Writer’s block.
It’s one of the countless things that separates (differentiates) me from AI.
On this cloudy Friday morning, I have no idea what to write in this blank space — and I’m okay with that.
Stay human, my friends.
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Moving on, here’s the supply chain and logistics news that caught my attention this week:
- Supreme Court rules trucking broker can be held responsible for using dangerous [carriers] (CBS News)
- Half of Cargo Theft Cases Now Linked to Trusted Carriers (SupplyChain247)
- Desert Discovery Reveals $1 Million Lego Cargo Theft (Transport Topics)
- Crucial cargo theft bill clears House hurdle (The Trucker)
- 90% of brands analysed in 2025 recorded at least result consistent with prohibited cotton, up sharply from 64% the previous year (Oritain)
- Companies Are Getting Tariff Refunds. Here’s What They Plan to Do With the Money. (WSJ – sub. req’d)
- Court Halts Order Finding New Trump Tariffs Unlawful for Now (Bloomberg)
- Perfectus Aluminum Inc. and Related Companies Agree to Pay $549.5M to Settle False Claims Act Allegations Relating to Evaded Customs Duties
- SAP Unveils the Autonomous Enterprise
- project44 Launches Autopilot to Cut Freight Costs, Improve Data Quality, Optimize inventory Levels, and Accelerate Cash Flow
- Amazon rolls out 30-minute delivery on thousands of groceries and essentials
- The New Route Around Hormuz Involves a Massive Convoy of Trucks (WSJ – sub. req’d)
- Cass Transportation Index Report April 2026
Armageddon for Freight Brokers? Not So Fast.
The big transportation news this week was the unanimous Supreme Court ruling – as reported by Transport Topics – allowing a lawsuit against freight broker C.H. Robinson to move forward in a negligent hiring case.
Here are more details about the case from the article:
The high court ruled unanimously in favor of Shawn Montgomery, who lost part of his leg after a truck operated by Caribe Transport II hit his tractor-trailer on an Illinois highway in 2017. In addition to suing Caribe, he sued C.H. Robinson, which brokered the load.
Montgomery’s attorneys said the Caribe truck driver had been cited for careless driving in another crash months earlier, and that the carrier he worked for had been involved with at least three crashes in a span of about five months.
Montgomery argued that C.H. Robinson should share liability because it hired the carrier despite these issues.
In a statement following the ruling, C.H. Robinson said that while it is disappointed with the outcome, “it respects the Court’s ruling and remains committed to safety, service, and compliance across the nation’s transportation network.”
Not surprising, some on LinkedIn and elsewhere are already predicting the demise of many freight brokers as a result of this ruling.
The actual impact is a bit more nuanced.
At its core, the case addressed a relatively narrow legal question: Can plaintiffs bring state-law negligent hiring claims against freight brokers, or does federal law shield brokers from those claims?
The Court ruled that those claims are not federally preempted.
If you’re interested in all the legal background, I recommend reading “The Montgomery Panic Is Wrong” — a LinkedIn article published last month by Felipe Capella, the CEO of Loadsmart, who was a practicing lawyer for more than a decade.
At the end of the article, he writes the following:
If [the Supreme Court sides with Montgomery], expect insurance premiums to keep climbing, large brokers to tighten vetting standards further, and the bar for new brokerage entrants to keep rising. The downstream effect nobody is talking about: tighter broker vetting compresses freight access for the smallest, newest, and most marginal carriers, which is a real industry consequence that goes beyond the legal question [emphasis mine].
And in a LinkedIn post yesterday after the ruling, Capella wrote, “The brokers panicking today built their model on a federal shield they didn’t fully understand. The brokers staying calm have been operating as if Montgomery had already won.”
So, is this Armageddon for freight brokers? Not really, except maybe for brokers who have never taken carrier vetting seriously and have not made it a core operational discipline.
What does this mean for shippers?
Over time, if brokers indeed tighten carrier qualification standards, this will effectively reduce available capacity, which will place upward pressure on rates (along with rising insurance costs).
At the end of the day, the golden rule in the industry remains the same: Trust, but verify.
And with that, have a meaningful weekend!
Song of the Week: “I Can Take the Sun Out of the Sky” by Brigitte Calls Me Baby
