The US Supreme Court recently issued a unanimous decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC that will reshape accountability across the transportation industry, including moving and relocation. In plain terms, the Court ruled that federal law does not shield freight brokers and transportation intermediaries from state negligence claims when they hire unsafe carriers and someone gets hurt as a result. If you’re a company that arranges employee relocations or hires moving services, this ruling is worth understanding. The standard of care that has always defined responsible carriers just became the legal standard for everyone involved in the chain.
What changed – and what didn’t
For decades, brokers and intermediaries in the transportation industry operated under the assumption that federal law preempted state negligence claims against them, effectively limiting their liability exposure even when the carriers they hired had documented safety problems. The Montgomery ruling removes that protection.
What the Court decided is narrow but significant: When motor vehicle safety is involved, brokers can be held accountable under state negligence laws for the carriers they select. The case arose from a trucking accident in which the plaintiff alleged a broker had hired a carrier despite clear safety red flags in its record. The Court ruled unanimously that the broker could not hide behind federal preemption to avoid that claim.
What didn’t change is everything that responsible carriers were already doing. Companies with rigorous driver qualification standards, robust fleet safety programs, and documented compliance records aren’t scrambling to adapt because they already operate the way the ruling now expects everyone to. The law, in this case, caught up to a standard that safety-first carriers have held for years.
What “reasonable care” actually looks like
The ruling puts new weight on a concept that’s straightforward in principle but meaningful in practice – reasonable care in selecting a transportation provider. For companies that arrange employee relocations, that raises a legitimate question: What does due diligence actually look like when you’re vetting a carrier?
At minimum, reasonable care in carrier selection means looking at the right things before signing a contract:
FMCSA safety ratings
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rates carriers as Satisfactory, Conditional, or Unsatisfactory based on compliance reviews and inspections. A Satisfactory rating is the baseline you should expect from any carrier handling your employees’ belongings or their families.
CSA BASIC scores
The Compliance, Safety, Accountability program tracks carrier performance across seven categories: unsafe driving, hours-of-service compliance, vehicle maintenance, controlled substances, and more. These scores are publicly available and tell a more granular story than the summary rating alone.
Driver qualification and screening standards
How does the carrier screen its drivers? What are their background check standards? Are drivers subject to ongoing qualification reviews, or is screening a one-time event at hire?
Fleet technology and monitoring
Telematics, AI-enabled driver monitoring, and real-time fleet tracking aren’t just operational tools, they’re indicators of how seriously a carrier takes continuous safety improvement, not just compliance thresholds.
Award history and third-party recognition
Industry recognition from organizations like the American Trucking Associations and the National Safety Council reflects a carrier’s sustained commitment to safety over time, not just a snapshot.
The reason this matters in the post-Montgomery environment is that companies arranging transportation – including relocation management companies (RMCs) and corporate mobility programs – face heightened accountability for the carriers they put in front of their employees. Selecting a carrier without meaningful due diligence carries a different weight than it did before.
Moving brokers vs. moving companies: Why the distinction matters now
The Montgomery ruling highlights a distinction that consumers and corporate clients don’t always think about when they’re hiring moving services: the difference between a moving broker and an actual moving company.
A moving broker is a middleman. They take your booking and sell it to a third-party carrier, often one you’ve never vetted and may not even know about until the truck shows up. Brokers are required to be registered with the FMCSA, but they don’t own trucks, employ drivers, or control the actual execution of your move. The carrier that shows up is chosen by the broker, not by you.
A moving company (a licensed motor carrier) owns its equipment, employs its drivers, and is directly responsible for the people and vehicles managing your move. When you hire a motor carrier directly, you know exactly who is accountable.
This distinction matters enormously in the context of Montgomery. The ruling places new accountability on intermediaries who arrange transportation, which means brokers who hire unsafe carriers now face potential negligence liability. But it also shines a light on the underlying risk that was always there: When a broker places your move with a carrier you didn’t vet, you lose visibility into the safety standards being applied to your employees, their families, and their belongings.
For corporate mobility programs and HR directors managing employee relocations, this is an important question to ask: Are you working with a broker who places moves with third parties, or a motor carrier with direct accountability for how your move is executed?
How JK is built for this standard
JK Moving Services is a licensed motor carrier, not a broker. Every driver who manages a JK move is a JK employee, qualified under JK standards, and monitored through JK systems. That’s a structural difference, not just a marketing claim.
JK’s safety record reflects decades of sustained investment over its 40+ year history:
- ATA Fleet Safety Award — 10+ consecutive years
- ATA Independent Mover of the Year — 2022
- AMSA Safety Excellence Award — 2022
- NSC Million Work Hours Award — 2022
- Satisfactory FMCSA safety rating
- Samsara AI-enabled driver monitoring: real-time fleet tracking, risky behavior identification, predictive analytics, and immediate driver coaching
“This is a victory for every carrier that makes safety its highest priority,” said Chuck Kuhn, CEO of JK Moving Services. “The ruling underscores that accountability matters and that safety cannot be outsourced – a major concern for responsible transportation firms.”
JK also maintains rigorous driver background screening and annual qualification standards, ongoing safety training, and compliance-focused transportation management practices that go beyond what regulation requires. The Montgomery decision didn’t prompt a review of JK’s operating model because the operating model was already built around the standard the ruling now reflects.
Questions to ask any carrier you hire
Whether you’re evaluating moving providers for an employee relocation program or a one-time corporate move, the Montgomery ruling makes the following questions worth asking before you sign anything:
- Are you a licensed motor carrier or a broker? If they’re a broker, ask which carriers they use, and how they vet them.
- What is your current FMCSA safety rating? Satisfactory is the standard; anything else warrants a harder look.
- Can you share your CSA BASIC scores? A carrier confident in its safety record should have no hesitation.
- What driver qualification standards do you maintain, and are your drivers employees or subcontractors?
- What fleet monitoring technology do you use, and how is driver performance tracked and coached?
The companies with strong answers to these questions have been operating this way for years. The Montgomery ruling just made it easier to know why that matters.