Senate Advances Bipartisan Bill Against Freight Fraud: What it Means for Shippers

By A.J. DeGroot, Vice President of Operations, Mariner Logistics 

Freight fraud is strangling the logistics industry, siphoning an estimated $35 billion annually through scams like double brokering and identity theft. The Household Goods Shipping Consumer Protection Act (S. 337), advanced unanimously by the Senate Commerce Committee in 2025, marks a bold response to combat these frauds. Led by Senators Deb Fischer (R-NE) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), this bipartisan bill empowers the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to penalize unauthorized brokers, verify legitimate business addresses, and track repeat offenders.

Supported by the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) and Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), S. 337 aims to protect shippers, small truckers, and consumers. Yet even the strongest regulation only addresses part of the issue. Compliance won’t stop freight from ending up in the wrong hands, and lifting the veil on illegal activity requires more than enforcement. Shippers must adopt fourth-party logistics (4PL) platforms to achieve end-to-end visibility, secure communication, and proactive fraud prevention.

The Freight Fraud Crisis: A National Emergency

Freight fraud has surged 1,500% since 2021, with tactics like double brokering and identity theft costing shippers an average of $402,340 per incident. One recent example: in 2024, Santo Tequila lost $1 million in product when trucks vanished in Laredo, Texas, due to a double-brokering scam. Criminals exploit outdated systems like emails, PDFs, and manual vetting, which lack the security and transparency needed today. 

“Fraudsters thrive in fragmented supply chains,” says Chris Burroughs, TIA President. “S. 337 gives FMCSA teeth, but shippers need technology to stay ahead.” The bill’s focus on enforcement is critical, but it can’t address real-time vulnerabilities that cost shippers millions and erode client trust.

Why Traditional Processes Are Failing

Traditional logistics relies on insecure communication channels and siloed processes, creating blind spots for fraudsters to exploit. Around 22% of fraud attempts in 2025 involve phishing or spoofed emails, per TIA. Manual carrier vetting, often based on outdated MC number checks, fails to catch impostors using stolen identities. 

A 2024 TIA survey found that 96% of logistics professionals spend time each quarter combating fraud, yet losses persist due to tools that can’t scale. A shipper in California learned this the hard way, losing $200,000 in electronics when a fraudulent carrier used a forged bill of lading (BOL). These failures highlight the need for integrated, technology-driven solutions that S. 337’s enforcement can’t fully provide.

4PL Systems in Action: How Integrated Platforms Prevent Fraud and Cargo Theft

“Mitigating cargo theft is a game of offense and defense,” says Scott Sandager, Chief Administrative Officer at Arrive Logistics. The S. 337 bill gives FMCSA sharper tools to prosecute freight fraud, but enforcement alone won’t prevent theft before it happens. True protection lies in real-time orchestration, where Fourth-Party Logistics (4PL) platforms like Mariner Live take center stage.

4PL solutions don’t just connect the dots; they secure them. By integrating shippers, brokers, carriers, and suppliers into a unified digital environment, 4PL platforms embed fraud detection, cargo visibility, and compliance into the daily operations of supply chains.

Key areas where 4PL platforms stop fraud before it starts:

• Automated Carrier Vetting:
  4PL systems verify carriers by cross-referencing multiple identifiers like MC numbers, DOT records, safety scores, and even email domains.
  
  • Mariner Live integrates with Highway, a vetting platform that blocked 914,000 fraud attempts in 2024 alone.

• • “Real-time identity validation is essential for secure transportation,” says Dawn Salvucci-Favier, CEO of Greenplan, a DHL subsidiary.
    
    
• Real-Time Theft Prevention:
  4PL platforms use GPS and IoT-enabled sensors to monitor shipments en route, sending instant alerts when freight deviates from planned routes or stops unexpectedly.
  
  • CargoNet’s Q2 2025 report recorded 892 cargo thefts worth $71.4 million, with high-value electronics and pharmaceuticals frequently targeted.

• • With geofencing and exception alerts, 4PLs prevent theft as it happens, not after.
    
    
• Unified System Visibility:
  A defining strength of 4PL is its ability to consolidate data from TMS, WMS, ERP, ELDs, customs platforms, and telematics into a single source of truth.
  
  • According to a 2025 FreightWaves survey, 78% of 4PL users saw improved visibility, and 20% reduced fraud-related losses.
    
    
• Encrypted, Auditable Workflows:
  Traditional emails and spreadsheets leave too much room for manipulation. 4PL platforms replace this with secure, trackable communication threads.
  
  • Mariner Live’s shared shipment timeline acts like a blockchain-powered Slack for freight: each action, comment, and document is logged and timestamped, ensuring accountability and blocking unauthorized rerouting.
    
    
• Predictive Intelligence with AI:
  Mariner Live's AI agent, AIDYN, detect problems and prevents them.
  
  • AIDYN forecasts delays, escalates exceptions, and suggests optimal routing strategies that reduce exposure to theft-prone regions or carriers with red flags.

Together, these features don’t just support the goals of S. 337—they extend and future-proof them. While the bill addresses enforcement gaps, 4PL orchestration eliminates blind spots entirely, offering shippers a proactive shield in an increasingly hostile freight environment.

The Urgency of Action

S. 337 gives FMCSA new tools, but regulatory enforcement often lags behind the speed of fraud. In the meantime, bad actors can re-emerge under new names or MC numbers, often with no detectable digital footprint.

 A Texas shipper lost $200,000 in food products to a vanishing carrier, highlighting regulatory lag. “Fraud devastates small truckers,” says Todd Spencer, OOIDA. CargoNet links rising thefts to falsified paperwork, which legacy systems can’t catch. 

“Shippers need proactive defenses,” says Andy Moses, Penske Logistics. Without action, shippers risk financial ruin and lost clients.

Building a Future-Proof System

The Household Goods Shipping Consumer Protection Act is a welcome step, but compliance alone won’t future-proof your operations. Fraudsters are evolving faster than the bureaucracies chasing them. The shippers that will thrive are those that shift their mindset from policing problems to preventing them with systems designed to verify identity, detect inconsistencies, and unify data across every stakeholder.

As risk scales, emails and PDFs won’t cut it. It's time to graduate from disjointed workflows to real-time ecosystems, ones that connect brokers, carriers, and shippers in a secure, visible, and AI-assisted platform.

Because the future of freight isn’t just about moving goods, it’s about outsmarting threats before they can move in.