About Silk Route Logistics
Silk Route Logistics is rebuilding freight brokerage through technology, transparency, and an operational discipline carriers and shippers can verify on every load.
Our Heritage
Silk Route Logistics was founded with a singular vision: to bring transparency and technology to an industry that has traditionally operated in the dark. Information asymmetry has long been the norm. Shippers don't know where their freight is, carriers don't know when they'll get paid, and everyone is left guessing. We set out to change that.
Our name pays homage to the ancient Silk Road, the world's first logistics network that connected civilizations, facilitated trade, and built bridges between cultures spanning thousands of miles. Just as those historic routes thrived on trust and mutual benefit, SRL is built on the principle that lasting success comes from creating value for every partner in the supply chain.
Today, headquartered in Galesburg, Michigan, Silk Route Logistics runs on Khotan, the operational stack we built in-house and own end to end. Marco Polo AI fields shipper and carrier questions around the clock. The Compass Engine vets every carrier on a published 7-factor scorecard before any tender goes out. Quick Pay terms are tier-graduated and published. Fuel surcharge is itemized on every rate confirmation. The BMC-84 surety bond is on file with FMCSA. The math is on the document, every time.
What Drives Us
To be the most operationally honest freight brokerage in the United States. Compass Scores published in the carrier portal. Quick Pay fees published by tier. Fuel surcharge itemized on every rate confirmation. The metric is the standard we publish, not the one we wish we hit.
A freight network where every dispatch is a decision a human can defend. Khotan holds the record. Operators hold the accountability. AI is a lever in their hands, not a replacement for their judgment. Carriers earn tier through performance, not negotiation. Shippers earn quote-to-invoice continuity from one named AE.
Itemized rate confirmations. Proactive communication from the AE who owns your load. One name from quote to invoice. Every load, every time.
Our Advantage
Three commitments that define how we work.
Most brokers license a TMS, brand it, and pass the platform's roadmap to you as their own. We built Khotan in-house and run on it day one. Every load, tender, document, dispute, and settlement lives on infrastructure we control. Records stay under SRL's control. When the product needs to change, we change it.
The 7-factor Compass Score, the tier-graduated Quick Pay fees, the fuel surcharge itemized on every rate confirmation, the BMC-84 bond status. All published on this site, on every rate confirmation, in the carrier portal. No "call us for pricing." No mystery scorecard. If we hold ourselves to it, we publish it.
A trained Account Executive is named on your account from the first quote through the final invoice. They know your freight, your facilities, your seasonal patterns, your tolerances. When something goes wrong on a load, you call one person. The same person who'd answer if it had gone right. No tickets, no queues, no handoff sheets.
Our Technology
AI is a lever, not a replacement. Built into Khotan, the operational stack we own end to end. Engineered to multiply operators, not to remove them.
Three named systems run inside Khotan. Marco Polo AI is the 24/7 freight assistant that answers shippers' and carriers' questions on quotes, status, document retrieval, and account workflows. Compass Engine is the carrier vetting system underneath every dispatch decision, running automated checks against FMCSA authority, insurance status, and operational history. Continuous Learning is the background systems tuning rate intelligence, lane economics, and pre-dispatch risk against SRL's own data. Each one is a tool the operators use. None of them make decisions on their own.
AI augments our operators. It doesn't replace them. The lines we hold:
The Team
Silk Route Logistics runs on three roles. Executive leadership built the operational stack we own end to end and sets the published-scoring standard we hold ourselves and our carriers to. Operations leadership owns every load from quote through invoice and confirms every dispatch before the truck rolls. The operations team monitors every active shipment Monday through Friday, 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM Eastern, with an after-hours emergency line for loads in transit. Three roles, one accountability standard, no call-center handoffs.
Whether you're shipping freight or looking for quality loads, Silk Route Logistics is your partner in success.