No one is talking about this ?!?!?!?!

[loaders]

The result of this ruling will mean every freight broker will be required to have a “defensible vetting process”. Making a couple of calls to the references provided by a potential new supplier will have be replaced by a much more stringent and in depth process. What concerns me is the ever present possibility of “double brokering”. As a freight broker, we can, and most do, vet our suppliers thoroughly, however, if that carrier then decides for whatever reason, to re-sell your load to some unknown entity, what good has your vetting process been? We all have provisions in our supplier contracts or on our load confirmations, prohibiting double brokering, but how would they standup in a court challenge? Again, proving that you have been as diligent as humanly possible should go a long in the event of a catastrophic accident….I hope!

 

[MikeJr]

You've got to place an employee (or more economically) a camera at every one of your shippers loading docks to verify that the carrier you booked is actually the one picking up. Heaven forbid you ask a shipper to check the side of the truck and write down the name and MC # on the BOL. You know, the document that governs the actual freight movement...

No sarcasm here,
Mike

Such a simple fix to a whole host of potential issues. re-brokering, theft, etc...

 

[artmax]

The result of this ruling will mean every freight broker will be required to have a “defensible vetting process”. Making a couple of calls to the references provided by a potential new supplier will have be replaced by a much more stringent and in depth process. What concerns me is the ever present possibility of “double brokering”. As a freight broker, we can, and most do, vet our suppliers thoroughly, however, if that carrier then decides for whatever reason, to re-sell your load to some unknown entity, what good has your vetting process been? We all have provisions in our supplier contracts or on our load confirmations, prohibiting double brokering, but how would they standup in a court challenge? Again, proving that you have been as diligent as humanly possible should go a long in the event of a catastrophic accident….I hope!

Normally, brokers in this industry request driver licenses of the drivers that pick up freight (at least we do). Furthermore we have pretty great relationships with our shippers and it's not a problem for us to ask that only the assigned truck/trailer/driver picks up the freight. Heck - you can even get marcopoint or other ELD-integrated tools to verify the carrier you booked is the one that picks up the freight.

The outdated excuse of "i didn't know he was double brokering" is antiquated and frankly speaking - is being currently addressed by the governing administration. Yesterday is the time of " we told him not to do it - how do we know who picks up our freight" and good riddance to said brokerages that just middle-man freight without adding any value to the chain.

If you're afraid of double brokerers on your load you're not doing your job.

If you don't know who's picking up your freight and if something feels off you don't run a drivesafe check? genlogs? how is that not negligence on the brokers behalf.

 

[Rob]

Normally, brokers in this industry request driver licenses of the drivers that pick up freight (at least we do). Furthermore we have pretty great relationships with our shippers and it's not a problem for us to ask that only the assigned truck/trailer/driver picks up the freight. Heck - you can even get marcopoint or other ELD-integrated tools to verify the carrier you booked is the one that picks up the freight.

The outdated excuse of "i didn't know he was double brokering" is antiquated and frankly speaking - is being currently addressed by the governing administration. Yesterday is the time of " we told him not to do it - how do we know who picks up our freight" and good riddance to said brokerages that just middle-man freight without adding any value to the chain.

If you're afraid of double brokerers on your load you're not doing your job.

If you don't know who's picking up your freight and if something feels off you don't run a drivesafe check? genlogs? how is that not negligence on the brokers behalf.

With privacy laws in Canada carriers are sending you a copy of the DL of their drivers?? Not a chance. Had one American tell me that is the new way told him okay all good click. Want a tracking link sure his personal info address etc, No freaking way. No issue sending a pic of truck at your shippers but no personal info will be transmitted from this office.

 

[loaders]

In 35+ years I can count on one hand, maybe two, the number of times we requested a drivers licence number from a carrier. All of the so called “safeguards” you mentioned can easily be overcome and defeated by a carrier who wants to move your freight on someone else’s truck other than his own. We too have fabulous relationships with all of our customers, but sometimes the load doesn’t originate on their dock. Many times it could be a large DC with a rotating staff of dock workers who are not the least bit interesting in doing anything other that the least amount of work possible. I am glad you have what you believe to be a “fool proof” system of avoiding double brokering, and I appreciate your concern that my system may not be as robust. My point was simply to make people aware that double brokering can and will continue to occur and that this recent court decision makes trying to prevent it, even more important.

 

[youngtea]

Typically if court decisions like this are made with further court cases we will find out what thresholds you have to meet to confirm carrier safety.

With that said I'm shocked that CH Robinson was hiring carriers without checking their safety scores.

