Government freight contracts for brokers: two ways in
Become a carrier that federal agencies book directly, or sell freight to the company that already won the contract. For USDA's food purchases the second route is where the lanes are: 7,982 with deliveries still due, as of Nov 7, 2026.[1]
USDA food-award lanes in your state
862 USDA food-award lanes touch Texas as of Nov 7, 2026. 228 of them opened their delivery window this week (Nov 1–7, 2026).
Two routes into government freight
| Compared | 1. Haul for a federal agency | 2. Haul for the vendor that won |
|---|---|---|
| Your customer | The agency shipping its own goods | The company the government bought from, such as a food vendor with a USDA award |
| Before the first shipment | GSA approval: licensing, operating authority, insurance, SAM.gov, Syncada invoicing, rates filed in TMSS 2.0[2] | Your broker authority and a call to the vendor. The federal contract is the vendor's. |
| Who pays the freight | The agency; transportation service providers bill it directly[2] | The vendor, when the award is f.o.b. destination[3] |
| Where you find the work | Shipments booked through GSA's TMSS[2] | USDA's award notices: vendor, plant, destination, quantity and delivery window[4] |
Route 1: become a government transportation service provider
GSA's Freight Management Program "provides worldwide freight shipping and rate management services for federal agencies." To be an approved vendor, GSA lists: "Maintain appropriate licensing, operating authority, and insurance. Register on SAM.gov with up-to-date business information. Register an account with US Bank's Syncada Third Party Payment System, or TPPS, for digital invoicing. File your rates in TMSS 2.0."[2] More broadly, offerors on federal contracts generally must be registered in SAM when they submit an offer.[5]
It is a real route, with paperwork before the first shipment. awardlanes doesn't help with it.
Route 2: sell freight to the vendor that already won
USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) buys US-produced food for school meals and other domestic food programs, and has it delivered.[6] Its master solicitation for domestic food purchases says:
"Offer prices will be either f.o.b. (or f.a.s. vessel) at the destinations listed in the applicable IFB or on a shipping point basis. […] Delivery by either trucks or railcars is at the option of the Contractor except for those destinations which specify the method of delivery."[6]
When the award is f.o.b. destination, FAR clause 52.247-34 in the same document has the vendor "Furnish a delivery schedule and designate the mode of delivering carrier" and "Pay and bear all charges to the specified point of delivery."[3] The vendor picks the carrier and pays for the freight, so your customer is a food company with a dated contract.
How often that applies: the award notice says f.o.b. destination on 5,674 of the 8,355 findings we list (68%), as of Nov 7, 2026. When a notice doesn't say it, we don't guess.[1]
Where USDA posts its food awards
AMS runs its purchases through WBSCM, its Web Based Supply Chain Management system; vendors bid there electronically.[7] The public side of WBSCM, the procurement portal, lists each solicitation with its documents.[4] Three of them matter for freight:
- Award notice (PCA, a PDF)
- The award date, each vendor and contract number, the "Plant Location", and every awarded line: destination city, quantity, unit and price. Some notices add that the food was bought f.o.b. destination.
- Bid Array (a spreadsheet)
- A second USDA file with one row per line: plant, destination, quantity awarded and the bids received.
- Solicitation (the bid invitation)
- Each line's "Required by" period, which is the delivery window, and the multi-stop LOTs.[8]
Reading them by hand is slow. The 77 award notices behind Texas's lanes run to 1,606 PDF pages, as of Nov 7, 2026.[1] awardlanes reads them every week and turns each awarded line into a lane from plant to destination, with its delivery window, linked to the USDA page it came from. As of Nov 7, 2026 that is 7,982 lanes from 94 award notices, 426 contracts and 209 vendors, running from 238 plant locations to 436 destination cities.[1]
What a USDA lane looks like
Texas, as of Nov 7, 2026: 862 lanes. 228 opened their delivery window this week (Nov 1–7, 2026), 577 open it later and 57 were already inside their window before this week.[1] Two of them, in the words our engine prints from USDA's files:
Window opened this week NE → TX · contract 12-3J14-26-C-1989
USDA awarded NEBRASKA BEAN, INC. 18 deliveries of LENTILS DRY PKG 12/2 LB (1,680 CS each) from the CLEARWATER, NE plant to HOUSTON, TX, delivering Nov 1, 2026 – Apr 15, 2027 (contract 12-3J14-26-C-1989, award Sep 24, 2026). The award notice says it was purchased f.o.b. destination (the vendor pays the freight).
