A notice has been going out to carriers in the C.H. Robinson network, and it is worth reading carefully because of what may sit behind it. The message, branded under C.H. Robinson and titled “Changes to carrier eligibility,” tells the recipient that their company “exceeds intervention thresholds for C.H. Robinson’s scoring model based on data from the FMCSA.” Effective immediately, the notice states, the account is moved to non-certified status until BASIC scores improve. The carrier loses access to book loads on Navisphere Carrier and through their aligned representative immediately. Loads in transit deliver and get paid as normal. Existing payables process in full. But the ability to book new freight is gone until the safety scores come back into the broker’s acceptable range. On its face, this reads as a safety policy update. Read against what happened at the Supreme Court two weeks before these notices started circulating, it invites a different question: is the freight brokerage industry beginning to reprice carrier risk in real time, because the legal consequences of getting that risk assessment wrong just changed permanently? C.H. Robinson has not publicly stated that the eligibility change is connected to the Supreme Court ruling, and the company has not publicly announce additional changes. What follows is an analysis of the ruling, the notice, and the timing; and readers should weigh the connection as a strong inference supported by sequence and mechanism, not as a stated company position. CHR is referring me to the FMCSA in order to…
