Freight broker rate confirmation template.

What is a rate confirmation?

A rate confirmation, often shortened to “rate con,” is the load-specific document a freight broker sends a carrier to confirm one shipment. It records the pickup and delivery details, the equipment, the freight, the agreed carrier rate and the instructions for that move. When the carrier accepts it through your approved process, it becomes the shared reference for what was booked.

A rate confirmation is issued for each load. The broker-carrier agreement sets the standing terms of the relationship once; the rate confirmation applies those terms to a single shipment and records its price. That split matters when something goes wrong. If the appointment moved, the rate changed, or the carrier claims detention, the current rate confirmation is the first document your operators and billing team will look for.

The template below covers the operational fields a broker commonly includes. Pair it with your approved agreement wording, and keep the accepted version attached to the load record.

Printable rate confirmation template

Print this template or save it as a PDF, then fill in the fields for one load. It is a starting point for the operational fields only. Review it with your own counsel and use it alongside your approved broker-carrier agreement. It is not legal advice.

Print on letter or A4 paper, or save it as a PDF and fill it in electronically. Nothing is submitted from this page.

Rate confirmation vs bill of lading vs broker-carrier agreement

Three documents travel with a brokered load, and each does a different job. Mixing them up is a common source of billing disputes.

Keep all three connected to the load. When the delivered POD, the accepted rate confirmation and the carrier invoice agree, billing is simple. When they disagree, the rate confirmation shows what was agreed and the BOL or POD shows what actually moved and when.

What each field is for

• Identity: broker and carrier legal names, registration numbers and contacts show exactly which company accepted the load. Use the verified contacts from your carrier onboarding record, not details copied from an incoming email.
• References: the load number, revision number and customer references let operators, drivers and billing staff match every later document to the same shipment.
• Stops: addresses, appointment windows with time zones, pickup and delivery numbers, and site contacts. A missing time zone is a common cause of a missed appointment on long-haul and cross-border freight.
• Freight: equipment type, commodity description, quantity, weight and special handling tell the carrier whether its truck and driver can legally and practically take the load.
• Compensation: the agreed carrier rate, the currency, what the rate includes, and the rule for any extra charge. State whether fuel is included, so “all-in” is never a matter of interpretation.
• Completion: which documents the carrier must return for payment, where to send the invoice, and who to call with questions.

Before you add a field, ask who will use it. A field nobody checks becomes clutter; a field that billing relies on but operators never fill in becomes an exception every week.

Send it to verified contacts and keep the accepted copy

Send the rate confirmation only to the carrier contacts you verified during onboarding, not to an address that appeared in a recent email thread. Fraudsters who impersonate carriers often rely on a broker replying to whichever address wrote last.

Decide what counts as acceptance for your brokerage: a signed and returned copy, an acceptance recorded in a carrier portal, or another approved method. Record who accepted, when and which revision they accepted. Store that accepted copy with the load, where dispatch, billing and anyone handling a claim can find it without searching an inbox. If the carrier asks for changes before accepting, treat the result as a new revision rather than editing the original.

Make revisions visible

If a stop, appointment or rate changes, update the load record and issue a revised confirmation through your approved process. Give it a new revision number and date, and ask the carrier to accept the revision, so nobody works from an earlier version.

Preserve the earlier document, the reason for the change and the acceptance record. A verbal change that never reaches a revised confirmation is one of the most common reasons a carrier invoice does not match the load. In a TMS demonstration, ask to see what happens when an operator changes the rate after the first confirmation has been sent.

Avoid ambiguity about extra charges

Extra charges, often called accessorials, create disputes when the approval process is unclear. List the ones that commonly apply to your freight and the rule for each.

• Detention: time the truck waits at a shipper or receiver beyond the agreed free time.
• Layover: a delay that forces the driver to wait until another day.
• Lumper: a fee paid to a third party for loading or unloading.
• Truck ordered, not used: the load is cancelled after the carrier has dispatched.
• Extra stops: additional pickups or deliveries beyond the original plan.

Define who may approve an extra charge, what evidence is required, such as in and out times or a lumper receipt, and where the approval will be stored. Do not treat a proposed charge as approved simply because it appears in an email. Attach the evidence and approval to the load so the billing team can reconcile the carrier invoice with the agreement.

Accessorial terms such as detention, lumper and TONU are defined in plain English in the trucking software glossary.

Common rate confirmation mistakes

• Appointment windows without a time zone.
• Missing pickup, delivery or customer reference numbers.
• An “all-in” rate with no statement of what is included.
• Extra charges that the carrier expects but the confirmation never listed.
• Sending the confirmation to an unverified email address or a contact that changed recently.
• Losing the accepted version after a revision, so nobody can show what was agreed.
• Agreeing a change by phone and never reissuing the confirmation.

Most of these are process problems, not template problems. A consistent template helps, but the fix is making the current, accepted confirmation easy to find from the load.

Connect the confirmation to billing

Before closing the load, compare the current confirmation, delivery documents, carrier invoice and any approved revisions. Investigate mismatched reference numbers, currency or amounts before issuing or approving the related bill.

The freight broker invoicing guide explains the handoff to billing, and the carrier onboarding checklist covers the verified contacts a confirmation should go to. A broker TMS keeps these records connected and searchable.