The Risk Behind the Freight Rate
For years, transportation conversations have often started with the same questions: What is the rate? How quickly can the shipment be picked up? Do you have capacity?
Those questions matter, and price will always be an important part of transportation. But a freight rate alone does not tell the entire story. It does not show how the motor carrier was selected, what safety information was reviewed, whether the carrier continues to meet established standards, what security controls are in place, or how much experience and oversight stand behind the truck that ultimately arrives at the shipper’s door.
A recent unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling has brought much more attention to those less-visible parts of the transportation process. The decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC, along with several broker-liability cases that have continued to develop since, is giving shippers another reason to look beyond the quoted freight rate and better understand what stands behind the transportation capacity being offered.
What the Montgomery Ruling Changed
On May 14, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC. The case arose after Shawn Montgomery was severely injured in 2017 when a tractor-trailer operated by Caribe Transport struck him while he was alongside his truck on an Illinois highway. C.H. Robinson had arranged the transportation and was sued under a state-law negligent-hiring or negligent-selection theory related to its choice of motor carrier.
The legal question that ultimately reached the Supreme Court involved the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act, commonly known as the FAAAA. The law generally prevents states from enforcing certain laws related to a freight broker’s prices, routes or services, but it also contains an exception preserving state authority over motor-vehicle safety.
In a 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court determined that the FAAAA’s motor-vehicle safety exception allows this type of state-law claim against a freight broker to proceed. In simpler terms, acting as the broker rather than physically operating the truck does not automatically prevent a broker from facing a claim related to how a motor carrier was selected.
That does not mean a freight broker is automatically responsible whenever a motor carrier is involved in an accident. Plaintiffs still have to establish their claims under the applicable law and facts of the particular case. The Supreme Court decided the federal preemption issue; it did not decide that C.H. Robinson was negligent in the underlying Montgomery lawsuit.
The Montgomery litigation itself has continued following the Supreme Court decision, but the impact of the ruling has already reached well beyond that single case.
Montgomery Is Not a One-Off Development
Only days after the ruling, a broker-liability case involving Echo Global Logistics was sent back to a lower federal court for further proceedings. Echo previously had been dismissed after successfully arguing that federal law preempted the state-law claims against it. The case stems from a January 2022 South Carolina crash in which a truck operated by a carrier selected by Echo struck a pickup stopped in traffic, killing the pickup’s driver. Following Montgomery, the earlier dismissal was vacated and the matter returned to the lower court.
Another case involving Penske Transportation Management followed. In August, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed an earlier decision that had dismissed Penske’s brokerage operation from litigation arising from a fatal Texas crash. The appellate court directly cited Montgomery in determining that the prior federal-preemption analysis could no longer stand.
Other cases are moving through the courts as well.
In Arizona, J.B. Hunt is defending claims connected to an October 2023 accident involving a motor carrier selected through its brokerage operation. The plaintiffs have raised questions about the carrier’s safety history and whether that information should have affected the selection decision. J.B. Hunt disputes the allegations and has sought summary judgment.
In Nevada, litigation involving AONE Brokerage Company includes another issue that has become increasingly important in today’s freight market: double brokering. According to court records reported by FreightWaves, the shipment was tendered to one carrier and allegedly passed to another. A federal judge denied competing requests for summary judgment, allowing disputed issues involving the transportation arrangement and responsibility for the accident to continue.
Then there is the approximately $604 million jury verdict returned in July 2026 in litigation involving C.H. Robinson, motor carrier Lupus Superior and a fatal 2021 crash in Mississippi. The jury assessed responsibility among multiple defendants, including C.H. Robinson. The company is challenging the verdict, and the litigation is not final. The case also involves legal theories beyond the precise question the Supreme Court decided in Montgomery, so the two should not be treated as identical cases.
Still, the size of the verdict illustrates how significant transportation-related exposure can become when something goes seriously wrong.
There have also been cases where a broker was named and later removed. In a high-profile Florida accident lawsuit this summer, C.H. Robinson was initially included as a defendant but was dismissed after maintaining that it had not brokered the shipment and that the carrier involved was blocked in its system at the time of the accident.
That example is important because the message is not that every broker named in a lawsuit has done something wrong. The larger point is that carrier selection, documentation and the processes behind those decisions are receiving considerably more legal attention.
What Shippers Do Not See on a Freight Quote
When several transportation quotes arrive in an inbox, it is easy to compare what is immediately visible. One provider may be $100 lower. Another may offer a slightly better transit time. Each may say it has capacity.
What the quote usually does not show is everything that happened before that truck was offered.
Responsible carrier qualification can involve much more than confirming that a carrier has active authority and insurance on the day a load is booked. Depending on the network and capacity being used, the process may include federal licensing and safety data, regulatory compliance, insurance status, operating history and other indicators that help determine whether the carrier is qualified to handle the shipment.
Initial approval is only part of the picture. A carrier that satisfied requirements months ago may not look the same today. Insurance can change. Safety information can change. Operating patterns can change. New information may raise questions that were not present when the carrier was originally approved.
Fraud has added another layer of risk.
Double brokering, carrier impersonation, fraudulent documents, cargo theft and insurance issues have become serious concerns throughout the transportation industry. Knowing that a carrier has an operating authority number is no longer the same as knowing who is actually going to pick up the freight.
That makes identity verification, insurance monitoring, fraud controls, technology and continued carrier oversight increasingly important.
None of those items normally appear as individual line items on a freight quote. But they can have a much greater effect on the final outcome of a shipment than a relatively small difference in transportation price.
