THE DAILY

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

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The Daily

Montgomery case puts a premium on carrier safety

Five days after the Supreme Court’s most consequential freight industry ruling in years, Samsara is already treating it like a growth signal.

The May 14 decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC was 9-0, written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett. The court held that state-law negligent hiring and selection claims against freight brokers are not preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act, because they fall under FAAAA’s safety exception. The implication is direct: brokers who select unsafe carriers can now be held liable in state court. Prior to the ruling, most brokers operated under the assumption that FAAAA preemption insulated them from such claims. That cover is gone.

For Samsara VP of Product Arpan Podduturi, the ruling doesn’t require a product pivot — it validates the platform that already exists. "The standards for vetting carriers have shifted," Podduturi told FreightWaves. "They aren’t optional, they’re existential. Beyond the financial risk, it’s just the right thing to do. Every 13 minutes someone dies in a traffic accident." The company’s Connected Operations Platform, which covers telematics, AI dashcams, ELD compliance, and driver coaching, was already positioned as the objective, data-backed alternative to gut-check carrier selection. Post-Montgomery, that positioning carries legal weight it previously lacked.

The data behind the platform’s safety claims is substantial. Samsara devices log more than 100 billion miles annually, and customers who implement the full stack, including real-time alerts, AI video safety, and structured driver coaching, see crash rates fall nearly 70% over 30 months. Coaching, not alerts alone, is the compounding variable. "People think of safety programs as a set of alerts, but that’s not true," Podduturi said. "Safety coaching is what really changes the culture, and when you change the culture, that’s when you get massive benefits." Customers using both telematics and video-based safety have seen first-year crash rate reductions exceed 60%, with AI safety tools pushing that figure toward 75%.

Post-Montgomery, the safety data Samsara generates serves a second purpose: litigation defense. A broker that selected a carrier using objective safety scores such as documented coaching histories, CSA percentiles, and alert responsiveness has a "reasonable care" defense that a broker who selected on rate alone does not. Carriers with demonstrable safety records now hold a pricing advantage in lane selection, not just an operational one. The ruling turns what was a best practice into a business imperative, and Samsara’s existing product is the most direct answer to the demand the Supreme Court just created.

So What? The Montgomery ruling converts carrier safety documentation from a best practice into a legal imperative. Brokers who cannot show a rigorous, data-backed vetting process are now exposed to the same verdict risk as the carriers they dispatch. Audit your carrier selection criteria now. Every decision in your load board history should be something you’d defend in front of a plaintiff’s attorney — because that is now a realistic scenario.

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Top Stories

Union Pacific accuses BNSF of raising grain switching rates to block competition

BNSF eliminated the longstanding $105-per-car unit grain train switching rate at five locations in Nebraska, Iowa, and Texas, forcing UP customers onto the $295-per-car merchandise rate, a 281% increase. At Grand Island, Neb., rates jumped as much as 472% for most shipments. UP filed a 129-page complaint with the Surface Transportation Board on Friday, alleging the changes came "with little advance warning" after UP had won or grown business from shippers on BNSF-served lines. BNSF called the complaint "without merit," arguing it adjusted decade-old switching rules that no longer reflected actual operations.

So What? Grain shippers at the five named terminals (Hastings, Havelock, and Lincoln, Neb., Island Park, Iowa, and Saginaw, Texas) are absorbing the new rates right now, not after the STB rules. Watch for emergency relief filings. The context matters: the pending UP-NS merger is in active regulatory review, and BNSF has been an opponent of the combination.

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House releases BUILD America 250 Act with $240B for trucking, rail, ports and aviation

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released the text of the BUILD America 250 Act on Monday — a bipartisan five-year reauthorization totaling $674 billion, with $240 billion in authorized and direct spending across transportation modes. The bill allocates $110 billion for highways and bridges, including $40 billion specifically for bridge repair and rehabilitation; $102 billion for freight and passenger rail, the largest federal rail investment since Amtrak’s creation; $25 billion for airport modernization; and $17 billion for port infrastructure and dredging. Debate begins Thursday. The current surface transportation authorization expires Sept. 30.

