Lead generation
Ken is our productHow to Find Shippers as a Freight Broker
Ken's database lists 105,340 companies that fit the buyer profile for freight brokers, as of Oct 17, 2026. With a typical deal of $39,000-$155,000 (estimate) and that many buyers, volume outbound in Campaigns fits best.
Buyer counts come from Ken's company database. Ken is our product.
Search These Buyers in Ken
In short 105,340 companies in Ken's database match this buyer filter, as of Oct 17, 2026.
Ken Search
Query
US companies with 20-5,000 employees that ship freight by truck: manufacturers, wholesalers, farms and retailers.
- Companies in Ken's database
- 105,340
- 20-50 employees
- 61,857
- 51-200 employees
- 32,386
- 201-500 employees
- 6,745
Snapshot of Oct 17, 2026, refreshed weekly. Counts only, no company records.
Who Buys From Freight Brokers?
In short Manufacturers, distributors, food and beverage producers and building materials companies that ship truckloads hire freight brokers to cover lanes and surges their own carriers can't, and a logistics or transportation manager decides who gets the freight.
| Buyer trait | Typical buyer |
|---|---|
| Industries | Food and beverage manufacturing, Building materials, Wholesale, Chemical manufacturing, Paper and forest product manufacturing, Plastics manufacturing, Industrial machinery manufacturing |
| Company size | 51-200, 201-500, 501-1,000, 1,001-5,000 employees |
| Titles to contact | Logistics Manager, Transportation Manager, Shipping Manager, Director of Logistics, Supply Chain Manager, Plant Manager |
How Many Buyers Can You Reach?
In short 105,340 companies in Ken's database, as of Oct 17, 2026.
105,340 companies in Ken's database match the buyer filter for freight brokers as of Oct 17, 2026. The filter: US companies with 20-5,000 employees that ship freight by truck: manufacturers, wholesalers, farms and retailers.
These are companies in Ken's database (250M people and 24M companies), not every company that exists. The count refreshes weekly.
| Employees | Companies | Share of buyers |
|---|---|---|
| 20-50 | 61,857 | 58.7% |
| 51-200 | 32,386 | 30.7% |
| 201-500 | 6,745 | 6.4% |
| 501-1,000 | 2,296 | 2.2% |
| 1,001-5,000 | 2,056 | 2.0% |
Companies in Ken's database. Bands come from each company's listed employee count.
Plays That Work
In short 5 outbound plays for freight brokers, each tied to a trigger you can spot.
| Play | Channel | Trigger | Angle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rate jump in their region | Truckload rates jump, as in September 2026 when DAT put the national van spot rate at $3.01 a mile, up 96 cents from a year earlier. | Write to the Transportation Manager offering a backup quote on one lane, so they have a second option when their primary carrier turns a load down. | |
| Example first lineWith van rates up this year, we can quote [Company]'s outbound lane from your plant as a backup before your next tender gets turned down. | |||
| Annual transportation bid | The shipper posted a transportation RFP or invited carriers and brokers to its annual bid. | Write to the Director of Logistics and ask for a seat in the bid on named lanes where you already move freight. | |
| Example first lineWe move dry van freight every week between the Midwest and the Southeast, and we would like a seat in [Company]'s next bid for those lanes. | |||
| New plant or distribution center | Email and LinkedIn | The shipper announced a new plant, warehouse or distribution center, which creates lanes with no carrier history. | Write to the Logistics Manager at the new site with coverage on lanes into and out of it, before its carrier list fills up. |
| Example first line[Company]'s new distribution center opens new outbound lanes, and we already cover trucks out of that metro every week. | |||
| Seasonal volume surge | A food or beverage producer heads into its busy season, such as harvest for produce or summer for beverages. | Write to the Shipping Manager about extra trucks for surge weeks, when their regular carriers are already full. | |
| Example first lineAhead of [Company]'s summer volume, we can line up extra trucks on your busiest outbound lanes so surge weeks don't send you to the spot market. | |||
| Construction season flatbed | Spring construction season is about to start in the shipper's region, or it posted a job for a dispatcher or shipping coordinator. | Write to the Shipping Manager at building materials companies about flatbed and step deck coverage for job-site deliveries with tight unload windows. | |
| Example first lineWe cover flatbed and step deck loads to job sites in your region and can quote [Company]'s spring deliveries before trucks get scarce. | |||
Campaigns or 1:1 Accounts?
