Supreme Court Rules Brokers Can Be Sued for Hiring Bad Carriers: Here’s How Bestway Approaches Vetting

The challenges associated with vetting carriers are widely recognized in today’s supply chain/logistics industry. But the issue became all the more urgent on Thursday, May 14, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that companies can sue brokers for hiring bad carriers.

The stakes were always high for our clients. Now they’re high for us in entirely new ways.

Bestway has always believed it is critical to take carrier vetting seriously. As trucking becomes more profitable, more players enter the market. We welcome good carriers to the mix, of course, but with that expansion comes more inexperience and more carriers who lack proven track records. It behooves us to go the extra mile to make sure we know who we’re trusting with our client’s cargo.

We have been blessed with a relatively low volume of carrier problems. And while we are as eager to keep learning as anyone else, we would like to share some critical elements of our vetting process that has helped us minimize problems.

Here are some of the essentials:

• Bestway uses a variety of tools, including industry-sourced reviews and technology that looks for discrepancies and red flags. We especially check for issues like VIN numbers appearing on multiple DOT registrations, or common addresses for multiple different companies. These are the kinds of things that can signal reason for concern.

• We meticulously check safety scores and compliance metrics – and we don’t just check once and call it good. We keep checking, because the broader the picture, the better we understand the carrier and how it operates.

• When we see a red flag, we look more deeply. For example, a change in insurance status could alert as a compliance issue. That could be a simple matter that’s easily cleared up, and we want to be fair to good carriers while also uncovering more serious situations. It helps us understand not only what we see, but also why we’re seeing it – and that gives us a better sense of the carrier.

• We talk regularly to dispatchers and drivers. We want to know the people we work with, and we find out everything we can about their experience working with us – and working in the industry in general. Sometimes these conversations tell us we need to be careful about someone. More often they help us understand how to position a carrier to succeed in working with us.

The Supreme Court ruling that is getting so much attention right now emphasizes the responsibility of brokers to exercise “reasonable care” when hiring carriers. Of course, a Supreme Court ruling should not be necessary to tell us to do that.

Every day in the national news, we are hearing about accidents, cargo theft and other incidents that demonstrate why carrier vetting is so important. We all want more carrier capacity, but we cannot compromise on the quality-assurance protocols that protect our clients and their freight.

These are some of the ways we vet our carriers. We’d be happy to hear your thoughts as well.