Already involved in a major legal battle before the US Supreme Court, C.H. Robinson is now also facing heightened public scrutiny following a CBS News report focused in part on the issue of “chameleon carriers.”
These are carriers that re-emerge under a new name or structure in order to shed poor safety records. CBS highlighted C.H. Robinson as a 3PL that had worked with trucking companies showing signs of fitting that profile.
The report comes at a particularly sensitive moment, as the Supreme Court is still considering Montgomery vs. Caribe Transport II, a case widely seen as potentially decisive for the future of broker liability in crashes involving injury or death.
C.H. Robinson had originally been named as a defendant because it had hired Caribe Transport II, whose truck struck driver Shawn Montgomery in December 2017 in Illinois. The company was later removed from the case on appeal. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the matter in order to resolve conflicting lower-court decisions on broker liability.
In its response to the CBS report, C.H. Robinson returned to the same core argument it used before the Supreme Court: that it is the FMCSA that determines whether carriers are fit to operate, and that brokers rely on those federal decisions.
The company said it works only with carriers that have been vetted and licensed by the FMCSA. It also emphasised that the agency has access to confidential records and data that brokers cannot obtain, making it the authority best placed to assess carrier safety.
C.H. Robinson further said it has internal technology that immediately flags when a carrier receives an unsatisfactory FMCSA rating, loses insurance, has its DOT number suspended, or loses operating authority. When that happens, the carrier is automatically blocked from the system and can no longer be booked to move freight.
CBS also referenced the widely publicised case of Dalilah Coleman, who suffered devastating injuries in 2024. Her father, Marcus Coleman, was quoted in the report as saying that unless brokers are pursued as well, the same kinds of incidents will continue.
The network also said its reporting found that C.H. Robinson had hired thousands of trucking companies with histories of safety issues, and that dozens of them had hallmarks associated with chameleon carriers.
In response, the company began by expressing sympathy for all families affected by roadway tragedies. It then stressed that the shipments it arranges move overwhelmingly without incident, stating that just one serious accident claim is filed for every 500 million miles driven on customer loads. Even so, the company acknowledged that one accident is still one too many.
C.H. Robinson also pointed to its support for Dahlila’s Law (HR 5688), which passed the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee last month. A companion Senate bill, S 3917, was introduced in February but has not yet moved further. English proficiency for drivers is one of the core issues in the legislation, though the bills do not directly mention brokerage.
In its broader response, C.H. Robinson argued that the recent media focus on freight brokerage is being driven in part by the Supreme Court case, which will decide whether safety accountability remains primarily at the federal level with the FMCSA or shifts toward a patchwork of state-level standards.
The legal question centres on the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (F4A) and its safety exception. At issue is whether brokers fall within the wording “with respect to motor vehicles.” The Supreme Court is expected to issue its decision between now and the end of June.
Across the 3PL industry, two concerns now dominate. The first is obvious: losing at the Supreme Court and facing a sharp increase in exposure to liability claims. The second is more political: that even if brokers win in court, Congress could later amend F4A to make clear that states can pursue safety-related action against 3PLs. The CBS report is likely to intensify those concerns by bringing the issue further into public view.
