The logistics industry has spent the last two decades chasing speed.
As former defense counsel for logistics companies, we saw the Amazon effect up close. Every participant in the logistics chain was pushed to move freight faster and cheaper to satisfy a market trained to expect everything now.
Freight brokers were the lynchpin. Like travel agents, they found the carrier willing to move the load at the lowest available rate. Too often, however, the lowest rate came from the carrier with the least experience and the weakest safety culture.
On May 14, 2026, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC, holding that negligent hiring and selection claims against freight brokers are not preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (“FAAAA”).
This decision should raise the standard for brokers and carriers alike: stronger vetting, better safety controls, and real accountability designed to keep unsafe carriers off the road.
The decision is significant because trucking safety is rarely determined by a single moment behind the wheel. Serious crashes often have deeper roots. They are the product of business decisions made months or years earlier—who was hired, how drivers were supervised, what safety systems existed, whether maintenance was prioritized, and whether production pressures eclipsed safety concerns.
That is why safety culture matters. A strong safety culture is reflected in hiring practices, driver qualification procedures, training, maintenance programs, hours-of-service compliance, supervision, crash review processes, and a company’s willingness to place safety ahead of revenue. Companies that invest in safety typically leave evidence of those efforts. Companies that do not often leave a different trail.
At O’Neill Friedman, our background as former national defense counsel for motor carriers, brokers, and logistics companies provides a unique perspective. We understand how freight moves, how transportation companies evaluate risk, and where critical safety information is often found.
When we investigate a transportation case, we look beyond the crash itself. We examine the carrier’s safety record, hiring decisions, training practices, maintenance history, dispatch communications, broker-carrier relationships, and corporate safety culture. The goal is simple: determine whether the crash was an isolated mistake or the foreseeable result of systemic safety failures.
In many cases, the most important evidence is not found at the crash scene. It is found in safety manuals, hiring files, training records, maintenance logs, internal emails, and the decisions companies made long before the collision occurred.
Accountability begins with understanding how the system works. Meaningful change occurs when companies throughout the logistics chain recognize that safety is not a cost center—it is a core business function. And when safety is sacrificed in the pursuit of speed, the consequences can be devastating.
