Freight brokers shared a lot in 2025. We distilled a year’s worth of insights into eight charts so you can carry the most actionable data into 2026.
"As an industry, we have to be prepared to handle situations quickly because ultimately people's lives and livelihoods are at stake.”
"Many people think brokers and trucking companies are laggards in technology, but if you can build something that makes their lives easier, they will do it."
Freight brokers shared a lot in 2025. We distilled a year’s worth of insights into eight charts so you can carry the most actionable data into 2026.
If 2024 was the year brokers experimented with new tools, 2025 was the year they got honest about what’s actually holding them back.
Across thousands of votes, FreightCaviar’s LinkedIn polls revealed the same themes again and again: broken communication, messy back-office operations, stalled automation, fraud headaches, and frustrated carrier relationships.
All of it points to one thing: brokers lack time, visibility, and operational clarity.
So for this final Epay Manager blog of the year, we’re breaking down the top poll insights from 2025, and what they mean for teams heading into 2026 – plus the practical fixes to turn these bottlenecks into advantages.
What this tells us: Growth now comes from doing more with the team you have rather than endless hiring.
What to do in 2026:
Where Epay fits: Epay’s automated invoicing and auditing workflows let brokers increase volume without increasing payroll, exactly what this poll reflects.
This means that there isn’t a people problem; there is a process problem. Carriers aren’t ignoring brokers. They’re overwhelmed by scattered emails, missing documents, unclear payment statuses, and too many apps.
What to do in 2026:
Where Epay helps: Epay’s Portal offers unique logins to both carriers and factors to allow for real-time transparency to invoicing and payment status to eliminate the “What’s the status?” back-and-forth entirely.
When we asked brokers why they’re hesitant to adopt automation, 45% said integration complexity, more than cost, lack of time, or operational inertia.
Basically, that translates into “Please don’t give me another tool that doesn’t talk to my TMS.”
What to do in 2026:
Where Epay helps: Epay integrates directly with major TMS platforms and has guided onboarding so teams can adopt automation without chaos.
In June, we saw the highest-engagement poll of the year:
71% of brokers said double brokering is their #1 fraud concern, followed by fake documents at 14% – the sleeper issue that quietly drives disputed, delayed payments, and internal audit headaches.
A key note is that double brokering relies on fake documents. Without believable documents, double brokering quickly collapses.
What to do in 2026:
Epay’s AI audit engine is built specifically to catch mismatched or suspicious documents before they hit accounting.
In August, 36% of brokers voted emotional intelligence as the industry’s most underrated skill, beating multitasking and even adaptability.
Why? Because when the market is tough, relationships outperform hustle.
What to do in 2026:
Where Epay helps: When your back office is organized, clear, and fast, your carrier relationships improve organically without you having to “work on” soft skills.
In the August poll, 68% of freight brokers listed delays in POD submission as their top frustration. Another 22% cited unreadable images.
POD issues trigger a chain reaction:
Late POD → late invoice → late carrier pay → late cash flow
Where Epay fits: Epay prevents incomplete or unusable PODs from ever entering billing, which reduces disputes and accelerates payment cycles.
In September, 51% of brokers chose customer service as the distinguishing factor for successful brokerages. Only 8% chose technology adoption.
Epay strengthens service by eliminating back-office chaos, making every invoice, every payment, and every document reliable.
Across every poll, brokers repeatedly highlighted five business realities:
Epay Manager is already solving these exact pain points with automated audits, transparent workflows, seamless integration, and friction-free carrier communication.
If 2025 revealed the patterns, 2026 is the year brokers finally fix them.
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