On May 14, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II that federal law does not shield freight brokers from state negligence claims over the carriers they select. The federal preemption defense brokers relied on for years is gone.

That was covered widely as a brokerage story, which it is. What has gone mostly unwritten is how the consequences travel downstream to independent agents, because they arrive indirectly: through which carriers you can actually use, through what your brokerage’s insurance does and does not cover, and through how quickly your compliance support can turn a carrier around.

Most agents are not thinking about any of this, and that is understandable. Freight is busy, capacity is tight, and the ruling did not change anyone’s day-to-day work in an obvious way. But the risk profile of the business changed underneath everyone in May, and agents at brokerages with thin vetting, dated insurance, or slow compliance support are carrying more of that change than they may realize.

This is not an argument that anyone should panic or move their book. It is a set of questions worth asking, and the reasons they are worth asking.

What the Ruling Actually Changed

The Court did not create a new duty. The obligation to use reasonable care when selecting a carrier has existed under common law for a long time. What the ruling removed was a defense.

Before May, brokers in many jurisdictions could have negligent-selection claims dismissed on federal preemption grounds without ever reaching the question of whether their vetting was adequate. Now those claims proceed, and the adequacy of a brokerage’s carrier selection becomes a question for a jury in whichever state the crash happened.

The practical result is that carrier selection has shifted from an operational function to a documented, defensible process. A brokerage that cannot show what it checked, when it checked it, and why it approved a carrier is in a materially different position than one that can.

Worth noting one detail from the opinion itself that the industry is still working through: the concurrence observed that federal law requires minimum insurance coverage for motor carriers but not for brokers. That question is open, and it matters for the section below.

The Carrier Pool Got Smaller at the Same Time

The timing has been difficult. As the legal standard tightened, the supply of easily defensible carriers tightened alongside it.

FMCSA’s registration system has been replaced by Motus, which adds mandatory identity and business verification through third-party identity providers. The stated purpose is reducing fraud and chameleon carriers, which is genuinely good for everyone working legitimately. It also means registration friction that did not exist two years ago.

Enforcement has tightened on several fronts at once, including English language proficiency and licensing, which removed drivers from the pool. And underneath all of it sits a structural problem the industry has lived with for years: a large share of carriers have never had a compliance review, so they show as unrated rather than carrying any rating at all. Unrated is not a failing grade. It simply means no review has occurred. But as one industry analyst put it plainly, an unrated carrier is not a vetted carrier, and a conditional rating from a decade ago is not a vetting tool either.

Put those together and the situation is this: the legal standard for defensible carrier selection went up in May, while the number of carriers a brokerage can defensibly select without doing real work stayed exactly where it was. That gap is filled by vetting capability, or it is not filled at all.

The Insurance Shift Nobody Has Explained to Agents

This is the part of the story with the least coverage and the most direct relevance to you.

Broker contingent auto liability coverage was built for a narrow purpose: responding when a motor carrier’s own primary coverage fails or lapses. It was priced accordingly. After Montgomery, that product is being asked to contemplate a second and much larger exposure, where the broker is found directly liable for negligent selection and the carrier’s primary limits are exhausted by a catastrophic loss. Industry commentary has described that second scenario as reading more like excess coverage than contingent coverage.

The market is already responding. An insurance brokerage reported in its 2026 transportation outlook that the ruling is creating a capacity issue for freight broker contingent liabilities, with markets shifting both appetite and pricing. That comes on top of commercial auto rates that have now risen for 59 consecutive quarters.

Two consequences follow, and both reach agents.

First, underwriters are starting to set expectations about carrier selection as a condition of coverage. Legal commentary on the post-Montgomery landscape notes that some underwriters may require a broker to adopt a particular carrier selection policy to be eligible at all, and that others may offer premium relief for brokerages that adopt specific practices or tools. Your brokerage’s vetting process is becoming an insurance question, not only a legal one.

Second, and more bluntly: if your brokerage’s coverage is inadequate for the current environment and a serious claim lands, the consequences are not confined to a legal department you never interact with. They reach the company’s finances, and a brokerage under financial strain is one where settlements slow down, support thins out, and policies start changing.

Why This Reaches the Agent and Not Just the Brokerage

Three ways, in order of how soon you will notice them.

