JACKSONVILLE, Florida – Knight-Swift Transportation has cut the number of approved carriers in its brokerage network by approximately 70% over the past two years, reflecting a more restrictive approach to carrier selection amid growing concerns over cargo theft, highway safety and potential broker liability.
CEO Adam Miller disclosed the reduction Tuesday during his keynote address at the second annual WEX OTR Summit in Jacksonville, Florida. He said the company has significantly tightened its qualification procedures to ensure that carriers moving freight through its brokerage operations meet stricter standards.
“We’re down 70% from maybe two years ago,” Miller told attendees, explaining that Knight-Swift has become more selective about the carriers it works with.
The move comes as trucking market conditions begin to improve despite relatively weak freight demand. According to Miller, available capacity continues to contract, while national freight tender rejection rates remain elevated.
He argued that stronger regulatory enforcement and more rigorous broker-carrier relationships could help prevent the rapid influx of capacity that has historically followed improvements in freight markets. Such changes, he said, could support a more durable recovery and limit the sharp rate fluctuations that have characterized previous cycles.
The second annual WEX OTR Summit attracted more than 115 participants, including trucking executives, fuel suppliers, technology companies and other transportation industry representatives.
Stricter carrier qualification to combat organized cargo theft
Knight-Swift has strengthened its brokerage carrier qualification requirements over the past three years, partly in response to the growing sophistication of cargo theft operations.
Miller said the problem has evolved beyond isolated incidents, with criminal activity increasingly involving organized networks.
“Cargo theft went from a couple bad actors to organized crime,” he said.
Under Knight-Swift’s current policy, motor carriers must have at least one year of operating history before they can join its brokerage network.
“We wouldn’t allow a carrier to come into our business unless they’ve been active for a year,” Miller said.
He noted that some major freight brokers have historically accepted newly registered trucking companies with limited operating records. Such practices can expose freight movements to fraud, cargo theft and potential claims linked to road safety incidents.
Requiring carriers to demonstrate a longer operating history can give brokers more time to assess their legitimacy and identify potential risks before assigning loads.
The tighter approach also reflects the challenges associated with using external carriers in brokerage operations. These include power-only arrangements, in which a contracted motor carrier provides the tractor to haul a trailer.
For Knight-Swift, Miller said, more rigorous carrier screening has become an increasingly important safeguard as freight fraud schemes grow more sophisticated.
Broker liability could reshape carrier selection
Legal developments involving freight broker liability could further accelerate changes in how companies evaluate the motor carriers they hire.
Miller pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, arguing that brokers could face greater legal exposure when they engage trucking companies with questionable safety records.
“Now you have brokers who have some skin in the game if they’re negligent in the carrier that they hire to move the load,” he said.
The potential consequences could prompt brokers to reconsider practices that prioritize low transportation costs over comprehensive carrier qualification.
Miller said companies may increasingly scrutinize operating histories, safety records and insurance coverage when deciding which carriers are eligible to transport freight.
“If you’re going to be willing to put in, to engage with a carrier that has an unsafe CSA score that’s over threshold, you’re at risk,” he warned.
The Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program, administered by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, uses inspection findings, crash information and investigation data to identify potential safety concerns involving motor carriers.
Miller acknowledged that CSA scores do not necessarily provide a definitive assessment of a carrier’s actual safety performance. Nevertheless, he cautioned that unfavorable scores could become a significant factor in litigation.
As brokers introduce more stringent screening criteria, the number of carriers eligible to haul their freight could fall substantially.
“When we start dialing in these different criteria you should be using to vet your carriers, the carrier pool you can work with is going to be significantly smaller,” Miller said.
Insurance costs and accident litigation add to pressures on the industry
While organized cargo theft is an increasing threat, it is not the only challenge freight brokers face. Miller also warned that large verdicts in trucking accidents and potential claims of liability could raise insurance costs across the industry.
Insurers might re-evaluate their exposure to claims involving motor carriers hired by brokers and raise premiums to cover potential financial ramifications.
“Brokers will have to pay multiples of what they’re paying now to keep the same insurance limits,” Miller said.
Such increases could add another layer of expense for brokerage firms already under pressure to control transportation costs while still maintaining adequate protection against major claims.
Shippers also have concerns of their own exposure in the event a motor carrier’s insurance coverage is not sufficient to pay a large accident judgment.
Knight-Swift has been discussing these issues with its customers as uncertainty over liability and insurance protection increases, Miller said.
“There’s a lot of concern, a lot of discussion with customers around this topic,” he said.
Higher insurance costs, legal uncertainty and stricter carrier qualification requirements could change the commercial relationships between shippers, brokers and trucking companies.
Smaller carriers face tougher road to freight
The stricter qualification standards may hit smaller and newer trucking companies harder as they are more likely to rely on the spot freight market to get loads.
The more selective brokers become, the more difficult it will be for carriers with shorter operating histories or spotty compliance records to secure freight.
The developments could strengthen an existing contraction in trucking capacity, driven in part by stronger federal enforcement of commercial driver’s license (CDL) requirements and other safety regulations, Miller said.
In the past, the industry has responded to periods of strong demand for freight by a rapid increase in the number of carriers in the market. If demand then fails to meet capacity freight rates can plummet, putting operators across the sector under pressure.
Tighter brokerage policies could also create another hurdle to entry, reducing the availability of lower-cost capacity from carriers that don’t meet tighter compliance expectations.
“That’s going to wipe out probably the cheapest capacity, the less compliant carriers out there in the market,” Miller said.
Smaller operators will have to demonstrate they have adequate operating experience, keep acceptable safety records and acquire appropriate insurance cover to be able to compete in a more tightly regulated freight market.
Higher freight rates could be sustained by a supply-led recovery
Miller believes the next trucking market recovery could be less about a dramatic increase in demand for freight and more about a reduction in available capacity.
Stricter enforcement of CDL requirements, more selective carrier hiring, greater focus on safety records and higher insurance costs could all work together to reduce the number of trucks competing for freight.
If these pressures persist, transportation rates could firm even without a sharp rebound in freight volumes.
The market may be different to previous upcycles where rising demand led to rapid capacity expansion that ultimately destroyed rates.
Knight-Swift’s reduction of its approved brokerage carrier pool aligns with a broader trend toward risk management and compliance rather than mere access to trucking capacity.
Longer term impact will depend on the consistency of enforcement measures, the adaptation of brokers’ qualification procedures and the shippers’ reaction to changing transportation costs.
Why it’s important: Even without a surge in freight volume, tighter trucking capacity could help to support higher freight rates and a longer-lasting market recovery in 2027, Knight-Swift’s Miller said. For brokers, carriers and shippers, the combination of increased CDL enforcement, cargo theft risks, insurance costs and potential liability could change the game in terms of access to freight and the economics of road transportation.
