CARRIER SELECTION COMES UNDER SCRUTINY
By Mindy Long Special to Transport Topics
However, the primary concern for brokers is that there is no single national standard, which could lead to differing expectations depending on the state and create pressure for brokers to overcorrect in ways that may not improve safety, Burroughs explained. Brenny Transportation Inc. has already tightened its requirements. The company uses Highway, a freight se- curity and fraud detection platform, to vet carriers and has added four steps to its carrier approval process. “We monitor each carrier and they must agree to tracking while under dispatch of our brokerage,” said Joyce Brenny, CEO of Brenny Transportation. The company also requires photos of the driver’s license, the driver and the motor carrier number displayed on the side of the truck before loading. One of the biggest problems is a dearth of formal safety ratings from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. When Brenny started 30 years ago, she had an au- dit and rating within six months of opening the busi- ness, she said. “What happened to that time frame?” Brenny asked, adding that she won’t use unrated carriers. Shannon Breen, CEO and founder of FreightVana, said about 90% of carriers are unrated by FMCSA. Brokers are already performing their own vetting, but Breen questioned expectations that they can as-
because they fall within the statute’s safety exception. “There were 30 states this already applied to. This opens it to all 50,” Sanders said. The ruling reinforces the need for brokers to “be thoughtful, consistent and well-documented in their processes,” said Chris Burroughs, CEO of the Trans- portation Intermediaries Association. “That means having a written carrier selection policy, using reli- able data sources, maintaining records of what was reviewed and applying standards consistently.”
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II ruling has raised the stakes for how freight brokers approach carrier selection, docu- mentation and liability exposure, even as many in the industry say it will make existing practices more for- mal, consistent and defensible rather than introduce new operational responsibilities. “For those of us in the industry who take risk seri- ously, nothing really is going to change,” said Jeff Tucker, CEO of Tucker Company Worldwide, who added that the issue has long been part of responsi- ble brokerage practices. “For me, it is interesting and maybe a little bit alarming that people think this is a new issue.” Brokers were already exposed to risk if they were not taking proper care in selecting carriers, said Greg Sanders, CEO of RDS Capacity Solutions. The ruling primarily brings broader legal attention to broker liability across jurisdictions, he said. “All this did was put a microscope on it and opened it up to all judicial districts.” As part of the May 14 decision, the Supreme Court held that negligent-hiring claims are not pre-empted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act
Tucker says not much will change for risk-aware brokers. (Tucker Company Worldwide)
July 2026, Issue 1 • Transport Topics 14
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