How to Get Set Up With a Shipper: Credit Apps, Packets, and Net Terms

The hardest call isn't the cold call, it's the moment a shipper says "send me your info" and you realize you don't know exactly what that means. Getting set up as a vendor is its own process, and fumbling it can stall a won customer for weeks. Here's what's actually in it.

Your broker packet

When a shipper asks for your packet, they typically want: your broker authority letter (MC docket), your W-9, a certificate of your contingent cargo and general liability insurance, your BMC-84 surety bond information, references if you have them, and your contact/remit-to sheet. Have this as a single, clean PDF you can send within five minutes of the request. Speed here signals how you'll handle their freight.

Their credit application, and the trap inside it

Bigger shippers will have YOU fill out a vendor form, but many mid-size shippers expect the opposite: they fill out your credit application, because you're the one extending them terms. Yes, you're the bank in this relationship. You pay the carrier in days and wait 30-45 for the shipper's check. Your credit application should ask for their legal entity name, billing contact, references, and expected monthly volume. Actually call the references. A shipper who stiffs brokers has a trail.

Net terms: what to accept

Net 30 is standard; net 45 is common with larger shippers; net 60 means you're financing their business and should price accordingly or decline. Whatever the term, get it in writing in your broker-shipper agreement along with your accessorial schedule, detention, layover, TONU, so the first dispute isn't a negotiation from zero.

"We require three years in business", the new broker workaround

Some shippers have vendor requirements a new brokerage can't meet. Don't lie; reframe. Offer to run the first loads on quick-pay-style terms favorable to them, provide your personal industry background if you came from dispatching or carrier sales, and point to your bond and insurance being identical to what a 10-year brokerage carries. Many "requirements" are defaults, not policy, the shipping manager who wants the problem solved can often waive them for a broker who presents professionally.

After setup: the first invoice sets the tone

Invoice the same day the load delivers, attach the signed BOL and rate agreement, reference their PO number exactly as their AP department wants it. AP departments remember clean vendors. Clean vendors get paid on time, and paid-on-time brokers can take more freight.

Haulan keeps the shipper side as tight as the carrier side: e-sign your broker-shipper agreement without the customer needing an account, generate invoices with the POD attached the moment a load delivers, and track what every customer owes you, so vendor setup is the last slow step they ever see from you.