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How freight brokers use customs import data to find and qualify shippers before making a single call.
Finding shippers using import data is one of the most underused prospecting methods in freight brokerage. Every ocean shipment entering the U.S. generates a public customs record that names the importer, describes the cargo, and logs the trade lane. Most freight brokers do not know this data exists. The ones who do are using it quietly.
This guide covers what import data is, how to read it, and exactly how to turn customs records into a pipeline of qualified shipper leads.
The problem with how most brokers currently prospect is not the pitch or the follow-up cadence. It is the list. You are calling companies you think ship freight. Import data lets you call companies you know ship freight, what they ship, how often, and on which lanes.
Every time a shipment enters the United States by ocean, the carrier files a bill of lading with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That document is a legal record of the shipment. It includes the shipper's name and address, the consignee's name and address, what was shipped (described by HS code), how much, on which vessel, from which port, to which port, and who the freight carrier was.
CBP makes this data available with a 24-hour delay. Aggregators like ImportGenius, Panjiva, and Descartes Datamyne collect it, organize it, and make it searchable. The result is a database of tens of millions of real shipments, updated every single day, covering virtually every company that moves ocean freight into the U.S.
This is not a contact database. It is a shipment database. The difference matters.
When you pull a company's import record, you are not guessing whether they ship freight. You are looking at their actual shipment history. A single record gives you:
The company's name and address. Confirmed. Not scraped from a directory.
What they import and in what quantity. The HS code tells you the commodity category. The weight and container count tell you the volume. A company importing 200 containers of consumer electronics per year is a very different prospect from one importing 3 containers of industrial equipment.
Their trade lane. Where the freight originates. This tells you which carrier relationships and port coverage actually matter to them. Pitching capacity on a lane they do not use is a wasted call.
How often they ship. Frequency of shipments tells you whether this is a consistent shipper with predictable volume or a one-time importer. Consistent volume is what you want.
Who they used last. The carrier or NVOCC on record. This tells you who you are competing against and whether there is room to win the business.
Five data points. All verified. All current. That is more actionable intelligence than you will get from 50 cold calls to random companies.
Here is a simplified example of what you would see when pulling an import record from a customs manifest database for a mid-size consumer goods company:
Consignee: Hartfield Home Products LLC, Los Angeles, CA
Shipper: Guangzhou Sunrise Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Guangdong, China
HS Code: 9403.20 (metal furniture)
Container count: 14 x 40ft containers
Weight: 182,000 kg
Port of lading: Yantian, China
Port of unlading: Los Angeles, CA (USLAX)
Vessel: CSCL Pacific Ocean
Carrier/NVOCC: Expeditors International
Date: Recent (databases update within 24 hours of CBP receipt)
From this single record, you already know the following without making a single call: Hartfield Home Products moves 14 containers of metal furniture at a time from South China through USLAX. Their current NVOCC is Expeditors. If you have carrier capacity on the South China to USLAX lane, this is a relevant lead. If you specialize in furniture or consumer goods, even more so.
Now look at this company across 12 months of records. If they are moving 4 to 6 shipments per year of consistent volume on the same lane with the same commodity, you have a shipper with a predictable pattern, an established trade relationship, and a current provider you can potentially displace or complement.
That is what qualified looks like before you pick up the phone.
The honest reason is awareness. Bill of lading data has existed for decades, but it was historically expensive, hard to access, and required a dedicated research workflow to be useful. The tools that aggregated it were built for enterprise supply chain teams and analysts, not for sales teams at mid-size freight brokerages.
That has changed. The data is now embedded directly in prospecting platforms, updated daily, and filterable by commodity, trade lane, volume, and frequency. The barrier to using it is now a search filter, not a research project.
The brokers who have started using it are not broadcasting that fact. It is a competitive advantage and they are keeping it quiet.
Step 1: Define the shipper profile you can actually serve.
Before you search, be specific. What commodity types match your carrier capacity? What trade lanes do you cover well? What shipment volume is realistic for your brokerage to handle? Import data is only useful if you filter it against criteria you can actually deliver on. A list of every importer in the U.S. is noise. A list of importers moving 50 to 200 containers per year of consumer goods through the Port of Los Angeles, whose last carrier is not one of the top three NVOCCs, is a prospect list.
Step 2: Filter by HS code and trade lane.
HS (Harmonized System) codes classify every traded commodity into a standardized taxonomy. If you specialize in food and beverage freight, you know your relevant codes. If you handle industrial equipment, you know yours. Filter the shipment database by those codes and the ports or origins that match your network. You are not browsing. You are targeting.
Step 3: Sort by shipment frequency and volume.
A company that shipped once six months ago is not a pipeline opportunity. Sort your results by frequency and volume to surface companies with consistent, predictable import patterns. Consistent shippers are the ones who need reliable broker relationships, not spot solutions.
Step 4: Apply a qualification threshold.
Not every importer in the database is worth pursuing. A threshold filters noise before it reaches your pipeline. A practical starting point for most brokerages: minimum 4 shipments in the past 12 months, minimum 5 containers per shipment, and a trade lane where you have at least two competitive carrier options. Importers below those thresholds are either too small, too infrequent, or in lanes where you cannot compete on rate or service.
If you also have export data access, cross-reference it. A company that both imports raw materials and exports finished goods is a more complex logistics buyer with more volume to offer and more reasons to consolidate with a single broker they trust.
Step 5: Identify the decision-maker.
The bill of lading gives you the company, not the contact. Once you have your target companies, you need to find the right person: typically a logistics manager, supply chain director, or VP of operations depending on the company size. This is where enrichment comes in. You take the company name from the shipment record and use a tool that can surface the relevant contact, their email, and their phone number.
