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On The Road With Trucker Mouth_ Broker Liability A double sided blade · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

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  US. This welcome to Truckamouth, the
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  Hello, everybody. Welcome.
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  Welcome to my underground studio.
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  I'm truck of mouth and we're back on the road.
• 1:03
  All right. Hopefully this week we can get
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  through this without a lot of technical difficulties.
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  Let me put my goggles on here. Yeah.
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  So this week's topic is, is broker liability.
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  OK? It's been a, it's been a
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  controversy for years about the the liability of the broker as
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  far as the safety, the transportation of the load that
• 1:31
  he that he brokered out. So a lot of this lot of this is
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  actually most of this is, is after in in lieu of the the big
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  Montgomery case that they had where they found a broker
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  liable. And it's it's, it's, it's all
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  coming, it's all coming down now because of several things and
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  I'll get in that. So let's get going.
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  All right. So can a broker be held liable
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  for the negligee hiring negligence, hiring a truck
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  driver for a carrier contracted with causes a crash?
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  So can can a broker be liable because of the carrier he hired
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  to hold a little gun to crash and kill somebody?
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  Now, now that's that's OK. First off, a broker, a broker
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  is, is a a company or a person that has obtained a load from a
• 2:50
  shipper. He's like the middle man.
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  He obtained the load from the shipper and is finding a carrier
• 2:58
  to haul that load. And you know, there's, there's a
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  lot of, there's a whole lot of of a bad actor, bad, bad actor
• 3:10
  brokers out there. I mean, they're out to get their
• 3:12
  buck. They're, they're hired.
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  They're hired any way they can for, for, you know, to get these
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  loads out. And I'm not saying, oh, there's,
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  there's just hundreds of brokers out there.
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  United States and and and it's just coming down to the point
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  now where where they're holding brokers liable for for what they
• 3:30
  for what the broker now now a broker when he hires a trucking
• 3:38
  company to haul his load. OK, he is only he really sees is
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  the Federal Motor Carrier Safety minister FM CSAI got this too
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  low. The FM CSAS reports on them for
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  the safety for the out of service hours for their false
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  reporting logs for being put out of service because of equipment.
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  So they only see a few things and you know, now, now they
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  want, they want brokers to, to look in, look into carriers
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  more. And and actually, I think they
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  should, they want them to look into the trucking companies that
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  they're hiring more because there's a lot of fraudulent
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  chameleon carriers out there, which are trucking companies
• 4:44
  that have been shut down and reopened under other names.
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  And there's all kind of sleazy action going on, man, in the
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  trucking industry. It's a dog eat dog world.
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  I'll tell you what, the transportation industry, wow,
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  man, I'll tell you what. So let's get going with this.
• 4:59
  So can a burger be hired? Hell, I'm sorry, how negligible?
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  I mean, if he's only working on what he has the information he
• 5:11
  has in front of him. But now they're seeing now
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  they're now they're, they're, they're making they're, they're
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  doing certain, there's certain, certain stipulations now where a
• 5:25
  broker just won't hire you. Well, the big ones won't.
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  So what's being argued? The FAA weighed in the Federal
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  Aviation Administration, which has been interpreted in two
• 5:38
  conflicting ways. I'm tongue tied here today for a
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  little bit. I don't know what the hell
• 5:45
  tongue tied here. What they're going going there,
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  this way. Hello.
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  And then this way. OK, so it's got two different
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  provisions here. I'm not going to read them, but
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  one of them, secretary is known as the safety exemption states
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  that the presumption cannot be restricted to safety.
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  Yeah. I can't hardly understand this.
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  So how are brokers going to figure out if a truck driver has
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  an alcohol or drug issue? OK.
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  If that was the case, they would never gave a load to trucker
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  mouth. OK?
