I know that with fighter ships of the same type as your piloting you can assign it to be npc controlled and it will follow you. Are you able to do this with freighters?
If not would a pilot npc change anything?
That info is in a pretty obscure area of the rules, I wonder if it'd be possible to have a "can be squaded" type icon in the stats page for the ship similiar to the "can land" "docking bay" etc icons.