Digital freight brokerage in 2026 looks very different from the venture funded land grab of the late 2010s. Convoy, once the second largest pure play digital broker in the US, shut down operations in October 2023 and sold its core technology to Flexport for roughly $16 million the following month. Survivors like Uber Freight, J.B. Hunt 360, C.H. Robinson Navisphere, and Loadsmart kept their digital matching engines running but folded them into broader brokerage businesses. For international forwarders running Ocean Freight Management Software as their operating base, digital truckload tools are now a spot capacity bench for the inland leg out of the port, not a wholesale replacement for traditional brokers on core lanes.
A freight broker arranges truckload capacity between a shipper and a motor carrier without owning trucks. The broker holds the FMCSA property broker authority, takes a margin on the rate, and is liable for finding compliant carriers. A digital freight broker does the same thing, but uses a mobile carrier app, automated load matching, and instant pricing in place of human dispatchers calling carriers from a load board.
The original promise of the digital category, pitched heavily between 2015 and 2022, was that software could compress the broker margin by matching trucks to loads faster and more cheaply than a phone based brokerage. In practice, the savings showed up only on certain lane types, and the venture capital required to subsidize early carrier and shipper acquisition burned faster than the unit economics improved. Convoy's collapse in October 2023 was the most visible signal that the pure play model needed a different shape to survive.
Convoy was founded in Seattle in 2015 by Dan Lewis (former Amazon) and Grant Goodale. By 2022 the company employed around 1,500 people, operated in all 48 contiguous US states, and was the second largest pure digital freight broker behind Uber Freight by gross merchandise volume. Convoy raised more than $1.1 billion across nine rounds. The final round was a $260 million Series E in April 2022 at a $3.8 billion valuation, led by Baillie Gifford with participation from T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, Generation Investment Management, Greylock, and others.
On October 19, 2023, Convoy CEO Dan Lewis told employees the company was shutting down operations. In a public letter, Lewis attributed the closure to a "massive freight recession and a contraction in the venture capital markets" hitting the business at the same time. US truckload spot rates had been below contract rates for most of 2023, brokerage margins were compressed across the industry, and Convoy could not raise the bridge capital it needed to operate through the down cycle.
On November 1, 2023, Flexport announced it had acquired Convoy's technology assets. The reported price was approximately $16 million, a sliver of Convoy's last private valuation. Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen said the company would relaunch Convoy's matching engine and carrier app inside Flexport's existing US trucking marketplace. Convoy's office leases, employee contracts, and the legal entity were not part of the sale.
Flexport, the San Francisco based digital freight forwarder, bought Convoy's core technology stack: the load matching engine, the carrier mobile app, the pricing models, and the data infrastructure that powered automated load offers. The acquisition fit Flexport's stated 2023 strategy of moving from a pure international ocean and air forwarder into a multi modal logistics platform, with US trucking as the next adjacent layer.
The integration did not go smoothly. Through late 2023 and into 2024, Flexport went through two rounds of layoffs that cut roughly 30 percent of total headcount, including a meaningful share of the ex Convoy engineers who had joined as part of the acquisition. Ryan Petersen, who had returned as CEO in September 2023, refocused the company on its ocean forwarding core and slowed expansion of the US trucking marketplace. As of 2026, Convoy's technology lives on inside Flexport's domestic trucking product, but it is positioned as a feature of the broader forwarder offering, not as a standalone digital broker.