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  So listen, I mean, like I said, the brokers are only going on
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  what's what's in front of them. And when you get a loan from a
• 6:29
  broker, OK, you're say you're out, you're out West and your
• 6:33
  trucking company send you out West and they're trying to get
• 6:35
  you back. So they go to a broker, they'll
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  say, OK, call this number, here's your pick up number, ask
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  for this person or whatever. Maybe sometimes they won't ask
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  for the person. So you call the number, you just
• 6:47
  get a hold of the person. This is time consuming, it's
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  pain in the ass. You get a hold of the person.
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  He can say what's your tractor number, what's your carrier,
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  what's your tractor number, your trailer number, OK, your pickup
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  number, which is the 10 digit number, blah, blah, blah.
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  He might ask a few other questions and then you get and
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  then he gives you the name of the company.
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  I guess you already have the pickup number and then the, the,
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  the, the address and all that. And then you he asked you like
• 7:19
  how many hours you got left for that day and all that.
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  Anyway, so then you get assigned to load.
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  OK, so brokers are part of the hiring process of a truck
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  driver's transporting a load. So it goes from the shipper to
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  the broker to the to the to the to the truck driver and to the
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  carrier who who has a truck driver.
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  OK, and I need to start talking more clearly here.
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  I know that. And like I said, they're being
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  sued. States have the right to be sued
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  for negligent hiring. So now what it is, is these
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  carriers, these brokers are going to start doing research in
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  these carriers that contract with them and they're looking
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  into them. And as far as they're, it's just
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  their whole thorough outline of their company.
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  And because if not, their brokers are coming, they're
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  coming back on brokers and and charging them for being part of
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  the wreck. So all a lot of this is, is in
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  lieu of a big landmark nuclear decision against Chapter
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  Robinson, Chapter Robinson is the biggest broker in the world.
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  OK. And what happened there is
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  Chapter Robinson hired a carrier that he's been doing business
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  with whose safety record was an out of service record, out of
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  service numbers and driver out of service roll below, you know,
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  the national standard, which means they were in the they were
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  in the good, they were in the green of it.
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  They were in the green. They were, they were all out of
• 9:14
  green light. So this this, this company
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  hauled this load and a guy got in a multi vehicle crash where
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  it it was, it was a crash. And then that caused him to
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  crash and somebody was killed. And they came back on Chapter
• 9:31
  Robinson for a $600 million settlement.
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  And, you know, I don't, I don't think that's right.
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  Chapter Robinson was only going on what they knew.
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  And, yeah, the nuclear verdict. Chapter Robinson's good.
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  I I worked a lot with Chapter Robinson.
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  They're they're pretty good. So let me get to this here, I'll
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  find this information. I got it written down, but also
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  got to hear this. OK, so, so Judge Brett
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  Kavanaugh, which probably heard that name already in the news,
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  question how brokers are supposed to know everything
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  about a truck driver using in this proficiency as an example,
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  how a broker's going to figure out, do truck drivers have a
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  drug and alcohol issue? How they going through that?
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  They don't have numbers. They don't have numbers on every
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  driver, OK, We got to pause here.
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  They don't have numbers on every driver.
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  They have numbers on the carrier, OK.
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  And you know, they have a safety record and and they have
• 10:44
  different different violations, feeding violations of things I
• 10:50
  got there. But you're long as that long as
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  that's below the the line, you know, they're in the green, then
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  they can hire them. So, but now I guess these
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  brokers are, and I'll get to that.
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  They're doing some things. But yeah, they, they, they,
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  they, they, they went against Chapter Robinson for a $600
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  million verdict charging them they were liable for, for this
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  crash. Now, it, it didn't all go on
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  them, OK. It was like 45% the driver's
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  fault, 45% the driver's fault. It came down like 23% of Chapter
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  Robinson's was at fault. So then, so then there's all
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  kind of stuff going on right now where different states are doing
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  this, different states are doing that.
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  When it comes down to it is it is there some states are saying
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  they can be liable, some states are saying they can't be liable.
