The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) recently ruled on two high profile trucking cases.
The first was Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC involving a 2017 truck accident in which a truck operated by Caribe Transport struck Mr. Montgomery’s tractor trailer while parked on the side of the road. As a result of the accident, Mr. Montgomery suffered an injury and had one leg amputated. CH Robinson was brought into the lawsuit under the claim they were negligent in hiring when they brokered the load to Caribe. CH Robinson argued they were exempt from neglect hiring as brokers are preempted by federal law. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court.
In a 9-0 decision, the SCOTUS determined while states cannot interfere with rates, routes and services of interstate commerce, there is a “safety exception” requiring parties to exercise reasonable care in hiring practices. In the majority’s decision, Justice Coney Barrett wrote, “The safety exception saves only a subset of preempted claims: those involving regulations concerning motor vehicle safety. State laws related to motor carrier prices, rates, and services that have no relationships to safety remain preempted.”
The case has been remanded to the lower court to determine if CH Robinson is guilty of negligent hiring.
While most brokers use all the electronic (and paper) tools currently available to vet motor carriers, there is a subset that does not.
The second case was Brock v. Flowers Foods involving whether a last-mile driver of an interstate move, but who never leaves the state, is an interstate or intrastate driver. Again in a 9-0 ruling, the SCOTUS ruled the driver is involved in interstate commerce as the goods originated from or were destined to a place outside the driver’s portion of the move. When deciding whether the move is interstate or intrastate, it is the goods that take precedence over the driver.
This ruling reaffirms 150 years of precedent, and while Brock was not a case involving intermodal trucking, it confirms the movement of ocean or rail containers to or from marine or rail facilities is considered interstate commerce, and the drivers that move them are interstate drivers.