🎣 The Shield is Gone

Happy Hump Day. Echo Global Logistics is heading back to court after a 2022 wrongful death case was reopened following the Supreme Court's unanimous ruling that federal law no longer shields brokers from state lawsuits. We break it down in today's feature.

Plus:

• Insurance Premiums Aren't Stopping
• AGX Freight Sues R&R and Huntington
• Walmart Just Closed the Door on Inbound LTL

🍳 What's Cookin' In Freight

📈 Insurance Premiums Aren't Stopping. Trucking insurance has climbed 8.3% per year since 2017, more than double the inflation rate, and insurers are still underwater. Their combined ratio has exceeded 100 every year since 2014, meaning they pay out more than they collect in premiums. So they raise rates to cover losses they couldn't predict. For fleets running 26-100 trucks, costs are already up 50.5% since 2020. With Montgomery vs. Caribe Transport II still working through the 3PL market, no one expects this curve to flatten anytime soon.

⚖️ AGX Freight Sues R&R and Huntington. AGX Freight was a Jacksonville-based broker operating under R&R Family of Cos., the Pittsburgh logistics group that unraveled earlier this year. R&R owned 60% of AGX's parent company, and the two shared an $85 million revolving credit facility with Huntington National Bank. When R&R's finances collapsed, Huntington froze the entire credit line. AGX is now suing both, alleging it ran its books cleanly but lost access to working capital after Huntington "froze advances tied to defaults elsewhere inside the broader R&R lending group." The shutdown left approximately $3 million owed to carriers who hauled freight and never got paid.

🛒 Walmart Just Closed the Door on Inbound LTL. Walmart launched a consolidation program that takes what used to be 42 separate LTL shipments from a single supplier and funnels them into one inbound shipment to a single consolidation facility. From there, only three 3PLs handle the outbound to Walmart's regional DCs: C.H. Robinson, Hub Group, and RJW Logistics. Daniel Garza, who leads enterprise logistics strategy at AT&T, noted on LinkedIn: "Once Walmart controls consolidation logic, freight flow and network timing, suppliers become increasingly dependent on Walmart's network orchestration decisions."

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Echo Just Got Dragged Back Into Court

Echo Global Logistics thought it was done with Angela Fuelling's lawsuit. A federal court dismissed the case in 2024, finding that federal law provided brokers with a full shield from state negligence lawsuits. Echo was out, and that was supposed to be the end of it.

Then the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that federal law does not protect brokers from being sued in state court. And four days later, a federal appeals court reopened the door. Echo is back in court. And it won't be the last broker there.

From a Dusty Shelf to a Broker's Wake-up Call

In January 2022, James Fuelling lost his life on I-85 in South Carolina when a truck booked by Echo plowed into his vehicle during a traffic backup. His widow sued both the carrier and Echo. The sixth-largest freight brokerage in the country argued federal law shielded brokers from state lawsuits like this. The judge agreed, dismissed Echo from the case, and everyone moved on — or so they thought.

That shield doesn't exist anymore. The Supreme Court unanimously wiped it out. And the week the ruling dropped, plaintiff's attorneys were already publishing guides on how to screen every catastrophic trucking crash for broker involvement. Echo's case was one of the first examples they used.

Another 49 Million Reasons to Vet Your Carriers

The $49 million verdict in Texas from a few days ago shows what's now on the table. A jury in Ector County awarded the family of Steffan Mick — a 29-year-old father of two who died when an 18-wheeler turned into his path — $40.5 million in compensatory damages and $8.5 million in punitive damages.

The carrier, OPG Logistics, had no safety program, no driver training records, and no visible presence in the federal carrier database. Put those things together, and you have every broker's nightmare — a carrier that looked fine until it didn't, and a courtroom that's now open for business.

OPG Logistics doesn't appear in the FMCSA database. In 2024, the broker who assigned them a load had a legal shield. Today they don't. And unlike OPG, that broker is almost certainly still in business, and very much reachable.

So What Now for Brokers?

The brokers who come out of this era clean won't be the lucky ones. They'll be the ones who documented every carrier decision before a load moved — safety scores, history, reasonable basis for the call.

Echo had a legal shield. It's now gone. OPG may no longer exist, but the broker who put them on a load is probably still out there. And now so is the liability.

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 🌎 Around the Freight Web

🚨 Cargo Theft Just Hit a Five-Year Peak. Verisk CargoNet reports 2025 was the worst year for cargo theft since 2020, with thieves in 2026 becoming more selective and targeting higher-value loads.

⚖️ Supreme Court Tosses Florida CDL Lawsuit. The Supreme Court rejected Florida's attempt to sue other states over immigrant truck driver CDLs, leaving the federal enforcement path as the only viable route.

💸 Volvo Pays $197M to Settle California Emissions Case. Volvo agreed to pay California $197 million to settle violations involving 10,000 truck engines that didn't meet emissions standards.

📦 Stord Raises $250M to Take On Amazon. E-commerce logistics firm Stord closed a $250 million round to expand its AI-powered fulfillment network and compete directly with Amazon's logistics arm.

🚔 Oklahoma Pulled 600 Commercial Drivers for Immigration Violations. Since April 2025, Oklahoma has apprehended over 600 commercial vehicle operators, with 730 troopers now credentialed to enforce immigration law on Oklahoma roads.

🎣 The FreightCaviar Corner

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Freight Humor