Step 6: Build the outreach around what you already know.
This is where import data changes the conversation. Instead of a generic cold call about your services, you are reaching out with specifics. You know what they ship. You know their trade lane. You know their approximate volume. You can open with something that proves you did your homework and understand their business before they said a word.
A message that references their trade lane, their commodity, and a specific service gap you can fill is not a cold call. It is a warm introduction backed by real intelligence.
Generic broker cold email: "Hi, I'm a freight broker specializing in ocean freight. Would you be open to a quick call to discuss your shipping needs?"
Import data-backed outreach: "Hi [name], I noticed [company] has been moving a consistent volume of [commodity] from [origin port] over the past several months. We have strong carrier relationships on that lane and have helped similar importers reduce transit variability during peak season. Worth a 15-minute conversation?"
The second version works for two reasons. It is specific enough to prove it is not a mass blast, and it names a problem (transit variability during peak season) that is real for any consistent ocean importer on that lane. You knew to mention it because the shipment data told you they are an active importer on a lane where that problem is common.
For LinkedIn, the same logic applies with a shorter format:
"Hi [name], saw that [company] has been running consistent volume from [origin]. We specialize in that lane and work with a few similar importers. Would it make sense to connect?"
No pitch. No ask. Just proof that you know their business and a low-friction reason to respond.
ImportGenius covers 24+ jurisdictions with daily U.S. shipment updates and an AI-powered company profiler. It is built for research and is strong for one-off lookups and market intelligence.
Panjiva (S&P Global) is the enterprise-grade option. Deeper data, higher price point, better for supply chain teams doing sustained market analysis.
Descartes Datamyne is strong on bill of lading database depth, particularly for customs brokers and compliance-heavy operations.
Ubico is different from the above in one specific way: the shipment data is embedded directly inside an outreach platform. Ubico has 70M+ global shipment records, updated daily, covering ocean shipments with HS codes, carriers, trade lanes, and volumes. You can filter by those parameters to build a target list, then enrich each company with decision-maker contacts using built-in tools, and then launch a personalized email or LinkedIn campaign without leaving the platform.
The other tools give you data. Ubico gives you data with a path to the conversation.
The brokers who build import data into their prospecting workflow do not just get better lists. They get better at understanding their market. Over time, you start to see patterns: which commodities move in which seasons, which trade lanes are getting more competitive, which shippers are growing their import volume. That intelligence informs which carrier relationships are worth investing in, which lanes to prioritize, and where your capacity will be most valuable six months from now.
Cold calling from a generic list does not build that knowledge. Every call is isolated. Import data prospecting compounds.
If you are evaluating the TMS or freight forwarding software your brokerage runs on, the same data-first logic applies to your tech stack decisions. See how leading brokers are thinking about their platforms in the 6 best TMS software for logistics companies in 2026 and the best alternatives to Descartes TMS.
How do freight brokers use import data to find shippers?
The core workflow: filter a shipment database by commodity type (HS code), trade lane, and shipment frequency to surface companies you know are active importers. Then enrich those companies with decision-maker contacts and build outreach around what the data already told you about their freight. It is a fundamentally different motion from cold calling a generic list because you are starting with verified shipping activity, not a guess.
Is bill of lading data actually public?
Yes. U.S. Customs and Border Protection collects bills of lading for all maritime imports and the records become publicly available with a 24-hour processing delay. Aggregators collect and organize this data and make it searchable. It is legal, public, and used by logistics companies, supply chain analysts, and trade researchers worldwide.
Does this only work for ocean freight brokers?
Primarily yes, in its current form. Bill of lading data is generated by ocean shipments. If your brokerage handles primarily domestic trucking, this specific data source is less relevant. Where it becomes useful even for domestic brokers is identifying importers who will need domestic drayage and distribution after their containers clear port.
How current is the data?
U.S. maritime import records are added to the major databases within 24 hours of receipt from CBP. For a company with consistent import patterns, you can see their most recent shipment from last week and their history over the past several years.
What is an HS code and do I need to learn them all?
An HS code is a standardized numerical classification for traded goods used by customs authorities worldwide. You do not need to memorize the full taxonomy. You need to know the codes relevant to the commodity types you specialize in. If you handle food and beverage, a quick lookup of the relevant HS chapters gives you the filter criteria you need.
What if a company uses a freight forwarder rather than shipping directly?
In that case, the forwarder may appear as the consignee on the bill of lading rather than the actual importer. Many data platforms have logic to surface the actual buyer behind a forwarder shipment, but it is worth checking the record carefully. The shipper field still names the overseas exporter, which can be useful for mapping the supply chain.
How do I know if a shipper is worth pursuing versus one I should skip?
Look at three things: volume (enough to be worth a dedicated relationship), frequency (consistent, not sporadic), and lane match (do you have competitive carrier capacity on that trade lane). A company moving 5 containers a year sporadically on a lane where you have no carrier relationships is not a priority. A company moving 80 containers a year consistently on a lane you serve well is exactly the conversation you want.
Most freight brokers are competing for the same contacts on the same load boards with the same cold call scripts. Import data breaks you out of that loop. You are no longer guessing who ships freight. You know who ships freight, what they ship, how often, and on which lanes. That intelligence is the difference between a cold list and a warm pipeline.
Ubico embeds 70M+ shipment records directly into a prospecting and outreach platform so you can go from shipment data to a personalized campaign in one workflow. No separate research tool. No manual data transfer.
See how logistics companies use Ubico to find new shippers.
See our full logistics glossary for more terms: https://www.ubico.io/logistics-glossary
See how Ubico can help your team prospect, enrich, and engage.