So What? Grant programs like CRISI for rail and PIDP for ports are funded here. This is the lifeblood of project funding for carriers and port operators who’ve been waiting years for federal dollars. Track the markup process closely beginning Thursday. Authorization at this scale is rare, and provisions can move or disappear in committee quickly.

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Freight-related layoffs top 5,100 across 20 states as demand softens and contracts shift

More than 5,183 workers across at least 20 states have been hit by layoffs, facility closures, and contract losses tied to the logistics, manufacturing, and transportation sectors. The largest single reduction: FreshRealm, the California-based ready-to-eat meal supplier, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a 2025 listeria outbreak, cutting more than 1,000 positions; its Tracy, Calif., plant closes permanently June 27. Third-party logistics providers felt the wave too: GEODIS cut 238 in Rialto, Calif.; DSV eliminated 163 in Edwardsville, Ill., after a contract loss; Ryder cut 151 in Green Bay, Wis., after a customer contract wasn’t renewed. Amazon is temporarily closing a 1.3 million-square-foot Florida fulfillment center for a two-year retrofit, displacing 616 workers with transfer offers to other South Florida facilities.

So What? Contract losses at GEODIS, DSV, and Ryder point to freight moving between providers, not evaporating — that volume is landing somewhere. The FreshRealm bankruptcy and automotive supplier closures at Adient and Yanfeng reflect genuine demand contraction in specific segments. Don’t conflate the two: segment softness and customer switching are different problems with different solutions.

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Sponsored By SONAR

BUILD America 250 Act would tighten broker vetting requirements, DataQs disputes and driver drug testing

Three provisions buried in the BUILD America 250 Act’s motor carrier title will reshape operations for carriers, brokers, and fleet managers — none immediately, but all consequentially. Section 5203 (DataQs reform) requires contested safety violations to be labeled as disputed in MCMIS, PSP, and SMS while under appeal, closing the gap that lets unresolved violations affect insurance pricing as if they were final. Section 5006 (broker qualifications) orders DOT to issue a final rule within two years establishing real experience and qualification requirements for broker and freight forwarder officers — requirements that have technically been in statute for years but have never been enforced. Section 5206 (hair testing) sets a one-year clock for DOT to approve hair as a drug testing specimen, contingent on HHS first issuing scientific guidelines. HHS has missed two congressional deadlines on this since 2015. One analyst’s internal comparison found seven of 17 drivers who passed urine testing failed a simultaneous hair test — a 41% miss rate on the federally required method — a figure that matters because hair testing, when it arrives, will shrink the qualified driver pool.

So What? Don’t wait for final rules. Carriers with challengeable violations on their record should be fighting them now — DataQs reform makes that fight cleaner and more visible. Brokers should audit their coverage against actual liability exposure, not the $75K bond floor the statute currently demands. Fleet managers should build hiring plans around a tighter driver pool — when hair testing arrives, the clearinghouse numbers move.

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Sponsored Insight

From the Research Desk

From Our Partners

What We’re Watching

▸ The STB’s timeline on the UP vs. BNSF switching complaint. Grain shippers at the five named terminals are absorbing 281-472% rate increases right now, not after any ruling. Watch for emergency relief filings before month-end. The STB moves slowly; shippers cannot wait for a final decision to protect their operating costs.

▸ Thursday’s House markup of the BUILD America 250 Act. The motor carrier title contains three significant provisions — DataQs reform, broker qualifications, and hair testing — that could be amended or stripped in committee. Monitor whether these provisions survive. The version that passes markup is the version carriers and brokers will be planning around for the next two years.

▸ Craig Fuller and Zach Strickland’s May 21 State of Freight webinar. Roadcheck Week enforcement intensity affects capacity and spot rates in measurable ways — rejection data, OTRI, outbound tender volumes. The May 21 webinar is the first comprehensive SONAR-backed read on what enforcement week actually moved in the market. Register before it fills.

That’s your Daily for today. See you tomorrow.

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