With Convoy gone, the digital truckload category in 2026 is led by a small group of operators that combine digital matching with a larger traditional brokerage book. The table below compares the five most relevant platforms US forwarders see in their carrier mix.
| Platform | Status (2026) | Model | Lane strength | Best fit for forwarders |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Convoy (historical) | Shut down Oct 2023; tech acquired by Flexport Nov 2023 | Pure digital broker; mobile first carrier app | FTL spot, drop and hook on national lanes | Reference only; no longer bookable as Convoy |
| Uber Freight | Active; largest pure digital broker by gross revenue | Digital broker plus managed transportation (post Transplace 2021) | National FTL, drayage, intermodal, dedicated | Spot FTL overflow, drayage on US west coast |
| J.B. Hunt 360 | Active; division of J.B. Hunt Transport Services | Digital marketplace on top of asset based carrier | FTL, LTL, intermodal, final mile | Reliable national FTL with asset backed capacity floor |
| Flexport (with Convoy tech) | Active; US trucking marketplace inside forwarder platform | Forwarder first; trucking as adjacent module | US drayage, transload, regional FTL | Forwarders already on Flexport for ocean want a single window |
| Loadsmart | Active; independent digital broker with instant pricing API | Digital broker with API first distribution; TMS integrations | National FTL, LTL API, drayage in select markets | Forwarders wanting instant FTL rates and tender APIs inside their own TMS |
Beyond the five platforms in the table, Echo Global Logistics is worth mentioning as the largest brokerage with a hybrid digital and human dispatch model that has stayed profitable through both up and down cycles since 2023. C.H. Robinson Navisphere and Schneider FreightPower round out the reliable options for regional and dedicated FTL. For a deeper view of how broker authority differs from forwarder authority, see our piece on Freight Broker vs Freight Forwarder.
The end product (a truck arriving at the dock to pick up a load) is identical. What changes is how the load is priced, tendered, and tracked.
Digital freight broker. An FMCSA licensed property broker that matches shippers with motor carriers using automated software (mobile carrier app, algorithmic pricing, API tendering) instead of human dispatcher calls. The underlying brokerage authority and carrier liability rules are identical to a traditional broker. Only the workflow is automated.
For an international freight forwarder, digital brokerage is a tool for a specific slice of the operation, not a wholesale replacement for contracted truckload partners. The five most common use cases:
The use cases where digital brokers underperform are equally specific. High value loads, refrigerated freight with strict temperature monitoring, hazmat that needs carrier compliance review, and any lane where you have a deep contracted carrier relationship are all places to keep the existing broker workflow.
The Convoy story is not unique. Through 2023 and 2024, more than 20 venture funded freight tech companies shut down, restructured, or sold at distressed valuations: Convoy, Flock Freight (downsized), Sennder (raised down round), Forto (multiple layoff rounds), and Project44 (refinanced). The pattern was the same. Capital intensive software businesses built for a high freight rate environment could not flex into a multi quarter freight recession.
The takeaway for forwarders is not to avoid digital brokerage. It is to avoid concentration risk on any single platform.
The 2015 to 2022 wave of freight tech blurred the language. Some digital brokers called themselves "digital freight forwarders" even though they only moved truckload, not international ocean or air. The distinction matters for shippers picking a partner.
A freight broker arranges single mode truckload moves under FMCSA property broker authority. A freight forwarder books and consolidates international shipments under FMC OTI authority (for ocean) or IATA accreditation (for air), takes principal liability on the bill of lading, handles customs filings, and manages multi mode door to door movements. The two roles share some software (TMS, rating engines, tracking) but operate under different licensing, liability, and operational frameworks. Convoy was a broker. Flexport is a forwarder that now also runs a broker. The fact that one bought the other does not collapse the categories.
Three things are clear in the 2026 market and worth watching as a forwarder buying truckload capacity:
Mixing digital brokers, asset based carriers, and contracted partners across drayage, FTL, and overflow lanes is a workflow problem, not a spreadsheet problem. GoFreight pulls broker APIs, contract rates, and live tender status into one screen so dispatchers pick the right capacity option without switching tools.
Request a GoFreight DemoDigital freight brokerage is the practice of matching shippers with motor carriers for truckload moves using automated software (mobile carrier apps, algorithmic pricing, API tendering) instead of human dispatcher phone calls. The broker still holds FMCSA property broker authority and takes principal liability for finding compliant carriers; only the workflow is automated. Leading 2026 platforms include Uber Freight, J.B. Hunt 360, C.H. Robinson Navisphere, Schneider FreightPower, Loadsmart, and Flexport (using technology acquired from Convoy in November 2023).
