A rate confirmation is the contract for the load. It is what you bill from, what your factor checks your invoice against, and what you point to when a broker pays less than agreed. Most small carriers do not lose rate cons because they are careless. They lose them because rate cons arrive in four inboxes, as attachments named "document.pdf", mixed in with BOLs and fuel receipts, and sometimes in two versions. Here is a system that catches every one.
Pick one address, for example a shared dispatch inbox, and give it to every broker you haul for. When a rate con arrives somewhere else, forward it there the same day. One inbox means one place to check and one place to search.
Keep a simple log, even a spreadsheet, with one row per load. The columns that matter:
| Column | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Load / reference number | The number the broker needs on your invoice |
| Broker and contact | Who to call when something changes or a payment is short |
| Pickup and delivery (place, date, window) | What the driver is held to |
| Rate and accessorial terms | What you will bill, including detention, layover, lumper and TONU |
| Version received | So a revision is never confused with the original |
| Signed and returned? | Some brokers will not pay without the signed copy |
Name the file the same way every time, for example load number, broker, pickup date. It takes ten seconds and makes the file findable months later.
The rate con should match the call or the load board posting. Check these before dispatch, not at billing time:
If anything is wrong, ask for a corrected rate con in writing before the driver leaves. A phone promise of detention is very hard to collect later.
Store the final signed rate con in the same place as that load's BOL and POD. When you invoice, bill from the rate con, not from memory. When a payment comes in short, the rate con is the first document you will be asked for.
When a revised rate con arrives, update the log, mark the old copy superseded instead of deleting it, and make sure the driver and the invoice use the new terms. Keep both. If the broker later disputes a change, the history shows what was agreed and when.
A five-minute end-of-day check catches most problems: compare the rate cons that arrived today against the loads you booked today. Every booked load should have a rate con, and every rate con should have a booked load.
Steps 1 and 2 are the tedious part, and they are the part ReadyTMS does for you. In Settings → Mailboxes you connect the inbox your rate cons arrive in and tick "Rate cons". From then on, ReadyTMS checks that inbox every hour:
Every imported load arrives as pending with a notification, so a person still reviews it. Step 3 stays with you: ReadyTMS does not know what you agreed on the phone, so confirm the rate and accessorials before you dispatch. For what happens after delivery, see POD audit software, and for the product side of rate con parsing, see AI rate confirmation software.
Send every rate confirmation to one inbox, log each one the same day with the load number, broker, lanes, dates and rate, check it against what you agreed before dispatch, and file the final signed copy with the load's BOL and POD.
The linehaul rate and how fuel is handled, every accessorial and its terms (detention, layover, lumper, TONU), pickup and delivery windows, the reference numbers the broker needs on the invoice, and that the carrier named on the document is your company.
Replace the old copy, mark it superseded instead of deleting it, update your log, and make sure the driver and the invoice use the revised terms. Bill only from the latest signed version.