The DAT Directory includes a company rating system. The system enables carriers to give each broker up to five stars, with additional comments. These ratings say a lot about carrier perceptions of your brokerage. And increasingly, carriers are reading those reviews before they’ll even do business with you, to get their peers’ feedback about your company.

You may think a carrier won’t take the time and effort to look up your star rating and reviews. But it’s not difficult or time-consuming. When a carrier searches for loads on the DAT load board, the name of the brokerage or shipper also appears. If the carrier clicks on the company name, the star rating appears, and another click will take him to the DAT Directory where he can read all the reviews posted about that company.