Supreme Court Rules 9-0 That Brokers Are LIABLE

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]Hey guys. So, I'm going to do a completely different format than what I am used to. Usually, I write out my videos. I put a lot of thought into when to say certain things, how to say certain things, but regarding this Supreme Court ruling, I just want to have a conversation with you guys.

[00:00:17]Obviously, I will be quoting some things, but nothing is pre-written out.

[00:00:21]So, it is going to be just me speaking about all the possibilities of what this could mean. I will offer my opinion, although it is going to be like all my opinions. I'm going to see both sides as usual. That's just how my brain works.

[00:00:38]But yeah, let's talk about this Supreme Court ruling because this is something that could definitely or will definitely change trucking as we know it. So, let's chat about it. Ready? Let's go.

[00:01:04]So, the broker liability case, the CH Robinson case, has been going on for what seems like forever now. I'm not going to go into details of what happened, what brought it to the courts, like what the situation is. This is something that you can all find online.

[00:01:21]If you want me to make a video going more into technical details, I absolutely will. But let's have a conversation about it. This is a case that has been basically going on forever, it seems. And yesterday the Supreme Court made a decision about the case. What shocked everyone is, well, in part it's the fact that the Supreme Court decided that yes, brokers will be held liable for the carriers they hire.

[00:01:50]But that's not what really shocked everyone. That was just part the small part. The big part was the fact that it was a 9 to0 decision, meaning that it is a unanimous decision and that changes the whole ball game. So, what exactly does this decision mean? Well, according to Landline, and I'm going to be quoting from my phone, effectively, the ruling means brokers can no longer rely on federal preeemption as a blanket defense against negligent hiring claims.

[00:02:22]However, brokers are not automatically liable for any crash. Plaintiffs still have to prove that the broker should have known that motor carrier was unsafe. If brokers hire a motor carrier with a proven safety record, they could be taken off the hook. Now, this is very, very important. Basically, translation, this means that if a broker hires someone, for example, with a bad safety score, and that somebody, that carrier ends up in a crash, a fatal one, or with injuries, whatever, the broker can be held liable for the fact that they didn't do enough vetting of the carrier. and the fact that they are the reason that carrier was on the road with the broker's load. Now, what is happening right now? Right away, as soon as the Supreme Court released its unanimous decision, allegedly insurance companies, you know, brokers also need insurance in order to be able to operate. Insurance companies started talking about how they are going to start raising rates. And Craig Fuller yesterday when he talked about this decision, he said that rates for insurance could go up not just 10% but 10 times for brokers and some insurance companies might stop writing policies for brokers altogether. Now this is something as Craig Fuller said and he's right. This is something that carriers are very familiar with where in certain states, in certain areas, you are not going to be able to find many insurers who are going to actually provide you with a policy. This is especially true if you're in California, especially after what happened. I believe it was last year in January when there was the fire. Yeah, it was in January of 2025 when there was that huge fire that destroyed whole cities. Because of that, insurance companies are even more careful about writing policies for carriers based in California. Now, this is something that brokers are again, they're not used to this, but now considering the Supreme Court ruling, they might be in a situation where they cannot find as easily. You can still find an insurance company that is going to write you a policy, but it's not going to be as easy. And the fact that the insurance cost is going to go up for brokers is a given. Now, I'm not offering my opinion yet. This is just the point where I'm stating the facts of what is going on. Because of the insurance cost going up and because of the risk associated with being a broker now, we can expect potentially 50% of brokers to go out. Now, which brokers are going to go out? It's going to be the mom and pop brokerages, right? The small brokers. It's not going to be brokers like TQL, Mega Corp, CH Robinson, and so on and so forth. The mega brokers are going to be just fine.

[00:05:17]Now, let's focus on what is going to happen to carriers. 94% of the carriers in the industry, they do not have a safety rating. This is a gross failing of the FMCSA. I know that they are trying to clean up the system. they are releasing or they have released modus which is again going to be available to carriers uh to register on May 19th but unfortunately when it comes to safety ratings it has just been a nightmare most carriers do not have a safety rating now there's a lot of panic about this if you go online you're going to see two sides you're going to see the side that is extremely excited about this ruling saying finally and then there's the side saying that this is a disaster for the smaller carriers or carriers without a safety rating and so on and so forth that this is really a big win for those mega carriers and those mega brokers. So let's break it down a little bit. The side that is saying that this is a fantastic decision is speaking from a place of safety. If brokers are held liable that means that they are more likely to hire carriers who have good safety ratings which means that the roads are going to become safer. So, this is the argument there.

[00:06:32]Another argument they have is that even if you're a small carrier and your safety rating is okay and is in good standing, you have nothing to worry about. You're going to be fine. The side that is arguing that this is a disaster for small carriers uh and small brokers, well, the small brokers we talked about, right? The insurance costs are going to go up. It's possible that 50 up to 50% of the brokerages that we know are going to go out of business. On the carrier side, what they're saying is considering that 94% of carriers are unrated, we are going to see brokers really tighten their belts and those carriers are just not going to get any loads. Now, this is where I'm going to offer my opinion.

[00:07:13]It's going to sound wishy-washy, but it's not. That's just the way I think. I never I'm never I'm not good at being put in a box and thinking only one way.

[00:07:23]I always see all sides and that comes from my psychology training maybe I think I don't know but I cannot think just one way I don't have tunnel vision when it comes to things my opinion is somewhere in the middle on one hand I am very very excited that this went through because yes brokers should be held liable for the carriers they hire seen ch Robinson whose employee was telling a carrier hey just open up another company, become a chameleon carrier.

