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Rules · U.S. Supreme Court · 7 minute read · October 20, 2026

What Montgomery v. Caribe means for hiring haulers

On May 14, 2026 the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that federal law does not preempt negligent hiring claims against freight brokers. An injured person can sue a broker under state law for picking a carrier it should have known was unsafe. For anyone who tenders work to outside haulers, the question is now what a court sees when it asks how a hauler was chosen and checked.

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What happened

The case came out of a crash in Illinois. The plaintiff alleged that C.H. Robinson, the broker, negligently selected Caribe Transport, the carrier, despite safety problems on its record. The Seventh Circuit had thrown the claim out in an earlier case, Ye v. GlobalTranz, holding that the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 preempts state claims against brokers.

The Supreme Court reversed that line. Justice Barrett wrote for a unanimous Court that negligent hiring claims fall within the statute's safety exception, which preserves state authority over safety "with respect to motor vehicles." Justice Kavanaugh wrote a concurrence, joined by Justice Alito.

Intrastate loads

The Court left open whether the same answer holds for purely intrastate loads. The part of the statute that covers intrastate broker services has no safety exception, so the preemption defense may still be available there. Most dump truck work runs inside one state, so until a court answers that question, a broker of intrastate hauling cannot count on either outcome.

If preemption survives for intrastate loads, some claims are barred. If it does not, intrastate brokers face the same exposure as freight brokers, with haulers whose authority and insurance sit with a state agency rather than FMCSA. Either way, keep the same record a freight broker now keeps.

A defensible carrier file

Insurance brokers and defense firms describe the same baseline:

• Authority is active for the kind of work tendered, on the day the work is tendered.
• Insurance on file meets the required minimum, and no cancellation is pending.
• No disqualifying safety rating. An Unsatisfactory rating ends authority. A Conditional rating calls for a documented decision.
• The inspection and out-of-service record was reviewed, and any pattern noted.
• For intrastate haulers, the state certificate and the insurance filed with the state agency, such as TxDMV in Texas.
• Dates. When each of these was checked, and what the record said that day.

A carrier packet collected at onboarding shows what was true once. It does not show that anyone noticed when the insurer filed a cancellation six months later.

The 30-day window

When an insurer cancels a hauler's federal liability coverage, it files the notice with FMCSA, and the cancellation takes effect 30 days after FMCSA receives it. The notice is public the day after it posts, so a broker reading the right table has about a month to ask for the replacement or stop tendering. A broker who checks SAFER only at onboarding and renewal usually finds out after the authority goes inactive.

Since FMCSA moved its registration system to Motus in May 2026, insurers have filed 20,782 cancellations, and 8,663 operating authorities have been suspended for having no insurance on file, as of 10/22/2026. How a cancellation becomes a suspension.

Checking current haulers

• Pull the list of haulers you used in the last 90 days.
• Check each one's authority, insurance on file, pending cancellations, safety rating and, for intrastate haulers, the state certificate.
• Write down the date and what you found.
• Decide how you will catch the next change before the hauler's next load, not at renewal.

HaulStanding does the last three daily for every hauler on a watch list, sends an alert the day something changes, and keeps the dated record. Start with one: check a hauler for free.

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