Convoy CEO Dan Lewis announced the shutdown on October 19, 2023, attributing it to a "massive freight recession and a contraction in the venture capital markets" hitting the business at the same time. US truckload spot rates had been below contract rates for most of 2023, brokerage margins were compressed across the industry, and Convoy could not raise the bridge capital it needed to operate through the down cycle. The company had raised more than $1.1 billion across nine rounds, with a final $260 million Series E in April 2022 at a $3.8 billion valuation.
Flexport, the digital freight forwarder, bought Convoy's technology assets on November 1, 2023, for approximately $16 million. The deal covered the load matching engine, carrier mobile app, pricing models, and data infrastructure. Convoy's office leases, employee contracts, and the legal entity were not part of the sale. Flexport relaunched the Convoy technology inside its US trucking marketplace, though subsequent Flexport layoffs in 2023 and 2024 reduced the engineering team that came over from Convoy.
The Flexport acquisition of Convoy's technology assets in November 2023 was reported at approximately $16 million. That price was a sliver of Convoy's last private valuation of $3.8 billion from April 2022, reflecting the fact that Flexport bought only the technology and data assets, not the operating business, customer contracts, or working capital. The shutdown crystallized roughly $1 billion of capital losses for Convoy's late stage investors.
The largest digital freight brokers in 2026 are Uber Freight (largest by gross revenue, especially after the 2021 acquisition of Transplace for managed transportation), J.B. Hunt 360 (a division of J.B. Hunt Transport Services that combines a digital marketplace with asset based carrier capacity), C.H. Robinson Navisphere, Schneider FreightPower, Loadsmart, and Echo Global Logistics. Flexport runs a US trucking marketplace using technology acquired from Convoy in 2023.
Digital freight brokerage is sometimes cheaper, especially on national FTL lanes with high carrier supply and predictable volumes. It is not consistently cheaper on tight capacity days, on regional or rural lanes with few carriers, or on specialized freight (refrigerated, hazmat, high value). The 2015 to 2022 pitch that software would compress broker margins industry wide did not hold across the cycle. In 2026, savings show up lane by lane, not category wide.
A digital freight broker arranges single mode truckload moves under FMCSA property broker authority and is liable for finding compliant carriers. A freight forwarder books and consolidates international shipments under FMC OTI authority (ocean) or IATA accreditation (air), takes principal liability on the bill of lading, handles customs filings, and manages multi mode door to door movements. Convoy was a broker. Flexport is a forwarder that now also runs an internal broker. The two roles share software but operate under different licensing, liability, and operational frameworks.
Forwarders should use digital brokers for the inland truckload portion of international shipments (drayage from ports, transload to final destination, overflow on FTL lanes), but not for the international ocean or air segment, which requires forwarder authority and capabilities digital brokers do not hold. Digital brokers work best as an addition to a forwarder TMS via API, not as a standalone booking tool that lives outside the operations workflow.
The three main risks are higher carrier cancellation rates on tight capacity days (digital marketplaces show more last minute carrier drops than contracted brokers), concentration risk on a single platform (the Convoy shutdown left shippers scrambling to rebook loads), and limited liability recourse compared to a contracted carrier relationship. Mitigation: keep three carrier options per lane, tender through your TMS rather than the broker portal, and track tender acceptance and on time pickup per broker monthly.
The Convoy brand has not been relaunched as of 2026, and Flexport has positioned the acquired technology as part of its US trucking marketplace rather than as a standalone Convoy product. The Convoy legal entity wound down after the October 2023 shutdown, and there is no public plan to revive the standalone brand. Shippers who used Convoy as a primary carrier moved their volume to Uber Freight, J.B. Hunt 360, C.H. Robinson, and Schneider FreightPower during the 2023 to 2024 reallocation.