As a leader in fraud prevention and safety policy at C.H. Robinson, my team and I have had a front row seat to a shifting risk landscape. One of the most significant shifts stems from the Supreme Court’s decision on Montgomery vs. Caribe Transport.
With a Lean operating model grounded in continuous improvement, we scrutinize the measures we take to increase safety and mitigate risk for our shippers and our carriers every day. Prior to the Court’s decision, we had already been executing ongoing enhancements to our safety practices—and the ruling helped clarify where we could take further steps to strengthen our systems and drive safer outcomes.
So, what does the decision mean overall?
For us, it reinforces our commitment to keep raising the bar on safety, because being a leader demands it. For shippers, it means they can rely on a rigorously vetted carrier network, backed by the scale and technology needed to navigate change while delivering consistent support.
For the industry, the ruling clarifies that brokers like C.H. Robinson, along with carriers and shippers, may be held liable in lower courts for trucking accidents. The case does not clearly define when and how that liability is applied. The Supreme Court, in its decision, expects all brokers to exercise a standard of “reasonable care” in how they select carriers to transport freight. But it does not deliver a clear definition of what that standard entails.
As a result, brokers and shippers must interpret the ruling and implement processes that reflect “reasonable care.” Incorrect interpretations may not only mean potential accident liability claims in the millions of dollars—they might even hamper progress towards safer roads.
For that reason, it’s important that we get this right. Safety is core to how we operate at C.H. Robinson. Our employees and their families travel these same roads, and our business depends on safe freight delivery.
That’s why C.H. Robinson has taken additional steps forward in our carrier safety and vetting processes. We aim not only to meet the standard of “reasonable care,” but to set a higher one. We want to continue building the best, most dependable safety practices in the business, because every single trucking accident is one too many.
How we anticipated necessary changes and implemented them
At C.H. Robinson, we were confident in our position in the Montgomery case and expected to win. However, applying our Lean operating model, we’re always prepared for multiple potential outcomes, so that we can adjust quickly when the operating environment requires it.
That’s why, even before the Montgomery ruling, we saw just one serious accident claim per 500 million miles traveled on our loads. And it’s also why we were able to implement additional measures to our already robust carrier certification process less than a week after the Supreme Court’s decision.
C.H. Robinson’s updated carrier certification criteria
There isn’t one single factor that determines whether a carrier is safe. With that in mind, C.H. Robinson, based on the biggest data pool in the business and the best experts’ judgment, has built a dynamic set of carrier safety and risk criteria that we re-evaluate on a regular basis. We do this to ensure we can offer reliable, low-risk service to our customers and help keep the roads safe.
Today, to be certified to haul freight for C.H. Robinson, carriers must meet the following updated criteria:
- Carrier Authority is active and has been active for 7 or more days
- An FMCSA safety rating of Unrated or Satisfactory; carriers with a Conditional or Unsatisfactory rating will not be certified.
- A minimum of $1 million in auto liability coverage
- Carrier is not identified as high risk through C.H. Robinson proprietary safety analysis, which uses FMCSA BASIC data
Carriers must also meet criteria previously in place:
- Carrier has completed onboarding with Highway, an industry-trusted identity verification and monitoring platform
- Carrier is required to sign C.H. Robinson’s motor carrier contract agreeing to comply with all state and federal laws
- Minimum of $100,000 in cargo coverage
- Carrier passes C.H. Robinson’s additional proprietary background review
- Carrier maintains an approved service delivery score in the areas of: On Time, Tracking Compliance, and Late Bounce, visible on our Navisphere Carrier platform and updated in real-time
- Carrier has no known history of double brokering with CH Robinson; any carrier caught double brokering (or attempting to double broker) is de-certified and permanently removed from our carrier network
- Carrier has a cargo claims rate below our defined threshold, determined by cargo insurance claims history with CH Robinson
- Carrier’s equipment counts operate within our approved thresholds, based on our proprietary tractor count logic
- USDOT number active for carrier associated to tender is not authorized as a property freight broker; C.H. Robinson does not co-broker
Notifications to carriers who are no longer certified to haul freight for C.H. Robinson under these criteria began going out on May 21st. Because our network was already very safe, these updates impacted only a limited number of carriers, representing less than 1% of our annual North American truckload volume.
We know this is difficult for affected carriers, which is why we’ve made it clear that our team is available to answer questions. If they are able to meet these enhanced standards over a period of time, they may be able to rejoin our network after taking corrective actions and being successfully vetted against our enhanced standards.
Our goal: Keep growing the largest, safest network in North America
As I stated earlier, the industry is always changing. But I am confident that with our drive for continuous improvement, C.H. Robinson will continue to lead. This is not the first time we’ve updated our safety practices, and it will not be the last.
Given our unique combination of scale, expertise, technology, and a highly adaptive Lean operating model, no company is better equipped to rapidly adapt to the changing business environment than C.H Robinson. In the end, our goal remains the same: we are fully committed to growing and maintaining the largest supply of safe and reliable carriers in North America and delivering significant value for our customers and for those carriers.
