C.H. Robinson Wants a Standard

Happy Hump Day. C.H. Robinson's CEO spent last week on Capitol Hill asking for a federal standard on how brokers vet carriers.

Plus:

• Fuel Surcharges Are Masking Falling Linehaul Rates

• Trump Wants to Ban Diesel Exports

• CBP Can Block Thousands of Shipments Overnight

💡 QUESTION OF THE DAY:

C.H. Robinson's research puts the decline in small and mid-sized brokers at roughly ___% over two years, with another ___% potentially affected if clarity doesn't come.

🍳 WHAT’S COOKIN’ IN FREIGHT

🧾 Fuel Surcharges Are Masking Falling Linehaul Rates. Arrive Logistics' September market update shows spot linehaul rates for van, reefer, and flatbed easing from their summer peaks, with September levels roughly flat versus August. Van and reefer both spiked briefly around Labor Day before fading back within days. But DAT's headline spot-rate averages, which include fuel surcharges, actually rose in September across all three equipment types, as the surcharge increase outpaced the linehaul decline. Flatbed keeps sliding on its own as construction season winds down. Arrive expects linehaul rates to stay close to current levels until the Q4 holiday push, when tightening capacity could send them higher again.

⛽ Trump Wants to Ban Diesel Exports. Trump told reporters at the UN General Assembly Tuesday he's personally pushed his administration toward a diesel export ban as the fuel hit a record $6.52/gallon, up 77% year over year. "I've called for it within my people. I've been talking about it," he said. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is studying whether a full or partial ban is feasible. One catch: a White House official told CNN the same day the administration isn't considering it "at this time." Dallas Fed's Garrett Golding says a ban would tank Gulf Coast prices while spiking them on the coasts that import diesel.

🛃 CBP Can Block Thousands of Shipments Overnight. U.S. Customs and Border Protection started voiding importer-of-record numbers last Friday over bad paperwork. Once a number's voided, nothing can clear into the U.S. under it, even freight already on the road. CBP isn't required to warn importers before pulling the number; notice comes by email afterward. The crackdown falls hardest on cross-border freight from Mexico and Canada, where nonresident importers often list a broker's address in place of their own. Customs brokers face their own exposure too: Diaz Trade Law says a brokerage that reused its own contact info across hundreds of client records now has "hundreds of potential defects."

PRESENTED BY VOOMA

Teams have seen an increase of 0.5-1% in GP, Quote win rates up by 15%, carrier re-use doubling and reps focusing their time on relationships and more strategic work.

Ringing the Bell on Capitol Hill

C.H. Robinson CEO Dave Bozeman met with lawmakers from both parties on Capitol Hill last week, pushing for a federal standard on how brokers vet carriers.

"America really runs on freight," he told Transport Topics. "I'm ringing the bell that this is about commerce, and I'm actually concerned about the impact on commerce."

The Actual Ask

"We were hoping that [the decision] would drive clarity," Bozeman said of Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, the May Supreme Court ruling that stripped brokers of federal preemption against state negligent-hiring claims.

"What the Supreme Court really ruled in Montgomery certainly wasn't in our favor... and that's okay, except they also didn't provide a standard or guidance."

What he's pushing instead is the Motor Carrier Safety Selection Standard Act, which would set a national standard of care for brokers and shippers hiring carriers, something he argues is missing even though FMCSA already rates carrier safety.

"We have to have a standard," he said. "That is not us saying we want immunity from liability. No, we want accountability. Give us a standard."

The Numbers Behind the Push

C.H. Robinson's research puts the decline in small and mid-sized brokers at roughly 20% over two years, with another 20% potentially affected if clarity doesn't come.

Bozeman said C.H. Robinson isn't lobbying alone. "There are a number of voices — from asset carriers, to other brokers, to insurance providers," he said.

"They are all talking about this issue with lawmakers. We need to take that stick-building approach, that one-by-one conversation, and make that a modular approach... to let Congress know this is a bigger issue."

Bozeman said he's already seeing signs the ruling is raising insurance costs across the industry. "These costs... are transitory, and that ultimately goes into the cost to consumers," he said. "We are already sitting on an affordability issue."

Where AI Meets Liability

At a separate industry gathering last week, Prosperio Group CEO Beth Carroll pushed back on the "AI is coming for broker jobs" narrative.

Carroll described Montgomery's effect on the industry as "another whole layer on top of everything."

Post-Montgomery, she argued, the answer to "how did this truck get booked" can't be "AI made the choice." Juries will want a human behind the decision, and the compliance controls to back it up.

Her read on whether carrier-sales roles get automated away: "I don't think so."

PRESENTED BY FREIGHT FLEX

Who's Behind You When a Load Goes Missing?

A stolen load can turn into a lawsuit fast. Agents under a brokerage without a documented compliance program are exposed in ways they weren't a year ago, and insurance costs are climbing.

Freight Flex saw it coming. Chief Compliance Officer Michael Grace leads one compliance organization covering carrier vetting, fraud prevention and insurance. Every carrier is verified before a shipment moves.

Want a program that keeps you and your customers protected? Freight Flex is the place you need to be.

 🌎 AROUND THE FREIGHT WEB

✈️ What's the Commodity? F-14 Tomcat. The direct route for this F-14 haul, from Florida to Colorado, is 1,300 miles. Oversized-load restrictions are stretching it to nearly 2,700, with the truck most recently escorted through Iowa.

🔮 A Podcaster Predicts Trucking's Collapse. Jason Calacanis, co-host of All-In and host of This Week in Startups, told his 1.7M followers there's "no doubt" most of the world's 50M+ trucking jobs vanish within a decade.

🚨 Memphis Cargo Theft Task Force Nets Two Cases, $600K in Losses. A federal grand jury handed down indictments in two separate interstate cargo theft cases the same week: stolen networking gear, TVs, and tires, all moving state to state.

🎯 A Small Slice of Drivers Causes Most of the Crashes. New fleet safety data says the riskiest 10% of drivers account for nearly half of all collisions, and combining risky behaviors quickly compounds the danger.

🚂 UP-NS Merger Clears a Procedural Hurdle. The Surface Transportation Board rejected a motion from major railroads and shipper groups to dismiss the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger application outright, letting formal review proceed.

⚖️ Super Ego's Founder Beats Some of the Charges. A federal judge dismissed several claims against the founder himself, but the network of companies around him is still very much in the fight.

🎣 THE FREIGHT CAVIAR CORNER

Earning the Freight: What separates preferred transportation providers? Hear live from James Hardie & GoodShip leaders on trust, data, and performance.

Register now!

😂 FREIGHT HUMOR

FreightCaviar has partnered with Alpha Staffing & Recruiting, a boutique logistics staffing and recruiting firm, to provide you with available roles in our industry. Click the role to learn more and apply.

• Account Manager

• Dispatcher

• Sales Executive

🎧 THE FREIGHT CAVIAR PODCAST

Thomas Mella, Co-Founder at TrackFlo, and Rich Joseph, Chief Commercial Officer and Co-Founder at TrackFlo, joined Paul-Bernard Jaroslawski and Reed Loustalot on the FreightCaviar Podcast to discuss how TrackFlo helped one brokerage cut track-and-trace headcount by more than half while improving service, what acquisitions like Descartes/Tai reveal about the value behind freight-tech M&A, and why attention and distribution may matter more than ever in an AI-heavy world where almost anyone can build software.

Watch it on YouTube, or listen to the full episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.