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On The Desk

Broker Liability

Penske request for en banc hearing gets pushback from victim’s estate

Both sides in Crane v. Liberty Lane have now briefed the Fifth Circuit on whether it should rehear the case en banc, after a three-judge panel overturned a district court win for the Penske companies and held Penske Logistics vicariously liable for a 2018 crash that killed Lyndon Dean Meyer in Bee County, Texas. The freight moved through a chain: Adient hired Penske Logistics, which gave the load to its brokerage affiliate, Penske Transportation Management; PTM brokered it to carrier Liberty Lane, which in turn handed it to OK Trans, whose driver caused the crash. Penske says it never knew about the double brokering and argues the ruling is the first to treat a company as a “statutory employer” of a truck and driver with which it had no arrangement, communication or knowledge. Meyer’s estate countered last week that the arrangement was simply indirect, which makes no difference under the federal control statute and regulations (49 U.S.C. § 14102 and 49 C.F.R. §§ 376.11-12, 376.22), and that Penske could have secured a compliant lease and exercised the control those rules require. The petition has drawn amicus support from a joint filing by the American Trucking Associations and Truckload Carriers Association and another from the Trucking Industry Defense Association, and trucking defense lawyers are watching closely because the panel’s reasoning could widen liability for companies at the top of a brokering chain.

John Kingston  |  October 12, 2026  |  Read More →

M&A

Wall Street analysts positive on C.H. Robinson deal; S&P more cautious

Analysts on C.H. Robinson’s call after announcing the RXO acquisition raised questions about antitrust, technology integration and RXO’s legal docket, then mostly offered congratulations to CEO Dave Bozeman once they were answered. UBS’s Tom Wadewitz called the deal “bigger than expected.” C.H. Robinson says it will deliver $300 million in synergies, with the deal accretive to earnings within nine months of closing and mid-teens accretive to adjusted EPS in 2028; the combined enterprise value tops $25 billion. UBS saw clear strategic sense and Bank of America held its buy rating while trimming its price target to $203 from $226 for dilution. The market was less enthusiastic at first: C.H. Robinson fell 10.85% to $140.61 Monday and was down another 4.7% to about $134 midday Tuesday, while RXO jumped 22.5% to $28.65 Monday and slipped slightly Tuesday. S&P Global kept its BBB+ rating but moved the outlook to negative over the added debt and a long timeline to close, while Moody’s affirmed Baa2 with no outlook change; C.H. Robinson is pausing buybacks until it reaches a net debt target of 1.75x to 2.25x adjusted EBITDA by the end of 2028. Executives said customer overlap is “de minimis” — C.H. Robinson serves 75,000 shippers and 450,000 carriers versus RXO’s 18,000 and 150,000 — and that the two companies’ last-mile and forwarding strengths complement each other.

John Kingston  |  October 6, 2026  |  Read More →

The Stack

Broker Liability

Brokers Face RICO Suit Over Cheap Freight, but a 2006 Supreme Court Case May Shut It Down

In this contributed commentary, transportation attorney Matthew Leffler looks at the RICO suit six carriers filed Sept. 23 against C.H. Robinson and TQL, which alleges the brokers grew by giving loads to carriers that cut costs with forced labor, fake logs and safety shortcuts. The plaintiffs claim lost bids and squeezed margins: IWX cites about $21 million in missed Driscoll’s revenue, Christenson says revenue fell from $71 million in fiscal 2023 to $50 million in fiscal 2025, and Freymiller lists $51 million in lost sales across 63 customers. Leffler argues the Supreme Court’s 2006 decision in Anza v. Ideal Steel Supply, which barred a competitor’s RICO claim over a rival’s unpaid sales tax because the injury was too indirect, is the key precedent, since the crimes alleged most directly harm drivers, shippers and the public rather than rival carriers. He expects an early motion to dismiss built on Anza, with false-advertising claims possibly surviving, and notes public FMCSA data show the plaintiffs’ driver out-of-service rates are well below average while several have vehicle-maintenance rates above the roughly 22% national figure. He also warns the suit could serve as a roadmap for similar actions against other large 3PLs. These are the author’s views, not FreightWaves’.

Contributed Content  |  October 6, 2026  |  Read More →

ELD & Fraud

ELD Data Needs An Enforceable Standard

This contributed commentary comes from Michael Caney, chief commercial officer of the carrier identity platform Highway, and arrives as FMCSA continues revoking registered ELDs over hours-of-service log manipulation. Caney argues that an ELD connection shouldn’t be treated as a universal endorsement of the provider behind it, and says Highway, which has worked with hundreds of providers over nearly five years, doesn’t charge them to integrate, keeps its own integration requirements, has ended connections with providers still on FMCSA’s registered list, and scrutinizes providers that reappear under a new name after a revocation. He says Highway doesn’t receive drivers’ hours-of-service records and that, in its experience, it hasn’t identified a successful cargo theft in which manipulated ELD data was relied on for a hiring or tendering decision, while stressing that log manipulation still deserves action. Highway is also building a voluntary Certified Partner Network, in which data providers make added commitments to integrity, and backs qualifying loads with a Performance Guarantee of up to $100,000, which he says has paid out once across roughly one million guaranteed loads. The piece discusses Highway’s own products, and the views are the author’s, not FreightWaves’.

Contributed Content  |  October 7, 2026  |  Read More →

Tweet Of The Week

M&A

Radiant Logistics’ latest deal expands its bi-modal broker platform

Radiant Logistics has acquired the Dallas brokerage operations of Whitacre Logistics Services, a unit offering intermodal and over-the-road service that will join Radiant Road & Rail. Terms weren’t disclosed, and part of the price is tied to future performance, as with most Radiant deals. Jeff Vielhaber will keep leading the Dallas operation and will also run Radiant Road & Rail’s new independent agent development program. The business mainly serves building materials, manufacturing and packaging customers, and CEO Bohn Crain said the deal supports growing the company’s bi-modal brokerage platform and adding forwarding, customs brokerage and other services for the acquired accounts. It follows Radiant’s recent purchases of a majority stake in Mexico City’s Weport and California forwarder Transcon Shipping.

Todd Maiden  |  October 7, 2026  |  Read More →

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