The truck may be carrying valuable inventory, raw materials needed to keep a production line operating, time-sensitive cargo or products already promised to another customer. When something goes wrong, the cost can extend well beyond the original freight bill through cargo loss, service failures, production delays, missed customer commitments, insurance issues, accident claims and legal exposure.
Price still matters. It simply needs to be considered in context.
Built Long Before Montgomery
The increased attention surrounding carrier selection may feel new, but the processes behind responsible carrier qualification are not. For Southern Star Navigation, as an independent Landstar agent, that long-established approach is an important part of the value we bring to our customers.
Landstar did not develop its safety culture because of the Montgomery ruling or because transportation risk suddenly became a popular topic. Safety, security and carrier qualification have been part of the Landstar business model for decades.
Landstar’s nationwide Safety Thursday program dates back to 1991, bringing together independent agents, owner-operators, customers, employees, law enforcement, industry organizations and regulatory representatives to discuss transportation safety.
Its Mutual Understanding of Safety Together, or M.U.S.T., initiative has operated for more than 25 years, bringing Landstar safety professionals, independent agencies and customers together to review facilities, discuss safe loading and unloading practices and identify opportunities to reduce risk.
Every Landstar independent agency also designates a Landstar Safety Officer. Today, the Landstar network includes more than 950 Landstar Safety Officers helping support the company’s safety-first culture.
The results behind that culture are also significant. Landstar currently reports a 99.9% claim-free delivery rate, and more than 1,000 active Landstar owner-operators have achieved Million Mile Safe Driver status, meaning they have driven at least one million consecutive miles while leased to Landstar without a preventable accident.
Those accomplishments are not created by simply finding an available truck.
Qualification Goes Beyond Holding a CDL
Landstar’s exclusive owner-operators, known as Business Capacity Owners or BCOs, must meet established qualification requirements before operating within the network.
For typical tractor-trailer opportunities, current minimum requirements include being at least 23 years old, holding the appropriate CDL and hazmat endorsement, having at least one year of verifiable over-the-road experience, maintaining a verifiable driving history and meeting standards involving preventable accidents, serious driving violations, DUI history and drug and alcohol testing.
Landstar’s current requirements also state that trucks and trailers entering the program must meet applicable equipment standards and inspection requirements.
The one-year experience requirement is only one example, but it demonstrates an important difference between being legally permitted to drive commercially and meeting the additional standards required to operate within a particular transportation network.
Landstar currently provides access to more than 8,500 exclusive owner-operators as well as tens of thousands of approved third-party capacity providers. The third-party carrier side of the business also follows a structured approval process.
Landstar’s own public statement following the Montgomery decision describes that process as disciplined and multi-layered, including review of federal licensing and safety-related data, operational and compliance standards and technology-enabled vetting tools.
Landstar also makes an important point that is easy to overlook: carrier approval is not meant to be a one-time event.
Third-party carriers are monitored and revalidated using internal systems, third-party technology and evolving data. Landstar’s carrier-selection process also incorporates insurance verification and monitoring, secondary reviews, operational indicators, technology-enabled risk modeling, double-brokering mitigation, impersonation detection and policy reviews among its tools and controls.
That is a very different picture from simply checking authority, seeing that insurance is active and booking the truck.
A Partner Behind Every Shipment
At Southern Star Navigation, being an independent Landstar agent gives us access to the capacity, technology, resources and established processes of the Landstar network, but our responsibility to our customers is personal.
We take the time to understand what our customers are shipping, what matters most about the delivery and where additional attention may be needed. Our role is not simply to provide a rate and disappear once a shipment is booked.
We want to be the first call when a customer has a question, needs help evaluating an option or has a shipment that requires more thought. Sometimes that means helping identify potential concerns before the freight moves. Sometimes it means discussing alternatives or finding a different way to approach a difficult shipment. And sometimes it simply means being available when something unexpected happens.
Customers should not feel that they have to become experts in carrier qualification, safety data, cargo fraud or changing transportation regulations on their own.
Part of our role at Southern Star Navigation is staying informed, asking questions and helping customers understand the choices available to them while utilizing the broader safety, security and transportation infrastructure of the Landstar network.
We believe a transportation partner should do more than quote the shipment. A good partner should understand the freight, understand the customer’s priorities and help protect the outcome.
Looking Beyond the Freight Rate
Montgomery has changed an important part of the legal landscape for freight brokers, and the cases developing since the ruling show why the transportation industry is paying close attention.
But the lesson for shippers does not need to be complicated or legalistic.
The freight rate is important, but the freight rate is not the entire transportation solution.
Behind that number are people, drivers, carriers, equipment, safety records, insurance, qualification standards, security controls, fraud-prevention measures, technology and decisions that can directly affect whether a shipment arrives safely and successfully.
Landstar’s commitment to those areas did not begin when the Supreme Court issued its decision in May. The systems, safety programs and qualification standards behind the network have been developed over decades.
Montgomery did not create the value of responsible carrier selection. It has simply given the transportation industry a very public reminder of why responsible carrier selection has always mattered.
For Southern Star Navigation, that is an important conversation to have with both current customers and companies evaluating their transportation options.
The lowest rate may sometimes be the right choice. But before making that decision, it is worth understanding what comes with the rate, what happens behind the scenes and who will be there if the shipment does not go exactly as planned.
The better question may no longer be only:
“What will it cost to move this shipment?”
It may also be:
“What stands behind that rate?”
At Southern Star Navigation, we are always willing to help answer that question.
Have questions about carrier selection, transportation risk or an upcoming shipment? Southern Star Navigation is here to help. Call 833-782-7628.
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