In short With 105,340 buyers and a typical deal of $39,000-$155,000 (estimate), volume outbound in Campaigns fits best.
| Check | Freight Brokers | Points to Accounts (Coming) when |
|---|---|---|
| Typical deal (estimate) | $39,000-$155,000 (first-year freight billed to one shipper, before carrier pay), midpoint $97,000 | Over $15,000 |
| Buyer companies in Ken's database | 105,340 | Fewer than 25,000 |
| Suggested lane | Campaigns | Both checks pass |
Ken's estimate: 2-8 dry van loads a month of 500 miles each at DAT's September 2026 national average van contract rate of $3.24 a mile. Your margin is the part you keep after paying the carrier.
Ken's view: when one deal is worth more than $15,000 and there are fewer than 25,000 buyers, each account is worth researching and writing to one by one. Otherwise volume wins: a Campaign of short email and LinkedIn sequences reaches more of the market for the same effort.
Objections
In short What buyers tend to say back to freight brokers, and how to answer.
| Objection | How to answer |
|---|---|
| We only use asset-based carriers. | Understood. We can send our MC number, insurance certificate and how we vet carriers, then quote one lane as a backup so you can judge the service on real loads. |
| Brokers call us every day. | Fair. Tell us one lane where your carriers struggle and we'll quote only that lane, with the equipment we run on it, so you can judge us on one load. |
| Your rate is higher than our contract rate. | It may be on a normal week. Keep us as the backup on that lane, so when a contract carrier rejects a tender you have a quote ready instead of going to the spot market. |
FAQ
How do freight brokers get clients?
In Ken's view, most brokers win shippers through phone prospecting, referrals and contacts from past freight, then grow each account one lane at a time. Email works well for the first touch when it names a lane, equipment type and region the shipper actually ships.
How do I find shippers that need my lanes?
Start with manufacturers, distributors and food producers at the origin of lanes you already cover, since you have trucks there. Filter by industry and location, then write to the Logistics or Transportation Manager with the lane, the equipment and a sample rate.
What should the first email to a shipper say?
Name one lane, the equipment and what you can do on it, such as covering same-day tenders. Skip general claims about service; a specific lane gives the shipper something to price against.
How much freight is one shipper worth?
It depends on loads and miles. DAT put the September 2026 national average van contract rate at $3.24 a mile, so a 500-mile load bills about $1,620 before carrier pay, and two loads a week on that lane come to about $168,000 a year.
What does the CAN-SPAM Act require of a cold email?
In the US, the CAN-SPAM Act covers commercial email, and the FTC says it makes no exception for business-to-business email. Its requirements: no false or misleading header information, no deceptive subject lines, identify the message as an ad, include your valid physical postal address, tell recipients how to opt out, honor opt-outs within 10 business days, and monitor anyone who sends email on your behalf. Other countries have their own rules. This is general information, not legal advice.
Do This in Ken
Find These Buyers in Ken
Open Ken Search with the buyer filter for freight brokers, narrow it to your territory and best-fit size, then send the plays above as a Campaign over email and LinkedIn.
- Search companies with this filter: US companies with 20-5,000 employees that ship freight by truck: manufacturers, wholesalers, farms and retailers. Searching is free.
- Narrow the list to your territory and size band, then pick the titles to contact: Logistics Manager, Transportation Manager, Shipping Manager.
- Find valid emails at 1 credit ($0.02) each and add the list to a Campaign.
- Module
- Ken Search
- Open in Ken
- /waitlist
- API
POST /v1/search/companies- MCP tool
search_search_companies- Cost
- Free to search, 1 credit ($0.02) per valid email
The new Ken opens to the waiting list in batches.
Related
Sources
| Source | Checked |
|---|---|
| DAT, Truckload rates rise in September as diesel tops $6 a gallon | |
| FTC, CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business | |
| Ken pricing (credit costs) |
Changelog
- Page published.