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  All right. So what it's coming down to is
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  these brokers, these big brokers are, are they're doing research,
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  they're getting more into the carriers that they they contract
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  with. And because if they don't, they
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  could be, they can be shut down and, and the broker himself or
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  herself can be liable. So what what it is is, is see
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  you have a safety rating, you have to be pulled over by the
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  dot and a safety inspection be done when you're going through
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  the when you're going through the scale house.
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  It's kind of hard. I'm trying to explain this to
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  someone who actually doesn't go to the industry so they can
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  understand this. So they're going through a scale
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  house. You see them on these big
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  highways, all the trucks pulling in, they get pulled out back and
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  they go through the safety, the safety lane and they get under
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  air. Check the brakes and your logs
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  and the tires and you know, all kind of stuff.
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  And then you get, you do good, you get a good safety ringing on
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  that. But but you can't just, you
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  can't just ask to be pulled in there.
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  You don't want to be because you might be, you might be a little
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  bit heavy or something like that.
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  You don't want to messing with you.
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  So the FMCSA, the Federal Motor Care and State Administration,
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  they vent these, they vet these people, which means they do the
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  stats on on the safety rating of them, of the carrier.
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  You know, all, all the numbers in the out of service
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  violations, safety violations, all that.
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  And, and you know who is the carrier, who's the carrier?
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  The second gets the government. They're only going by what they
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  know what they're seeing. But see, these, these, these,
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  like I said, these, these, these, these bum brokers, these
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  bum brokers or they're, they're, they're hiring these carriers
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  that, that, you know, that, that let's say chameleon carriers
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  that they're, you know, popping up or they've been shut down for
• 14:05
  safety reasons. They're popping back up, which
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  you should be able to, you should be able to find out that
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  if it was under a different name or something.
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  I mean, they reopen their name now.
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  I can see, you know, sometimes, you know, the the broker, they
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  they put you under the gun. He'd be like, well, you know,
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  the originally post should be there this time.
• 14:26
  Well, you can work a lot of burgers you can work with now.
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  I had them already put it off just because I wanted to go
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  somewhere and relax. I had to put it off.
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  So the next morning and then I got something from the company.
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  Well, you know, well, something blah, blah, blah.
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  Well, you got to go through. You come to us with that first.
• 14:44
  Yeah. OK, so, but yeah, so it's all
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  coming down from that landmark division landmark decision from
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  chapter Robinson's the and and and Robinson right away.
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  Is is is appealing it right away.
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  So they're appealing that. And it's, it's, it's, it's,
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  it's, it's, it's in litigation and government, like everything
• 15:13
  with trucking man, this is, this is a real politically motivated
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  industry. There's so many, there's so many
• 15:22
  laws and sections of things you wouldn't believe.
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  That's why I'm tongue tied here this morning.
• 15:27
  Here. I, I, I apologize for the
• 15:29
  beginning of the show. So all right, so, oh, wait a
• 15:42
  minute. So we're going to go to a little
• 15:48
  break here and like, I'm back. It's more on the.
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  The station where our veterans voices are heard.
• 19:48
  MBR talk. Hey, thanks for supporting our
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  channel by watching and listening.
• 19:53
  Find us on the. Web at NB Radio.
• 19:55
  Dot. Hello everybody.
• 20:00
  Welcome back to Trucker Mouse Underground Studio.
• 20:02
  Today we're talking about broker liability and yeah, it's a real
• 20:09
  complicated issue, man. It's it brings it.
• 20:13
  For anyone who's who's just tuning in or who's not one of my
• 20:17
  followers here, a broker, someone that that acquires a
• 20:22
  load from a shipper and finds a carrier to haul the load.
• 20:26
  OK, He's like the middle man between the shipper and the
• 20:29
  carrier, which is the trucking company.
• 20:31
  OK, so this broker liability transparency and and to recap,
• 20:38
  you know, brokers have largely dodge dodge lawsuits alleging
• 20:43
  they negatively hired unsafe murder carers if obvious serious
• 20:46
  crashes. A handful of federal courts have
• 20:49
  put them on the hook creating a patchwork of liability
• 20:57
  proceedment. In May, the Supreme Court
• 21:01
  finally gave the trucking industry much needed certainly
• 21:03
  in the case of Montgomery versus Caribe transport.
