Blog

Rules · Fifth Circuit · 5 minute read · October 22, 2026

Crane v. Penske: what a broker can show it knew at tender

On August 4, 2026 the Fifth Circuit revived a negligent selection claim against a broker. It did not find the broker negligent. It sent the claim back to the trial court, where the question is what the broker knew when it tendered the load, and whether it can prove it.

Something wrong? Let us know.

What Crane decided

A tractor-trailer headed to Laredo, Texas, to pick up a load for Adient jackknifed, crossed into oncoming traffic and killed Lyndon Dean Meyer. His family claimed PTM hired Liberty Lane "without first investigating its qualifications as a motor carrier." The trial court had thrown that out as preempted by federal law. After Montgomery v. Caribe, the Fifth Circuit reversed and sent it back, without deciding whether PTM owed a duty under Texas law. It also held Penske Logistics could be liable for the driver's negligence as his statutory employer.

As Chartwell Law put it, "The Fifth Circuit did not find that PTM negligently selected Liberty Lane." What the case shows is what gets examined next: the broker's record of the carrier on the day of the load.

A hauler's record changes between loads

A hauler that cleared onboarding in March can have a cancellation pending in June. An insurer's cancellation takes effect 30 days after FMCSA receives it, and with no replacement on file, FMCSA suspends the authority. Insurers have filed 20,782 cancellations since May 1, 2026, and FMCSA has suspended 8,663 authorities for no insurance on file since June, as of 10/22/2026. Among dirt, rock and aggregate haulers, fewer than half of those suspended had come back by mid-October, a median of 22 days later (how long haulers go without insurance).

A check at onboarding shows what was true once. Only monitoring shows what was true on the day of the load.

A lookup after the crash can't rebuild it

By the time a suit is filed, the same hauler may be reinstated with a new insurer, or carry a rating it earned after the crash. A SAFER lookup shows the record the day it's pulled. Chartwell's read:

"Current FMCSA information is not necessarily a substitute. A carrier’s safety profile can change significantly over time."

What the tender-day record holds

• The record that day, with the time. Authority, insurance on file and any pending cancellation, safety rating, and the state certificate for intrastate work.
• What changed since the last load, and what dispatch did about it.
• The criteria and each exception. Written once; for each exception, who approved it and why.
• Whose truck ran. Crane's truck came from a carrier two hand-offs from the broker. In dump truck work that's the subhauler: the USDOT number on the door, not only the hauler you called.
• The record as it was. A later check adds to it; it never replaces it.

"Waiting until litigation is underway to reconstruct that information may mean that critical evidence is no longer available."

How HaulStanding helps

That record comes from watching, not from a lookup. A defense against a negligent selection claim rests on showing what the broker checked, when, and what it did about what it found. HaulStanding builds that record as the work happens:

• Dated every day. Each watched hauler's federal authority, insurance filings and pending cancellations, safety record and state certificate, read daily and kept as read.
• Alerts in time to act. A cancellation, suspension or rating change posts as an alert the day it appears, before the next load.
• What the team did. Alerts marked handled and notes sent to the hauler, each with who and when.
• Ready to produce. The proof log exports by date range as a PDF or CSV.

Put every hauler and subhauler on a watch list before the next load. HaulStanding records what the public records showed and what the team did; it doesn't decide whom to hire, and whether a broker acted reasonably is a state-law question, decided case by case.

Do we have something wrong? Let us know.