Industry Focus
A freight bill starts a federal clock the day the load delivers. JSD recovers past-due commercial balances for motor carriers, freight brokers, and the 3PLs and warehouses around them, from unpaid freight bills to short pays that trace back to a cargo claim.
The Industry
A freight balance rests on a stack of paper that starts well before the invoice. The rate confirmation sets the price and the signed delivery receipt proves the work, while detention and lumper charges stand or fall on gate times and receipts. When a shipper or broker stops paying, those documents decide how the conversation goes.
We read the load file before anyone calls the debtor. If the invoice was factored, we confirm who owns it first, because a debtor who already paid the factor has a complete answer to a demand from the carrier. The same commercial collection services JSD runs for every industry apply here, with the load file as the starting point.
Past-Due Balances We Help Recover
Common Problems
Freight moves fast and billing trails behind it. A carrier hauls dozens of loads for a broker, a shipper disputes one of them, and payment on the rest slows while everyone argues about the one. By the time accounting notices the pattern, the oldest bills can be a year past delivery.
Fuel costs squeeze the same receivables from another direction. See what record diesel prices do to trucking receivables.
An interstate carrier has 18 months from delivery to sue for its charges. A balance the dispatcher calls slow can be close to that line before anyone in accounting looks at it, and the aging report has no column for a federal deadline.
A shipper reports damage and deducts the claimed amount from the freight bill, sometimes from several bills. The freight charge and the cargo claim usually follow separate paperwork, and sorting one from the other is where these balances get resolved.
A shipper pays the broker, and the broker never pays the carrier. The carrier’s options depend on the broker-carrier agreement and on how much room is left on the broker’s bond after other claimants.
A detention charge with gate times attached gets paid, while one backed only by the driver’s memory of a long wait gets argued. Gate logs and the rate confirmation terms settle most of those arguments.
Many carriers sell their receivables to a factor. Once a notice of assignment goes out, the debtor owes the factor, and a demand from the wrong party gives the debtor a reason to stall. Ownership gets confirmed before contact.
Small brokers and carriers can lose their authority and reappear under a new name. The FMCSA record and the state corporate registry are usually where the trail picks back up.
When to Escalate
| Situation | Next step |
|---|---|
| Freight bill 30 to 45 days past terms | Confirm the signed delivery receipt and rate confirmation, and check for an open cargo claim |
| Shipper offsets a cargo claim against freight | Separate the claim from the charge and request the claim documentation |
| Broker misses payment past agreed terms | Check the broker’s authority status and bond filing, then send formal demand |
| Detention or accessorial disputed | Pull gate times, ELD data, lumper receipts, and the rate confirmation terms |
| Interstate freight balance past 12 months | Decide on litigation referral while time remains in the 18-month window |
| Customer stops answering or changes its name | Verify the entity and its current contacts before the next demand |
Deadlines
Federal law gives a carrier subject to FMCSA jurisdiction 18 months from delivery, or tender of delivery, to sue for its charges. A controller used to state contract deadlines measured in years can let a freight balance sit well past the point where it should have been escalated.
Filing suit is attorney work. When a freight balance needs it, JSD refers the account to an attorney in our network, and the 18-month window is the reason that decision belongs early in the life of the account. A formal 10-day demand letter is often the step that comes first.
Carrier suit for interstate freight charges. The claim accrues on delivery or tender of delivery.
Broker financial security. Licensed property brokers file a BMC-84 surety bond or BMC-85 trust with FMCSA. Unpaid carriers can claim against it, and every claimant against that broker draws on the same $75,000.
Warehousing, 3PL services, and intrastate hauls generally follow state law and the services contract, so the governing contract is the first document we ask for.
State law and the governing contract
Documentation
JSD reads the rate confirmation, bill of lading, and delivery receipt first, then whatever accessorial support and claim history exists, before deciding how to approach the account.
Knowing which loads are clean and which are disputed is what makes the first contact count.
Common Debtors
Whether the debtor is the shipper who tendered the load or the broker who arranged it, the path to payment runs through a different chain of approvals.
Companies that tender freight directly to carriers and own the balance when the load delivers.
Intermediaries that sit between the shipper and the carrier, where payment chains most often break.
High-volume shippers whose deductions and customs charges produce disputed balances.
The Process
The load file shows us where payment stopped and who can resolve it.
We pull the rate confirmation, bill of lading, and signed delivery receipt, plus any notice of assignment, and confirm who owns the invoice and how long ago each load delivered.
Commercial contact with the person who can release payment, whether that is a shipper’s AP team or a broker’s owner.
If the debtor raises a cargo claim or questions an accessorial, we isolate that load or charge so it stops holding up the clean bills on the same account.
The account ends in payment or a documented dispute, and a balance that needs a lawsuit goes to an attorney in our network while time remains to file.
Confidential Account Review
Send the balance and customer name with the delivery dates and whatever load paperwork you have. We will tell you directly whether the account is worth placing and how much of the 18-month window is left.
FAQ
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Once the oldest load on an account passes a year since delivery, the 18-month window is already two-thirds spent.
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