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  This is at Montgomery case I was talking about known simply as
• 21:11
  Montgomery, the High Court rule that brokers can be held liable
• 21:14
  for hiring motor carriers that they know should have, that they
• 21:19
  know we're unsafe. Now, if they know we're unsafe,
• 21:22
  yeah, I understand that they know they're unsafe.
• 21:26
  But you know, if, if, if, if, if they're just going on again, if
• 21:31
  they're just going on what the information they have, I don't
• 21:34
  see how they can come back on a broker.
• 21:38
  But they're they're they're look the the big the big boys are
• 21:41
  looking looking in the carriers more that they work with.
• 21:43
  OK, so raps to the decision were swept and wide-ranging.
• 21:51
  Many cheered the ruling, claiming it will be a boom for
• 21:54
  safe carriers as burgers will be forced to stop working with
• 21:57
  cheaper unsafe carriers that put downward pressure on rates.
• 22:04
  OK, so is going to make the is going to make the broker work
• 22:09
  with companies that are more creditable help a little bit,
• 22:19
  come down a little bit here. All right, So, yeah.
• 22:29
  And then that gives me a point. So say you're say you hire a
• 22:33
  call an Uber up to take you somewhere or one of these
• 22:35
  rideshares and and they get in the crack to kill somebody.
• 22:40
  Are you liable because you hired this Uber?
• 22:45
  I mean, you're in the car, he gets in a wreck.
• 22:49
  Are you liable because you hired that Uber?
• 22:53
  That's like a that's like a broker.
• 22:56
  You're you're you're you're you're hiring somebody to
• 23:01
  transport something to cargo, which is me, which is human.
• 23:04
  And they get in Iraq and and you know what they go say, well, you
• 23:09
  should never hired that. Now when you hire an Uber, they
• 23:11
  they have some stats there also safety ratings and and reviews
• 23:15
  about the driver. But you know, who knows what
• 23:17
  that is? Who knows you put that there.
• 23:27
  OK, OK. So the ruling would push any
• 23:32
  carrier with no proven safety record disproportionately
• 23:35
  affecting small carriers and owner operators.
• 23:41
  So you got to have nowadays you got to have a safety rating or
• 23:44
  the big boys ain't going to mess with you and it's going to
• 23:47
  probably come down and no one's going to mess with you.
• 23:49
  But see if you're a small owner operator, OK, And you have three
• 23:53
  trucks and you haven't just so you're starting out and you
• 23:57
  haven't really had pulled over and it got safety, safety
• 24:01
  inspections. You don't have a rating.
• 24:04
  You don't have a rating. OK, so you're you're and it says
• 24:09
  they're going to stop working with carriers that about one
• 24:17
  week every Supreme Court decision.
• 24:19
  Ch Robinson updated its requirements for carriers
• 24:21
  wanting to do do business with the broker.
• 24:24
  These changes include raising insurance minimum rates from
• 24:27
  750,000 to 1,000,000. This is what the trucking
• 24:29
  company is going to have to have to go with these brokers no
• 24:32
  longer working with carriers with a conditional safety
• 24:34
  rating. So you're going to have a good
• 24:36
  safety rating and someone just starting out a small fleet's not
• 24:40
  going to have any safety rating. They've got no safety rating.
• 24:44
  They're going to have a conditional safety rating and
• 24:46
  they're not going to work with ones that have a conditional
• 24:47
  safety rating. The seven day waiting period for
• 24:50
  new carriers. So I understand that.
• 24:52
  So if you're a carrier, you want to go with cheap and heavy with
• 24:54
  the chapter Robinson. That's what we just call them
• 24:56
  cheap and heavy Ch Robinson. They're going to look into you
• 25:05
  for seven days. They're going to look into you
• 25:07
  and see if they will accept you. And I think that's a good
• 25:10
  program that's that's good there.