NEBRASKA BEAN, INC.: 7 awards posted on USDA's procurement portal in 12 months.
- Quantities are as awarded; USAspending shows the contract was modified later.
Open USDA page Bid Array Solicitation (Required by), page 129 USDA portal listing USAspending award
USDA award notice (PCA), page 44 · data as of Nov 7, 2026
Window opened this week CA → TX · contract 12-3J14-26-C-2036
USDA awarded VICTOR PACKING, INC. 7 deliveries of RAISINS BOX-144/1.33 OZ (2,964 CS each) from the Madera, CA plant to HOUSTON, TX, delivering Nov 1, 2026 – Mar 31, 2027 (contract 12-3J14-26-C-2036, award Sep 25, 2026). The award notice says it was purchased f.o.b. destination (the vendor pays the freight).
VICTOR PACKING, INC.: 7 awards posted on USDA's procurement portal in 12 months.
- Quantities are as awarded; USAspending shows the contract was modified later.
Open USDA page Bid Array Solicitation (Required by), page 19 USDA portal listing USAspending award
USDA award notice (PCA), page 24 · data as of Nov 7, 2026
Every lane links to the USDA page it came from. A separate check on Nov 6, 2026, with code that shares nothing with our engine, rebuilt 30 of 30 random lanes from USDA's files.[9] Pick another state in the box at the top, or jump back to it. The full list for a state is in the app.
What an award doesn't tell you
- Whether the vendor has a carrier. Many do. An award is USDA's contract with the vendor, not a tender, so call the vendor the way you would call any shipper.
- What the haul pays. The price on a PCA line is the delivered price of the food per unit, not the cost of freight.
- A pickup date. Each line has a "Required by" period for arrival[8], and the record has no pickup date. The vendor books an unloading appointment with the receiver: "Delivery appointments shall be scheduled as far in advance of expected delivery as possible, but not less than 72 hours prior to delivery".[10]
- That the quantities still stand. "The Government reserves the right to terminate this contract, or any part hereof, for its sole convenience."[11] Our lane cards say so when USAspending shows a contract was modified after the award.
For the delivery rules a vendor passes on to its carrier, see USDA vendor delivery rules for brokers. For how USDA's award files are put together, see USDA commodity procurement awards, explained.
Questions brokers ask
Can a freight broker get government freight contracts?
There are two routes. One is to become a transportation service provider that agencies book through GSA's Freight Management Program; GSA asks for licensing, operating authority, insurance, SAM.gov registration, Syncada invoicing and rates filed in TMSS 2.0. The other is to sell freight services to the company that already won a government contract, such as a USDA food award. On the second route your customer is that company, not the government. [2]
Do I need SAM.gov registration to move freight for a USDA vendor?
FAR 4.1102 requires offerors and quoters on a federal contract to be registered in SAM when they submit an offer. When you arrange freight for a vendor, the vendor holds the USDA contract and you work on the vendor's terms, so ask the vendor what it requires. This is not legal advice. [5]
Is a USDA award a load I can book?
No. An award is USDA's contract with a food vendor, not a tender. The vendor may already have a carrier, and USDA can change or cut a contract. The award tells you who to call, from which plant, to which cities and in which delivery window.
Who pays the freight on a USDA food award?
When the award notice says f.o.b. destination, the vendor does: FAR 52.247-34, part of USDA's master solicitation, has the contractor furnish a delivery schedule, designate the delivering carrier and pay all charges to the delivery point. As of Nov 7, 2026 the notice says f.o.b. destination on 5,674 of the 8,355 findings we list. When a notice doesn't say it, we don't guess. [3][1]
How often does USDA post new food awards?
In bursts. Of the 52 weeks before this one, 43 had at least one new award and 33 had three or more; the median was 3 a week. The four weeks before this one had 1 in total (as of Nov 7, 2026). Quiet weeks still have lanes whose delivery window opens that week. [1]
See the lanes for your states
Every lane links to the USDA page it came from. Data as of Nov 7, 2026, refreshed weekly.