WASHINGTON — New legislation threatens to transform the way truck brokers do business, replacing voluntary vetting practices with a stiff federal penalty for contracting “unsafe” motor carriers.
Introduced by U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., the Patrick and Barbara Kowalski Freight Brokers Safety Act aims to improve roadway safety by holding freight brokers directly accountable for the safety records of the trucking companies they hire.
The bill is named after the parents of Shannon Mertz, who were killed in a crash involving a trucking company that had several safety violations.
“Companies, like the one involved in my parents’ accident, must be held accountable,” Mertz said in a statement. “My family and I are thankful for Congressman Moolenaar’s responsiveness and efforts to prevent another family from experiencing the heartbreak we have felt.”
Specifically, the bill mandates a 10% surcharge on contracts with trucking companies that have three or more Department of Transportation violations within a five-year period. It would also grant the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration unprecedented authority to investigate freight brokers and impose operating requirements after fatal crashes.
For the brokerage sector, the legislation represents a move toward federalizing accountability for safety, and could radically shift how commercial freight is assigned and priced.
If passed, the measure could have a sizable impact on smaller brokers who may struggle with the data-intensive requirement to track every carrier’s violation history over a five-year rolling period.
Brokers push back
The Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), which represents freight brokers, has spent nearly a decade lobbying for standardized fitness legislation to counter conflicting standards that brokers face in court following highway accidents.
The Motor Carrier Safety Selection Standard Act, reintroduced in September, requires that brokers and shippers contract only with trucking companies registered with FMCSA, hold a valid operating authority, and meet the required insurance thresholds.
It also directs FMCSA to create a public-facing website confirming which carriers meet these requirements.
But while the TIA-backed legislation aims to clarify when a broker has done enough to ensure a carrier is safe, the Kowalski Act focuses on holding brokers directly accountable for the actual safety history of the companies they choose to employ.
“While the legislation introduced by Congressman Moolenaar is well intentioned, it would place freight brokers in an untenable position – effectively requiring them to police the motor carrier industry and significantly increasing exposure to litigation nationwide,” TIA President and CEO Chris Burroughs told FreightWaves in an email.
“Freight brokers cannot reasonably be expected to ensure the safety of motor carriers when more than 92% of carriers remain unrated, and the FMCSA has not conducted compliance reviews for the vast majority of them. Moreover, motor carrier safety metrics tied to the CSA [Compliance, Safety, Accountability] initiative have been plagued by longstanding inaccuracies and data inconsistencies, leading FMCSA to abandon the system for the foreseeable future.”
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