• 25:12
  And carriers demanding carriers deemed high risk using internal
• 25:17
  metrics not eligible. Yeah, if you're a big dude, if
• 25:21
  they see any stats on you at all, you're not getting loads
• 25:23
  from them. They're like I said, these bum
• 25:26
  brokers are hiring these chameleon carriers, these people
• 25:29
  who can't speak English. Now, if you're a broker, you're
• 25:31
  not going to know if they're speaking English, but but you I
• 25:37
  think this is a good thing that the that they're the brokers are
• 25:39
  doing looking into the carriers. You have all these people out
• 25:43
  there hide all, hide all. And they're still out there.
• 25:45
  The ones with the non domiciled CDLS, they're still out there.
• 25:51
  They're taking them off the road.
• 25:52
  They're still out there. You got whole truck companies
• 25:58
  made-up of these people. Whole truck companies made-up of
• 26:01
  these people. Now if they're broken, you, you
• 26:06
  see it. You see a truck company name.
• 26:08
  You know I'm a bot or something like that and you got it.
• 26:15
  When you talk to the guy, you can barely understand him.
• 26:17
  So what do you think these drivers are going to be like?
• 26:20
  Well, actually in that case, they probably get a a regular
• 26:23
  American to call a broker up and make them sound like they're
• 26:25
  legit. So several other large brokers
• 26:35
  that made changes including Eco, Eco Global Logistics and them
• 26:39
  Wets Group, RTO, Total Quality Logistics and JB and R and JB
• 26:45
  Hunt, but never used another broker, never had another
• 26:49
  broker. Damn.
• 26:53
  RXO was the only one that responded.
• 26:57
  And RXO is following strict industry leading carrier vetting
• 27:02
  processes. So RXO said, because of the
• 27:06
  strong programs we have in place in which our selection are
• 27:10
  vetting, contracting, risk management constantly evolving,
• 27:15
  we have not had to make any specific changes because of
• 27:18
  Supreme Court ruling. We remain committed to
• 27:20
  considering prove our program to deliver even better service for
• 27:23
  our customers. Now they're like they're like
• 27:25
  the five big boys there, I guess in in brokering.
• 27:30
  So, so I mean, I doubt with all kind of bums Roadrunner, I mean,
• 27:36
  there there's just hundreds of bum brokers I dealt with out
• 27:40
  there and evidently, evidently they can get these.
• 27:44
  This damn thing hit me in the head again.
• 27:46
  I'll RIP it off. These they can get these these
• 27:50
  bum carriers cheaper and I guess if the broker gets them in there
• 27:55
  cheaper, they make more money. Now I was trying to figure out
• 27:58
  how that works because you get you get a load from from a
• 28:08
  shipper. OK, here's what it pays.
• 28:11
  Pays $800.00. So that's going 600 miles just
• 28:17
  for say, you know, OK, so I guess the broker gets percentage
• 28:22
  of that. So if he can get a carrier in
• 28:28
  there cheaper and they say that, that, that your, your, your
• 28:32
  independent contractor, your, your, your guy with 123 trucks
• 28:38
  or work cheaper than your big boys like say or not their rates
• 28:41
  must be higher. So, all right, So what is
• 28:51
  considered to be unsafe? Secondly, how much vetting does
• 28:56
  a broker need to conduct to prove that he has done all due
• 29:00
  diligence? He's got to look into them.
• 29:03
  He's got he's got to ask them for their, their reports on, on
• 29:09
  their safety things and their and their all their out of
• 29:13
  service violations and all that. Probably maybe some places that
• 29:18
  they hold air loads for other brokers and that.
• 29:26
  OK, so here we go with this thing again.
• 29:30
  All right, so today it was broker liability and my show's
• 29:38
  only 1/2 hour, so I've got to get going here.
• 29:49
  OK. Thank you for coming along on
• 29:53
  the road. Wait truck around.
• 29:57
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• 30:24
  you listen this week. So pull up a chair and stay for
• 30:25
  a spell. We're heading down the trail
• 30:27
  where good stories dwell.