The freight brokerage industry is entering a new era. Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Montgomery, my phone and email have been nonstop with brokers, shippers, insurers, and transportation attorneys all asking the same question: What is now considered the industry standard for vetting a carrier? After spending years advising brokers, building carrier vetting technology, analyzing carrier risk data, and serving as an expert witness in negligent selection litigation, one thing has become increasingly clear: the industry is rapidly moving toward a measurable broker standard of care. The question is no longer whether brokers have responsibilities when selecting carriers. The question is what courts, juries, insurers, and the industry itself will consider reasonable in a modern transportation environment where enormous amounts of safety data are publicly available. The reality is that most brokers are already doing a very good job. Many of today’s sophisticated brokers have evolved far beyond simply checking FMCSA authority and insurance. They utilize carrier onboarding teams, continuous monitoring platforms, insurance verification tools, inspection analysis, fraud prevention controls, and internal escalation procedures that did not exist at scale even a decade ago. window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.defineSlot(‘/21776187881/FW-Responsive-Main_Content-Slot1’, [[300, 100], [320, 50], [728, 90], [468, 60]], ‘div-gpt-ad-1709668545404-0’).defineSizeMapping(gptSizeMaps.banner1).addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest(); googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(); googletag.enableServices(); }); googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-1709668545404-0’); }); In my work reviewing broker operations and carrier selection practices across the industry, I regularly see brokers implementing meaningful and defensible vetting procedures that demonstrate just how much the industry has matured. But there remains a very small segment…
