Shippers who are used to doing business with motor carriers often present freight brokers with a shipper-carrier agreement (often described as a “Motor Carrier Agreement”) of one kind or another to serve as the basis of a shipper-broker relationship. Freight brokers often sign these agreements without a clear understanding of (or without even reading) the contract or think that simply replacing the word “broker” for “carrier” throughout the contract will protect them. This is a recipe for an incoherent and potentially dangerous shipper-broker relationship. Too often, not until a high-dollar cargo claim or a catastrophic personal injury arises does the broker begin to realize the significance of the piece of paper it has signed. Of course, by then, it is too late.