One week ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous 9-0 decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II that is already reshaping the $800-billion-plus truckload brokerage sector. The Court ruled that the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA) does not preempt state-law negligent hiring claims against brokers. In plain English: brokers can now be sued in state courts for failing to properly vet the carriers they put on the road. I’ve spent the past seven days talking directly with brokers, shippers, carriers, technology providers, and stakeholders across the industry. The general consensus is that this is the most impactful development since trucking deregulation. Truckload spot rates hit new all-time high: this is not SCOTUS related, it is compliance crackdown + reindustrialization. We are week into SCOTUS and this is what we've learned (all over the board tbh): – Large brokers tell us they are getting more commitments from… pic.twitter.com/NkDq9QGk3w— Craig Fuller (@FreightAlley) May 22, 2026 Spot Rates at Record Levels — And Still Climbing On Thursday, truckload spot rates reached new all-time highs, even beating out the record high rates set during COVID. The SCOTUS decision may be having an impact at the margin, but the real cause is the massive compliance crackdown and resurgence of the industrial economy. A broader compliance crackdown has been underway for months. Reindustrialization and near-shoring trends have been pulling capacity inland. Those forces were already tightening the market. The Supreme Court’s decision removed the liability shield brokers had long relied on, but this…