[00:07:56]This is unacceptable. We have seen brokers like TQL giving loads to carriers who I mean the violations they get are something that the broker should have known about, especially a broker like TQL who has all the money in order to properly vet. So brokers being a little bit more cautious about who they hire is definitely something I'm not going to be mad about. I have children.

[00:08:18]I am scared every single time I end up next to a semi-truck on the highway with my kids in the car. Just recently, a person I knew of, I didn't know her personally, but this was a mother of one of my kids' best friends. She was involved in a fatal crash with a semi-truck. So, yeah, the idea that the roads are going to become safer and I'm not going to have to always avoid semi-truckss next to me or behind me is a nice thought. So in that sense, very very much for it. On the other hand, I do see a potential issue with this because of how brokers will react, right? We have talked about on this channel that sometimes the safety score is not what it seems. It looks like a person has 100% out of service uh violations, but then you find out that they only had the one inspection that resulted in an out of service order for tires or whatnot. Now, this is not my concern. If the safety score is off, if the unsafe uh driving score is very very high, if we're constantly seeing violations on or out of service orders on the driver's side or on the vehicle side, yeah, this is a big question mark.

[00:09:27]If we're seeing a carrier that is consistently getting into crashes, whether with injuries or fatalities or not, but this is the fault of the carrier who's consistently getting into crashes, that is a questionable thing.

[00:09:41]My concern is that brokers are going to overreact and over protect themselves right in this case and carriers without a safety rating are going to really end up in a situation where they have a harder time getting loads. Now, that being said, I do not see that having a long-term effect. I'm sorry to say because at the end of the day if brokers only start looking at carriers that have 100 plus trucks in their fleet and assuming that hey if this is a bigger carrier or a mega carrier let's say they are safer we're going to end up in a situation where most of the loads are not getting moved right there just not going to be enough trucks so I don't think it's going to have uh a long-term effect in terms of brokers saying no to carriers ers without a safety rating. I am hoping that the FMCSA starts issuing those safety ratings to those carriers.

[00:10:42]It's about time. But yeah, I don't see a big problem with that. Where I do see an issue for carriers, and this is just coming from the comments I have read throughout the years, the sentiment people have about uh vetting systems like highway, setup systems like highway and so on and so forth. Brokers are going to start really checking everything. Over the past week, I have noticed that brokers are more and more cautious about who they hire. And this was before the Supreme Court ruling.

[00:11:17]They want information on the VIN. They want the information on the CDL. They want a picture of the CDL. They want to make sure that this is the person who is actually picking up the load and so on and so forth. So the vetting despite the fact that the capacity is tighter, the vetting is getting more strict with this ruling. It's going to get even more strict in my opinion. And a lot of people, a lot of carriers and drivers, I think, are going to have a problem with the type of vetting that is done while brokers are trying to cover their behinds. Because, as Craig Fuller posted yesterday, hot take from a senior executive at one of the largest firms in the space, paper trails are going to be paramount for brokers going forward. It will be imperative for the broker to demonstrate that they did everything in their power to ensure that the carrier and driver were compliant. Loadboards are a thing of the past. So yeah, the vetting is going to get even more stringent in my opinion. Now, personally, I I just don't care to be honest. I know this is not the answer that most people want me to have or the opinion that people want me to have. I just don't care. The main thing is that everything is safe, that it's going through a safe system, that I'm not just sending a CDL to Wazoo and it's going to end up somewhere. This is something I'm very concerned about. But in terms of double-checking that the truck is the truck, that the driver is the driver. I don't care, and neither do my guys, uh, thankfully. But I do appreciate that a lot of people do have a problem with this because they're afraid of the first of all privacy concerns and second of all the potential for this to become something fraudulent for someone stealing your identity. This is a very very real concern. Now, another thing that has been going around on social media is that now it is possible that because so many brokers are going to go out uh of trucking because of this ruling, we're going to see more direct shipper freight. Uh, and I actually thought about this before I even read about it and I was wondering is it possible that shippers are now going to in order to find consistent capacity they are going to go onto the load boards and they are going to be the ones posting the loads. It is possible. Now my question is and people are saying yes this is the case but my question is are shippers going to be held liable for the carriers that they hire? because the ruling I believe applies to brokers, but people are saying yes, shippers are also going to be held liable. So yeah, guys, just to reiterate, my thoughts on this are not wishy-washy. I just I always think like both sides always look at everything, all the facts, and then make a decision. And it doesn't have to be a straightforward decision on what your opinion is. My thought is it's excellent that brokers are going to be held liable because this is going to make the roads safer. And as a mom, this is very, very important to me. And I have been screaming on this channel forever that look at TQL, look at CH Robinson, look at these folks hiring carriers that are getting crazy out of service orders from I mean, English language proficiency is one, but driving without a CDL, man, what are you doing? Right? On the other hand, I do see it becoming a little bit more challenging for carriers. Is it going to remove the bad actors?

[00:14:45]Hopefully. Yeah, it should. It should.

[00:14:48]Uh hopefully. But is it going to affect carriers who are not bad actors but maybe don't have a safety score or so on and so forth? It could. And this is something that I just have in my mind.

[00:15:01]But I'm curious to hear what you guys think. Are you very much for it? Are you very much against it? Are you happy? Are you worried? What are your thoughts? I would love to learn from you guys because again, the way I form my opinions is by reading a lot and collecting other people's thoughts and trying to see it from their point of view. Anyway guys, thank you so much for joining and watching and this was actually a nice unprepared chat. Wishing you all a fantastic rest of your