 

[Michael Ludwig]

Do you folks remember a couple weeks back when Amazon opened up their supply chain and distribution network to anyone wanting to use it?
At the time I think most people, myself included, thought that it would only get traction amongst mega-shippers and manufacturers.
Well, I'm not so sure now. The Amazon carrier ecosystem covers absolutely everything just brought forward in Montgomery. To my knowledge, I don't believe there is a better carrier and driver vetting and assurance system in the industry.
The benefits of having a trillion dollars to play with, and most of the world's best programmers, I guess !!!
Additionally, this puts the LoadFusion load board in a pretty good spot as well. I suspect it will take LL quite a while to catch up to them if they didn't already have some irons in the fire so-to-speak.
Our world is changing again my friends, and quickly.

 

[Jim L]

Typically if court decisions like this are made with further court cases we will find out what thresholds you have to meet to confirm carrier safety.

With that said I'm shocked that CH Robinson was hiring carriers without checking their safety scores.

CH Robinson is a big behemoth with many different offices in many different locations. Just like everyone else, they have employees, managers and metrics to live or die by. Although all the offices are governed by the head office's corporate policies that doesn't mean a manager or employee might skirt some of the rules to make the metrics work. Below is a link about another ruling showing that a specific employee of CHR was telling the owner of a carrier to create a new carrier every time they got shut down by the FMCSA so that CHR can continue to move the loads with that individual. The document claims that the CHR employee was fully aware that the loads were being hauled by a carrier that was created after the previous carrier was shut down and that loads were double brokered because they were regularly hauling more loads than they had trucks.

Corporate CHR will be tightening things up and making sure that their satellite offices, managers and employees are not allowing this to happen. This bad press is a horrible slap in the face for CHR on how some offices got away with little oversite.

C.H. Robinson gave thousands of loads to double-brokering chameleon carrier: Court docs

A carrier says C.H. Robinson staff told him to create new entities as FMCSA shut down his fleets, and he double brokered and hauled thousands of loads for the broker. After a deadly crash, the carrier's deposition contains disturbing allegations.

www.overdriveonline.com

 

[Burned]

Welcome to operating in the US. If you are a FMCSA approved broker, you have to expect to abide by the US laws. What you have to remember is that if legal action is taken, it usually takes place in the location where the action took place. In other words, if the carrier you hired has an accident in Cincinnati, the action will be in Cincinnati and if you're pulled into the lawsuit, you will be required to be represented there. I do anticipate that in time, in the absence of a FMCSA approved broker, the beneficial freight owner (BFO) will also be pulled into the lawsuit. Lawyers are constantly trying to peel back the onion to find another layer that may have some skin in the game.
Once in a lawsuit, you'll learn very quickly about what is expected. You will receive a statement of claim that will have 30 pages of all the items you should have reviewed before sending this carrier down the road. Yes, it's a boilerplate but if one or more of those items apply, and were overlooked, it will determine the amount of risk you may be facing. They don't care how hard it is to vet the carrier, it's your job to do so with the exact measure that will limit, diminish or extinguish your liability.
Carriers and their insurance companies deal with this all the time. That driver who just got in an accident better be squeaky clean with hundreds of thousands of proven miles driven and no accidents, incidents or tickets. That one overweight fine from 4 years ago will somehow show up and be used against the carrier to show how this driver is inattentive to his job, has a no-care attitude, and is likely the ultimate reason for this accident. It's the same reason why insurance companies are quick to sign off on any claim.
Like I said earlier, it is a very high bar to reach showing that the broker is negligent to a degree that will amount to much. I expect a couple high prolific cases to come forward very quickly that, when complete, will set the basis for case law. The hope is that brokers remain cognizant of who they are hiring and not just anybody and this new ruling will help that.

Thanks for the comments here. Always appreciated.
The experience that I referred to did not involve accident or injury with a carrier, so different scenario. I did deal with a fatality accident in the US involving a carrier that I hired, but it was over a decade ago. An individual had run out into highway traffic and the incident was settled between carrier and customer. Carrier was banned for use by the customer afterwards. As a broker, we facilitated and participated in the process as much as possible but were not held liable. Things are looking quite different now. We have had to deal with numerous cargo theft incidents as well, one perpetrated by a longtime partner carrier. Harsh reality. When requesting our list of required docs from carriers, we often get push back and, when we do, we take a long sideways look at who wants our load.
And what about those shippers who don't secure a load adequately and cause shift to happen, leading to... If a driver is not allowed on the dock, will liability extend to shippers? I agree with; good luck getting shippers to take note of the carrier name that showed up for the load. And, if they do, will they always let you know, at that moment, that it wasn't your guy or gal who showed up? There is the human factor in all of this and we don't live in a perfect world.
But I guess, we need to stick to accidents with injury or fatality. What definitive criteria, on their documents, should we use to disqualify a carrier from our database besides everything being out of date? What specifically will tell us that a particular carrier is more likely to employ drivers who will possibly cause a horrific accident? The risk is ever present and brokers must do their BEST to verify reliability. So grateful that forums like Inside Transport provide a place to share!