Carrier Availability and Speed

Tighter vetting standards mean more carriers get declined and approvals take longer. A brokerage with strong vetting tools absorbs that with minimal friction. A brokerage without them has two bad options: slow you down, or approve carriers it cannot defend. Neither is good for you.

Customer Conversations

Shippers are increasingly asking who is hauling their freight and how that carrier was selected. The quality of your brokerage’s answer is now part of your sales conversation, and a vague one costs you credibility with the customer you spent years earning.

Your Brokerage’s Financial Health

Rising insurance costs and a serious uninsured claim both land on the same balance sheet that produces your settlements. Financial stability was always worth evaluating. This is one more reason.

The Honest Counterpoint

There is an argument running through the insurance commentary that cuts against the way a mid-size brokerage like ours would prefer to tell this story, and it deserves to be stated rather than skipped.

The same outlook report suggesting capacity is tightening also suggests the market may consolidate toward larger companies with more developed carrier-screening practices, and that smaller brokers may decide the exposure is not worth carrying. That is a real prediction from people who price this risk for a living.

Our read is that the variable is capability rather than size. Screening practices, documentation discipline, and adequate coverage are things a company either invests in or does not, and there are large brokerages with thin processes and mid-size ones with rigorous ones. But the honest version of this article acknowledges that the prediction exists, and that the right question to ask any brokerage is about what it actually does rather than how big it is.

What to Ask Your Brokerage

None of this requires a decision. It requires answers. Six worth getting:

• What do you check before approving a carrier, and what do you monitor after onboarding? Ongoing monitoring is the practice the new standard is converging on, and a snapshot at signup is no longer the benchmark.
  
• How is carrier selection documented? Assume any load file could be reviewed in litigation years later. Ask what record exists.
  
• Has your carrier selection policy changed since May, and how? A brokerage that made no changes after a unanimous Supreme Court ruling either had excellent practices already or has not engaged with it. Both answers are informative.
  
• What does your contingent auto liability coverage include, and have limits been reviewed since the ruling? This is a fair question, and the reaction to being asked tells you something on its own.
  
• How long does carrier approval take now compared to a year ago? The honest answer reveals whether vetting capacity kept pace with the standard.
  
• If a carrier-related claim landed on one of my loads tomorrow, what happens in the first 24 hours, and who handles it?

If the answers are specific and come without friction, you have useful information. If they are vague, that is also useful information, and worth weighing alongside everything else you know about the company.

Our checklist of what to ask before joining a freight agent program covers the broader set these sit inside, and our article on how freight agents evaluate brokerage stability covers the financial side.

Where Somerset Fits

Somerset treats carrier vetting as a risk function rather than an administrative step, and has for years before this ruling has existed. Agents at Somerset Logistics are not absorbing the cost of that work, and they are not being asked to make judgment calls the brokerage should be making.

If you want to know specifically what we check, what we monitor after a carrier is onboarded, and how our coverage is structured, ask us directly. Those are reasonable questions for any agent to put to any brokerage right now, including this one.

The Point Is Not Alarm

Montgomery did not make freight more dangerous. It made carrier selection consequential in a way it was not before, and the effects are working through the industry gradually rather than all at once.

The agents who will feel this least are the ones whose brokerages were already treating vetting seriously and carrying appropriate coverage.

However, the agents who will feel it most will probably not notice until something specific goes wrong.

The difference between those two positions is knowable, and it takes one conversation to find out which one you are in.

Key Takeaways

• The Montgomery ruling did not create a new duty of care; it removed the federal preemption defense that previously ended many negligent-selection claims before the adequacy of a broker’s vetting was examined.
• Carrier selection is now a documented, defensible process rather than an operational judgment call, and brokerages vary widely in whether they can produce that documentation.
• The carrier pool tightened at the same time through registration changes, identity verification, and enforcement, while many carriers remain unrated because no compliance review has occurred.
• Broker contingent auto liability coverage was designed for a narrower exposure than the one brokers now face, and insurers are reportedly adjusting appetite and pricing in response.
• The effects reach agents through carrier availability, customer conversations about who is hauling their freight, and the financial health of the brokerage producing their settlements.

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