Broker Margin Slides to 16.9% as Quote Volume Jumps 15% in July

Brokers got more shots at spot freight in July and earned less on each one.

Awarded broker margin on U.S. spot freight fell 4.5 points month over month in July, from 21.4% to 16.9%, while spot quote volume rose 15.2% against the prior four-week average, according to the July Tabi Pricing Pressure Index.

Margin finished 2.2 points above the 14.7% historical average in the index dataset. The report characterizes the month as broker-favored on that basis, with less advantage than earlier in the summer.

“Brokers still have the advantage, just not as much of it,” said Ricky Gonzalez, CEO and co-founder of Tabi Connect, in a statement accompanying the report.

The quote-to-market spread narrowed 3.9 percentage points over the month, from 22.6% to 18.8%, and measured 15.7% in the most recent week — brokers quoting closer to market levels. The share of quotes converting to awarded freight fell 3.7% month over month.

Average haul length was approximately 674 miles, roughly unchanged from the prior month. The report cites the flat haul length as ruling out a change in lane mix as a driver of the margin decline.

Brokers converting fewer than 1% of their quotes recorded an awarded margin of 17.3%. Brokers converting more than 4% recorded 14.2%.

By equipment type, van freight accounted for 63.0% of volume and carried a 14.5% margin. Reefer carried the highest margin of the three types at 14.7%, with a 0.60% win rate, the lowest of the three. Flatbed carried the widest market spread at 23.3%.

The report attributes the margin gap to quote selection, and connects it to automated quoting: brokers pushing volume through automation without review, Gonzalez said, end up in the higher-volume, lower-margin group. He said brokers should “keep a person accountable for what actually gets sent.”

The TPPI measures week-over-week pricing pressure in the U.S. spot freight market on a 0-to-100 scale. A rising score indicates shipper advantage; a falling score indicates broker advantage. The index draws on live spot quoting activity, which Tabi puts at approximately 1.5 million quotes per month, and excludes contract freight.

The index closed July at 36, up 10 points week over week. Its four-week average was 26, below its eight-week average of 29. The index closed June at 32.

The full July 2026 TPPI report, including trend charts and segmentation detail, is available at https://contact.tabiconnect.com/index-july2026.