Today’s ruling by SCOTUS on freight brokers being held responsible to vet carriers has been welcomed by many, including myself, as a much needed change to hold everyone with freight shipments responsible for safety. Others see it as the end of the small carrier.
Back in Oct of 2025 Craig Fuller compared the 100,000 truck crashes in America everyday to a plane crash everyday and asked why we accept it?
“These statistics translate to a disturbing reality: the odds of being killed by a commercial truck are approximately 20 times greater than dying in a commercial airline crash. If we had a commercial airplane crash every single day in the United States, the public would be outraged and there would be immediate federal intervention. Yet, we see the equivalent in highway fatalities from truck crashes, and it barely makes the evening news.” – The Growing Problem of CDL mills Oct 25th 2025
And then there is the otherside…
I can kill spiders in my home with a flame thrower, but that does not mean it is a good idea. https://t.co/4nrIgmj0Zx
— Kevin Rutherford / Let’s Truck 🇺🇸 (@lets_truck) May 14, 2026
One of the last jobs I worked in the oil industry was hauling bitumen from Conklin, AB. Before I could go on site I needed fire retardant rain gear, steel toed muck boots, and a full face shield, all gear I have not specifically required before, other than the face shield. This gear was over $1,000 and rates for this run were low, hence it my oil hauling soon ended. When I arrived for my site orientation I asked why I needed FR rain gear and boots, this is what I was told:
“You probably won’t need it. We have drivers coming up here who barely speak English and this is their first trucking job, there are 2 or 3 spills a day when the drivers disconnect the oil hose before they close the valve. They cover their truck and themselves with oil. We have to clean them up before they can leave site. If they are wearing rain gear they can just peel it off and leave.” Bitumen is 70 to 90 degrees celsius.
Even in the Alberta oil patch where people make there fortune everyday, there is still absolute disregard for human life in the pursuit of cheaper freight rates.
Today’s 9-0 ruling by SCOTUS holds everyone involved responsible for safety, they can no longer ignore the plane crash everyday or peel off the rain gear to drive home. Now it is on them as well. I can only hope a smilar ruling is on the horizon in Canada.
That should read “100,000 truck crashes in America every year”.