Terms of service

1. Who we are

LinkLane, Inc. ("LinkLane", "we") is a property broker licensed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration under USDOT 9273761 and MC-52780633, with offices at 335 Bartlett St, San Francisco, CA 94110. We arrange transportation of your freight with motor carriers. We do not perform it: our responsibility is limited to arranging for, and not actually carrying out, the transportation of your shipments. A copy of our operating authority and of our surety bond is available on request.

These terms apply to every shipment you book with LinkLane, whether on this site, by email or by phone, and to your LinkLane account. You accept them when you tick the box on the booking page. The version you accepted is kept on the shipment's record.

2. Your shipment

You are responsible for a timely, accurate and complete description of the cargo and its delivery requirements: dimensions, weight, piece count, freight class where it applies, temperature, and any special handling or security requirement, including seals. A rate is quoted on what you told us; a shipment that differs from its description may be re-weighed, re-classed or re-rated by the carrier, and the difference is yours.

You must tell us before booking if a shipment needs a set temperature or a sealed trailer. Food shipments that are inspected by a qualified individual and found adulterated need not be salvaged by you; the carrier is required to follow your written food-safety instructions and to bear the cost of failing to.

Hazardous materials as defined in 49 CFR 172.800, 173 and 397 are not accepted on this site. If a shipment is or may be hazardous you must tell us at once and not book it here; you are responsible for compliance with all hazardous materials laws, and you will hold LinkLane harmless from any penalty or liability arising from a shipment you did not declare.

3. The carriers we use

We contract in writing with every carrier we engage for your freight. Those contracts require the carrier to hold and keep its federal operating authority, to comply with the safety, driver, equipment, hours-of-service, hazardous-materials and food-safety laws that apply to it, to carry insurance at the limits we require and to let us verify it, to sign a bill of lading for what it receives, and not to broker, re-broker, assign, interline or subcontract your shipment without our written consent. A carrier with an unsatisfactory federal safety rating does not move your freight.

Our contracts make the carrier liable for cargo loss or damage under 49 U.S.C. 14706 (the Carmack Amendment), and they provide that no limitation of the carrier's liability applies unless we first have your written consent. For shipments into, out of, through or within California the carrier must use only equipment that complies with California Air Resources Board regulations.

Your naming LinkLane on a bill of lading is for your convenience and does not make LinkLane a carrier. The terms printed on a carrier's bill of lading, tariff or delivery receipt do not change these terms between you and LinkLane.

4. Rates and payment

The rate you see when you book is the carrier's rate plus our fee, shown as one number, and it holds for the time shown beside it. Accessorial charges that arise at the docks, such as detention beyond 2 free hours at $50 an hour, a layover at $150, or a re-delivery, are billed as they occur at the rates shown in your account.

Bookings on this site without approved credit are paid by card when you book at the quoted total, with no card fee. Customers on approved terms are invoiced and pay within 14 days of the invoice date without deduction or set-off. Payment to LinkLane relieves you, the consignee and any other party of liability to the carrier for its freight charges on that shipment, and we indemnify you against a carrier's claim for freight charges you have paid to us.

You may cancel a shipment free of charge until 24 hours before the pickup window. Inside 24 hours, or once a truck is dispatched, a truck-ordered-not-used charge applies: $150 for a dry van and $250 for a reefer, flatbed, step deck or other specialized trailer.

5. Claims

Claims for cargo loss, shortage or damage must be made in writing within 180 days of delivery, or of the scheduled delivery date when nothing was delivered. You can make one from the shipment's page and we file it with the carrier and pursue it on your behalf; the carrier's own claims process follows 49 CFR 370. Any civil action or arbitration against a carrier must be started within two years and one day of the carrier's written notice disallowing any part of the claim. Concealed damage should reach us within five business days of delivery.

A carrier's liability for any one shipment is limited to $100,000 unless you declared a higher value when you booked and we accepted it. LinkLane is not a carrier and is not liable for loss, damage or delay to your freight unless caused solely by our own negligence. Neither LinkLane nor a carrier is liable for special, incidental or consequential damages arising from loss, damage or delay unless you told us in writing before or when booking of the nature and approximate amount of that risk and we agreed in writing to accept it. If we pay a claim to you, you assign your rights in that claim to us and give us the documents and access we need to recover it.

For any claim between you and LinkLane other than a cargo claim, each of us tells the other the material facts within 60 days of learning of it, and any action is started within two years of that notice.

6. Insurance and bond

LinkLane keeps a $75,000 BMC-84 freight broker surety bond on file with the FMCSA, number JA001987, underwritten by Amherst National Insurance Company and in force from August 26, 2026 to August 26, 2027.

LinkLane carries, under one policy through Underwriters at Lloyd's placed by PFA Transportation Insurance & Surety Services and in force from September 17, 2026 to September 17, 2027: commercial general liability of $1,000,000 each occurrence and $2,000,000 in the aggregate, contingent auto liability of $1,000,000, contingent cargo liability of $100,000 (reefer included), and professional liability (errors and omissions) of $100,000. A certificate of insurance naming your company as certificate holder is available on request to contact@linklane.ai.

7. Confidentiality

We do not use your name or identity in advertising or promotion without your written consent. Rates, charges, volumes, your customers' details and your shipping requirements are confidential between us and are not disclosed or used for any other purpose without written consent, other than as the law requires or as needed to move your freight. Either of us may seek an injunction to stop a breach of this section.

8. Responsibility between us

Each of us is an independent contractor; nothing here creates a partnership, joint venture, agency or employment relationship. You will hold LinkLane harmless from claims, losses and costs, including reasonable attorney fees, that arise from your own performance under these terms, and we will do the same for ours; neither of us is liable to the other for the other's own negligence or intentional acts. Neither of us is liable for a failure to perform caused by fire, flood, weather, war, civil disturbance, government action or another cause outside our reasonable control, provided the affected party gives prompt notice and does its best to perform.

9. Term, notices and changes

These terms govern each shipment from booking to settlement. Your account continues until either of us ends it on thirty days' written notice, and shipments in transit at that time complete under these terms. Notices to LinkLane go to contact@linklane.ai or the address above; notices to you go to the email on your account. We may update these terms; the version date is shown on this page, and a booking is governed by the version in force when you ticked the box.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules, except where federal transportation law controls. Any dispute not resolved between us may be brought in a court of competent jurisdiction, or, if both of us agree in writing, decided by binding arbitration under the rules of the American Arbitration Association or the Transportation ADR Council; the prevailing party recovers its reasonable costs and attorney fees. If any part of these terms is held unenforceable the rest stands, and the obligations that by their nature continue survive the end of your account.

Questions about these terms: quotes@linklane.ai or (203) 979-9885.