A straight comparison of the load boards brokers and carriers actually shortlist for Canada freight, including who owns which one. Most operations end up running two, and this is how to decide which two.
| Loadlink | 123Loadboard | DAT | Cargado | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Network focus | Domestic Canada | U.S. domestic | U.S. domestic spot | Mexico and Canada, cross-border and domestic |
| Who gets in | Paid subscribers | Paid subscribers | Open board, paid subscribers | Invite-only, both sides vetted |
| Carrier cost | Paid plans, quoted | $39–$79 per month, published | Paid plans, per user | No cost |
| Rate data | Rate Index, varies by tier | Rate Check, top tier | U.S. domestic benchmarks | 12,000+ Mexico and Canada lanes from carrier bids |
| Ownership | Roper Technologies | Independent | Roper Technologies | Independent |
Before comparing logos, get clear on what your freight actually demands. These five questions separate the boards faster than any feature grid.
Loadlink has been matching Canada freight since 1990 and calls itself Canada's leader in load and freight-matching services. The depth is real. If your freight moves Toronto to Montreal, Calgary to Vancouver, or through the Canada interior, this is the deepest pool in the country and most of your carrier partners already log in every morning. The product runs in English and French, which matters for Quebec freight, and it publishes a Rate Index for truckload rating.
Two things to know going in. Carriers pay for access, so the pool is filtered by who renewed as well as by who is qualified. And Loadlink does not publish prices: the carrier and broker plan pages list tier names and included features, then route you to a product specialist for a quote. Rate Index availability varies by tier, so confirm which plan carries it before you sign.
123Loadboard publishes carrier tiers at $39, $59 and $79 per month on its own pricing page, with a ten-day trial. Their Rate Check lane rate tool is in the top tier.
The product is organized around U.S. domestic trucking, with mileage and routing, document handling, credit checks and a mobile app. Canada shows up in coverage, but the depth and the tooling are built for the U.S. interior.
DAT runs the largest spot marketplace in the United States, and for U.S. domestic freight nothing else is close. It does carry freight moving into and out of Canada, so it is not absent from the map. What it does not have is Canada-specific depth: no domestic Canada network built as its own thing, and no product structure oriented around CBSA processes, Quebec French, or Canadian dollars.
Plans are sold per user, so cost scales with how many people you put on it, which for a growing brokerage becomes a real line item and a recurring conversation about who gets a login.
Cargado is the modern marketplace for Mexico and Canada freight, and it is the only network on this list built to span both. It covers freight crossing between the United States, Mexico and Canada, freight moving domestically within Mexico and within Canada, and the U.S. domestic legs that feed the border, loads to and from cities like Laredo or Detroit.
It is an invite-only marketplace with vetted members. Carriers are verified through FMCSA (the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) and SICT (Mexico's federal transport authority) before they can bid, with FAST (Free and Secure Trade), PIP (Partners in Protection, the CBSA program) and CTPAT status tracked on the profile. Brokers are verified before they can post.
Brokers post loads for spot coverage and post lanes as procurement events carrying date range, loads per day, days of the week, commodity, equipment and requirements, to source dedicated capacity for a schedule.
Carriers pay nothing, including market rate visibility. Broker subscriptions include unlimited users, so there is no per-seat math. Chat is bilingual with instant translation, and Canadian and U.S. dollars are both handled natively.
Where that shows up: Toronto to Chicago, Montreal into the Northeast, Winnipeg to Chicago reefer, Brampton to Calgary domestic, southern Ontario into western New York, British Columbia south into Washington.
This part surprises people, and it is worth knowing before you build a shortlist.
Loadlink states on its own company page that Loadlink Technologies is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Roper Technologies, the S&P 500 company that trades as ROP. DAT's company page lists its parent company as Roper Technologies as well.
The history is straightforward. Loadlink's own timeline shows it was acquired by TransCore in 2001, and TransCore was acquired by Roper in 2004, which brought both freight-matching businesses under the same roof. In October 2021 Roper announced the sale of TransCore for $2.68 billion and kept DAT and Loadlink. FreightWaves has reported on the common ownership since.
Nothing about that is a knock on either product. Both are well-run and both earned their positions. It is simply useful context: two of the biggest names on a Canada shortlist are corporate siblings, so a comparison between them is a narrower comparison than it looks.
No single board wins every lane, and the honest recommendation is to run more than one where your freight justifies it.
A common setup: keep an established domestic board for the freight it is deepest on, whether that is domestic Canada or the U.S. interior, and route Mexico and Canada freight through a network built for it.
Skip the question of which board is best in the abstract. Answer a better one: which two cover your map without leaving a corner of it dark.
Brokers see live lane rates and vetted carriers on their own lanes in a demo. Carrier access is at no cost.
It depends on where the freight lives. Loadlink runs the deepest domestic Canada network, DAT's depth is U.S. domestic, and Cargado is the only network built to span Mexico and Canada freight in one place. Most brokers run two boards rather than choosing one.
Yes. Cargado charges carriers nothing, including market rate visibility. Loadlink, DAT and 123Loadboard all charge carriers for access.
Cargado is the only network built to span Mexico and Canada freight in one place, covering cross-border moves between the United States, Mexico and Canada as well as domestic freight inside both countries. The other boards on this list are strongest on domestic Canada or U.S. domestic freight.
Yes. Loadlink's company page states it is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Roper Technologies, and DAT's company page lists Roper Technologies as its parent. Roper acquired both through its 2004 purchase of TransCore and kept them when it sold TransCore in October 2021.
123Loadboard publishes carrier tiers at $39, $59 and $79 per month. DAT publishes plans on its own site as well, with carrier plans starting at $59 per month and broker plans at $159, sold per user. Loadlink quotes through a product specialist. Cargado charges carriers nothing and sells brokers a value-based subscription with unlimited users.
At minimum the crossing, the equipment including reefer and heated where protect-from-freezing applies, whether the move is PARS northbound or PAPS southbound, any FAST, PIP or CTPAT requirement, and drop versus live. Postings that cannot carry that detail generate phone calls instead of bids.