Trucking and Freight Credit Risk
In freight, the company that hauls a load is rarely the company that pays for it. After a multi-year downturn that has driven a steady wave of carrier failures and exits, that payment structure is where credit risk now concentrates.
Rates turn up as capacity leaves
The freight market is turning up from the supply side rather than from demand. The expenditures component of the Cass Freight Index fell 19% in 2023 and another 11% in 2024 before flattening at a 0.5% decline in 2025, according to Cass Information Systems. Volumes remain soft: the Cass shipments index read 1.041 in May 2026, down 1.2% year over year even after four consecutive sequential gains. Truckload rates are rising anyway, with spot rates up about 25% year over year in April 2026, because trucks are leaving the road faster than freight is disappearing. FreightWaves’ SONAR net-revocation data, which tracks carriers losing or dropping operating authority rather than bankruptcy filings, ran 31% above the prior year so far in 2026. STG Logistics filed for Chapter 11 in January 2026 to restructure roughly $1.2 billion in debt, the largest trucking bankruptcy in the opening months of the year.
The carrier on the invoice is not the customer
A large share of truckload freight moves through a broker rather than directly between shipper and carrier. The shipper hires the broker, the broker tenders the load to a carrier, and the carrier hauls the freight but invoices the broker on terms that commonly run 30 days or more. The carrier has no contract with the shipper. When the broker fails, the carrier becomes an unsecured creditor of an intermediary it may never have evaluated for credit. Federal law requires every property broker to maintain a $75,000 surety bond or trust fund under 49 CFR §387.307, and that amount is the most a surety will pay across all valid claims against a single broker. When claims exceed it, the provider can file an interpleader action and carriers receive a prorated share, as Holland & Knight notes in its summary of the rule. The figure has not changed since 2013. Unsecured status is worth little in a freight bankruptcy: when the cross-border carrier Texas International Enterprises filed Chapter 11 in late 2025 with more than 200 creditors, it told the court that unsecured creditors would likely recover nothing, per TheStreet.
Fraud concentrates in the payment gap
The weeks between delivery and payment are also where freight fraud sits. In a double-brokering scheme, a load is re-brokered to an unauthorized carrier that hauls it and is never paid by the party that booked it, leaving that carrier with no contractual claim against the shipper or original broker, according to Freight Collection Solutions Law Group. The fraud-prevention firm Highway reported blocking roughly 400,000 fraud attempts across its platform in the first quarter of 2025, including more than 350,000 fraudulent inbound emails. New FMCSA financial-responsibility rules took effect on January 16, 2026, adding a seven-day window to replenish a drawn-down bond and a two-day notification requirement; under the rule, a Title 11 bankruptcy filing by itself does not constitute broker insolvency.
Where trade credit insurance fits
Trade credit insurance addresses the exposure directly. It is not a surety bond and not a factoring line: rather than advancing cash against an invoice, it indemnifies a company’s receivables when a customer becomes insolvent or fails to pay within the policy terms. For a business holding receivables tied to freight, whether a supplier to carriers, a broker carrying shipper balances, or a carrier with concentrated customers, a policy can cover an agreed share of the loss when an obligor in the chain fails. That is the scenario a $75,000 broker bond and unsecured-creditor status leave largely uncovered.
Sources
• Cass Information Systems, Cass Transportation Index Report (April and May 2026)
• FreightWaves, Freight market pushes another wave of trucking firms into bankruptcy (SONAR net revocations)
• TheStreet, STG Logistics Chapter 11 and 2026 trucking bankruptcies
• TheStreet, Texas International Enterprises Chapter 11 (unsecured creditors)
• eCFR, 49 CFR Part 387 Subpart C, §387.307 (broker financial responsibility)
• FMCSA, Broker and Freight Forwarder Financial Responsibility Rule (effective Jan. 16, 2026)
• Holland & Knight, FMCSA Issues Final Rule on Financial Security Requirements (interpleader and prorated claims)
• Freight Collection Solutions Law Group, Legal implications of double brokering and unpaid freight bills
• Denim (citing Highway), The ultimate guide to freight fraud for brokers and carriers
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal, financial, or insurance advice. Figures are current as of June 2026 and are drawn from the sources listed above. Coverage terms, eligibility, and availability vary by insurer and are subject to underwriting.