[Shipping brokers] are the clearinghouse for moving freight. When there is a container to pick up, in most instances, that request goes to a broker to find a freight line or company to come get the shipping container. Sometimes people get confused that trucking companies own the semi-trailers, and in most cases, they do not. […]
Up to today, trucking companies bore the liability for anything that happened with their vehicle or driver during. Brokers had always claimed immunity from any liability as they were a step removed from ownership. All they did was scheduling – pick up a phone and schedule with Company A or B to get a load from here to there. There were ways to know if said company was in full compliance with DoT regulations, had safety violations, and had paid their insurance bill, but zero impetus for a broker to check.
The trucking company was just another name in the book, willing to deliver for the price quoted.
A unanimous decision from the Supreme Court today has changed that dynamic and sent a seismic shock through the entire trucking industry.
“…an extinction event for 30-50% of all freight brokers.”
Well that’s step one, taking out the garbage brokers.
But you still have the multitude of shadow companies that own the trucks, which is problem 2… it could be solved by linking DOT numbers to VIN numbers so you can’t peel the problems off the truck by switching numbers after an incident.
brilliant suggestion. which is why it aint gonna happen. not ‘part of the plan’.
the ‘plan’ being to CREATE the opportunity to take over trucking, part of which using the trick you describe.
So is the passenger in a cab now responsible for accidents? Sounds very similar.
It’s more like the owner of the cab company can’t just throw up his hands when he finds out the driver of his cab is useless, dangerous and unqualified. So what typically happens is the cab company stops being a shit and gets better drivers. We’ll see.
Back in the 1980’s … a General Contractor we were working with on a huge multi family project went bankrupt after he absconded with a large $$sum$$ of project funding. A week later he was in our office asking for our services on a new project … under the GC license of his brother.
Nothing as sophisticated as this trucking scam … but essentially the same concept … which is pretty much what organized crime has always done. Keeping the crime all within the family
I don’t know who it is, but somebody in the Trump administration knows the fastest way from A to Z and it’s not going through the entire alphabet.
aka … breaking free from the silos of bureaucracy.
And Gavin Newsom thinks himself so clever … as do an entire cadre of leftist judges.