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Let’s Revisit “Negligent Carrier Selection”
What happens when a carrier you select causes an accident that results in the death of a third-party individual?
The truck caused the accident, they’re liable for the death … right?
Yes, they are.
What about the broker? Is he off the hook?
Maybe, maybe not … but for C.H. Robinson, they were taken to court. Initially, C.H. Robinson was successful in fending off the lawsuit.
The Ninth Circuit Court, however, reversed the lower court’s ruling and ruled that C.H. Robinson was negligent in carrier selection in this case.
Here’s what’s ironic about these “negligent selection” cases – the FMCSA is tasked to keep our highways safe, and they have the responsibility to give safety ratings to trucks along with implementing a scoring system.
It’s even been found, however, that there is little correlation between the B.A.S.I.C. scores and highway safety.
For those trucking companies that have not been rated Unconditional or Unsatisfactory and are supposedly “good-to-go”, you would think a broker should not come under attack for being negligent.
Attorneys, however, are using State laws to attack brokers. So, therein lies the problem.
Until a National Carrier Hiring Standard is adopted, brokers may continue to be victims of smart attorneys who know how to take information provided by brokers and use it against them.
The question remains: What SHOULD a freight broker do to avoid negligent carrier selection?
There is so much more to all this. If you’re new to brokering, keep all this in mind and assess your potential liability on an on-going basis.