How to build a broker-ready safety program after the SCOTUS liability ruling

What did the Supreme Court of the United States decide about freight broker liability?

Please note: The following reflects the opinions of Geotab for informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice, and should not be relied upon as a basis for any legal, compliance, or business decision. The legal implications of this ruling may vary depending on your jurisdiction and specific circumstances. Please consult qualified legal counsel regarding your specific obligations. Geotab makes no representation as to the accuracy or completeness of its characterization of the ruling or its legal effect.

The Supreme Court of the United States unanimous decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC Open in new window held that requiring brokers to exercise "ordinary care in selecting a carrier" falls within motor vehicle safety. That means state negligence claims against brokers are not preempted by federal law.

Freight brokers can now be sued under state law for negligently choosing an unsafe carrier. The ruling potentially changes how broker-carrier relationships work.

The case began when Shawn Montgomery lost part of his leg in a 2017 Illinois crash caused by a speeding truck driver. Montgomery sued C.H. Robinson, the United States's largest freight broker, arguing the broker failed to screen the driver's safety record before hiring the carrier.

Freight broker liability for unsafe carrier selection is not a fringe concern. A CBS News investigation found that unsafe carriers frequently reconstitute under new names to evade federal oversight, and those carriers are four times more likely to cause severe crashes. The investigation linked the practice to at least 141 deaths and 1,800 injuries over five years Open in new window. The ruling removes the federal shield brokers previously relied on to avoid accountability for those choices.

How does this affect transport carriers?

It is plausible that carriers can reasonably expect brokers to raise the bar for safety documentation — and to drop relationships that cannot meet it.

The freight broker liability ruling targets brokers directly, but the competitive pressure lands on carriers. Brokers now have a liability mitigation incentive to document their carrier selection decisions. That means they may ask harder questions, request more detailed safety data and favor carriers who can demonstrate — not just claim — a credible carrier safety program.

Here's what carriers may reasonably expect:

• Stricter vetting before entering or renewing preferred broker relationships;
• More requests for safety data exports, driver coaching records and compliance documentation; and
• Preference for carriers whose data shows safety improvement trends over time — or consistently high safety performance data — not just a point-in-time safety score.

The financial stakes driving this shift are significant. In 2024, nuclear verdicts across all industries totaled $31.3 billion Open in new window — a 116% increase over 2023 — with trucking among the most impacted sectors. The numbers underscore the urgency. Trucking specifically absorbed $4.1 billion across 15 major verdicts in 2024 Open in new window, with the median verdict reaching $51 million — up from $44 million in 2023 and $21 million in 2020.

Additionally, the average cost of a single injury crash is approximately $400,000 Open in new window. Brokers who select the wrong carrier may now face additional liability in court, which means they may be looking at carriers through a liability lens as well as an operational one.

What does a proactive safety program look like?

A proactive carrier safety program demonstrates active risk management — not just a record of what went wrong.

The distinction comes down to timing and documentation.

Here are a few components that you may want to consider when you're preparing a proactive safety program:

Pre-event risk identification

Does your safety program flag at-risk behavior before an incident occurs? Dash cam footage of a collision can assist in various proceedings after an incident has occurred. However, a predictive risk score that identified a driver and triggered coaching before anything happened is potentially evidence that your safety program actively prevents harm.

Documented coaching tied to outcomes

Can you demonstrate that identified risks were acted on? Generally, a coaching record that ties a specific behavior to an intervention, with a trackable outcome, is far more defensible than a general safety score. Brokers and courts will likely want to see a documented improvement cycle, not a static rating.

Data integrity

When a broker's legal team reviews your safety records, will the data withstand scrutiny? Source, methodology and chain of custody all matter in various proceedings. Safety data that meets recognized security and integrity standards carries more weight than self-reported figures or summary exports with no verifiable audit trail.

How to build a broker-ready safety program

If you're not sure your current carrier safety program would hold up in a vetting conversation with a broker's legal team, here's where we believe you will want to start:

Audit what your telematics platform currently captures. Can you produce pre-event risk data or only post-incident reports? If your documentation tells a story about what went wrong rather than what you did to prevent it, that's a gap worth closing now.

Add predictive risk scoring. Safety scorecards measure past behavior. Predictive collision risk modeling identifies drivers statistically likely to be involved in a future incident, giving you a proactive paper trail that assists in demonstrating forward-looking risk management.

Standardize your coaching records. Every coaching session tied to a specific behavior and tracked to completion assists in creating a documented improvement cycle. Consistency matters - sporadic coaching is harder to defend than a systematic program.

Get your data broker-ready. Can you export a clean, structured safety report for external review? If the answer is unclear or time-consuming, that's a practical problem that should be solved before a broker asks.

Confirm your compliance documentation is current. Hours of service (HOS) logs, electronic logging device (ELD) records and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Open in new window (FMCSA) compliance data all contribute to the picture brokers will use when assessing carrier risk. Gaps in compliance records create gaps in your safety story.

What this ruling means for your broker relationships

The freight broker liability ruling in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II didn't create new problems for carriers. It made existing ones more visible.

Carriers who can produce predictive risk scores, documented coaching records and clean compliance data are likely well positioned in this environment. Carriers who can only show what happened after an incident are likely at a disadvantage in broker networks and, if named in a claim, in court.

The evidentiary bar has moved. Carriers who treat their safety data as a business asset, not just an operational record, are the ones who will likely stay on preferred lists.

How Geotab supports carriers under the new standard

With 25 years in the telematics industry, Geotab brings a depth of experience that newer entrants — some with fewer than 10 years in the market — have not had time to build. That matters when your safety data needs to hold up in a broker vetting conversation.

Geotab's Collision Risk model uses predictive analytics to identify the drivers most likely to be involved in a future incident, before anything happens.

In a study of nearly 6 million connected vehicles, drawing on over 100 billion data points processed daily, fleets using Geotab's Collision Risk experienced 28.7% fewer collisions. The model is 20% more effective at identifying the top 10% of highest-risk drivers than a traditional safety scorecard alone. Those results come from verified data published in Geotab's Commercial Transportation Report 2026.

That distinction matters post-ruling. Brokers already know what happened from your incident log — what wins their confidence is the pre-event risk model, coaching tied to specific behaviors, and a collision rate that's actually come down. That's the difference between documentation and a defensible safety program.

Geotab's fleet safety platform includes:

• Collision Risk scoring with driver-level predictive modeling
• Integrated video coaching tied to specific behavior events
• HOS and ELD compliance records for audit readiness

Data with FedRAMP, FIPS 140-2, SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 authorization

Brokers aren't just looking for a clean safety score — they want proof that your program prevents incidents before they happen. Dash cam footage paired with telematics data is one of the clearest ways to show that.

Download Stop watching footage, start driving results — Geotab's guide to six intelligent dash cam tactics that turn your cameras into a proactive safety asset brokers and insurers can trust.