non-Competes?

5. Financial Stability

Freight is cyclical, and a brokerage’s balance sheet becomes your problem at the worst possible moment. Payment issues with carriers damage your customer relationships. Instability shows up as slower support, shifting policies, and eventually, agents scrambling to move their book.

Verify: how long the brokerage has operated, whether ownership has remained consistent, its credit standing, and whether it keeps investing through down markets or merely survives them.

Related Reading: How Freight Agents Evaluate Brokerage Stability Before Making a Move

6. Support, Operations, and Carrier Vetting

Support isn’t measured by headcount. It’s measured by what happens when a load breaks after hours: can you reach someone quickly, do they know how to solve the problem, and can they make decisions?

Carrier vetting belongs in this criterion now too. Freight fraud has grown more sophisticated, and your customers increasingly ask who’s hauling their freight. A program’s approach to carrier onboarding, verification, and monitoring protects your reputation, not just the shipment.

7. Growth Model and Culture

How a brokerage grows tells you how you’ll be treated after you join. Aggressive recruiting can oversaturate markets, create internal competition for the same customers, and stretch support thin. Intentional growth, including turning some agents away, protects the agents already there.

Culture is harder to verify, so borrow the oldest trick in due diligence: ask to speak with current agents. Their answers are more honest than any brochure.

Related Reading: Why Some Freight Agent Programs Become Oversaturated

The Program-Terms Comparison Table

Put every program you’re considering through the same table. Terms should come from each program’s written agreement or published materials, not the recruiting call.

Term to verify	What to ask for	Somerset Logistics
Commission split	The number, in the agreement	70% *
Program fees	Complete fee schedule	Zero fees *
Bad-debt / chargebacks	Written policy: whose loss?	Bad-debt protection *
Customer ownership	Documented policy + conflict checks	Your book is yours; conflict checks before onboarding *
Non-compete	Yes/no, scope, duration	None *
Non-solicitation	Yes/no, direction, duration	Departing agents’ customers are not back-solicited *
Carrier pay speed	Standard terms	14-day carrier pay *
Onboarding timeline	Realistic, supported timeline	48-hour onboarding *
Minimums / quotas	Any volume requirements	None *
Years in business / ownership	Verifiable history	26+ years, family-owned *

* Somerset terms as stated in our program materials, ask us to verify each one during your evaluation, and hold every other program to the same standard.

Use a Scorecard, Not a Gut Feeling

Ask ten agents what makes the best freight agent program and you’ll get ten answers. That’s fine, your priorities should drive the weighting. The method matters more than the weights: score each program you’re considering across the seven criteria above, using only what you can verify in writing or confirm with current agents.

A scorecard does two things a recruiting conversation can’t. It forces every program to answer the same questions, and it makes the gaps visible. The criteria where a program’s answer was vague, verbal-only, or missing.

The Cost of Comparing Slowly

One more honest observation: most agents who move say they should have moved sooner. Staying put feels safe because nothing looks broken — loads move, commissions arrive. But in the wrong program, things erode quietly: commission leakage from internal competition, customer trust worn down by service issues you don’t control, and growing dependence on policies you didn’t write.

You don’t need to rush a move. You do need to run the comparison before something forces it. An evaluation done calmly beats one done in crisis, every time.

Where Somerset Fits

We built the Somerset program around the criteria in this guide because they’re the ones experienced agents told us matter: clear book protection with conflict checks before onboarding, no non-competes, no minimums or quotas, zero program fees on a true 70% split, and the stability of a family-owned brokerage that’s operated for more than 26 years.

We’d rather you compare us honestly than join us blindly. Put us in the table next to anyone.

Run the Comparison

The best freight agent programs hold up under written verification, that’s the whole test. Download our free 10-step guide to choosing your freight agent program, work through the Freight Agent Resource Hub, or reach out for a confidential conversation about what you’re looking for in your next brokerage partner.

Key Takeaways

• The best freight agent programs are identified by verification, not marketing: every meaningful term should exist in writing.
• Real earnings depend on fees, chargebacks, and support quality – not the headline split alone.
• Customer ownership and contract terms (non-competes, non-solicits) determine what happens to your book, and deserve more scrutiny than the commission percentage.
• Financial stability, carrier vetting, and growth model reveal how a program performs when markets get difficult.
• A scorecard applied evenly across programs exposes the gaps a recruiting conversation hides.

Frequently Asked Questions