Service Area
Freight Broker in Chicago, IL
The American Truck Inc. is a licensed, bonded freight broker (MC# 1631835) providing full-service freight brokerage in Chicago, matching your loads with vetted carriers across all 48 states. Chicago is our home market — our headquarters sits in Lincolnshire, IL, in the northern suburbs, so we run these lanes every day and know the metro's docks, rail ramps, and shipper corridors first-hand.
The Chicago freight market
Chicago is the single most important inland freight hub in North America and the busiest rail gateway on the continent, where six of the seven Class I railroads interchange. Roughly a quarter of all U.S. rail freight touches the Chicago terminal district at some point, and the metro anchors a manufacturing, distribution, and agricultural belt that feeds both coasts. Its central position makes it a natural crossroads for east-west and north-south truckload traffic, so capacity and rates here ripple across the national market. For shippers, that density means deep carrier availability but also real congestion and seasonal weather risk that demand active load management.
Highways, rail & ports
The metro is laced by I-90, I-94, I-80, I-88, I-55, I-57, and the I-294 tri-state tollway, tying it to Milwaukee, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and beyond. It is the premier U.S. intermodal center, with BNSF's Logistics Park Chicago in Elwood/Joliet and Union Pacific's Global rail yards handling enormous container volumes, plus interchanges for CSX, Norfolk Southern, CN, and CPKC. O'Hare International (ORD) is one of the country's largest air-cargo gateways for time-sensitive and international freight.
High-volume lanes from Chicago
- Chicago, IL → Dallas, TX
- Chicago, IL → Atlanta, GA
- Chicago, IL → Los Angeles, CA
- Chicago, IL → Newark, NJ
- Chicago, IL → Kansas City, MO
- Chicago, IL → Columbus, OH
Industries we move in Chicago
- Industrial and metals manufacturing
- Food and beverage processing
- Agricultural commodities and grain
- Plastics and chemicals
- Retail and e-commerce distribution
- Automotive parts
Services we broker in Chicago
Chicago freight questions
Do you handle intermodal freight out of Chicago's rail terminals?
Yes. Chicago is the largest intermodal market in North America, and we book door-to-ramp and ramp-to-door moves through the major terminals, including BNSF's Logistics Park in Joliet/Elwood and Union Pacific's Global yards. For longer hauls to the coasts, intermodal often beats over-the-road on cost, and we'll model both so you can pick the right balance of price and transit time.
How quickly can you get a truck for a same-day pickup in the Chicago area?
Because Chicago is our home base, we carry one of our deepest carrier networks here and can often source same-day or next-morning capacity for FTL pickups across Cook, Lake, DuPage, and Will counties. Turn times depend on equipment type and lane, so the sooner you send the load details, the tighter the coverage we can commit to.
Can you keep freight moving through Chicago's winter weather?
Yes. Lake-effect snow and ice regularly disrupt Chicago-area lanes from December through March, so we build in extra transit buffers, watch road and terminal closures, and reroute proactively when storms hit. We keep you updated on any weather delays rather than letting a load go dark.
SHIPPING FREIGHT IN CHICAGO?
Send us your lane and load details — we'll source vetted capacity and quote it fast.