Broker group petitions FMCSA for ‘High-Risk Motor Carrier List’

The Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) formally petitioned the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to provide a public list of trucking companies with risky safety records.

TIA Calls For Public List Of Risky Carriers

TIA President Chris Burroughs announced the formal filing of a Petition for Rulemaking calling on FMCSA to publish a “High-Risk Motor Carrier List.”

The “High-Risk Motor Carrier List” would include carriers that have exceeded intervention thresholds in three or more BASICs within the Safety Measurement System, or that exceed thresholds in any of the most critical categories, including Unsafe Driving, Crash Indicator, Hours-of-Service Compliance, or Vehicle Maintenance, TIA said.

“Providing this information transparently would equip industry participants with actionable data to make more informed decisions and help prevent unsafe carriers from continuing to operate unchecked,” Burroughs said.

Group Says Supreme Court Decision Put “Untenable Expectation” On Brokers

The petition comes after a landmark May 2026 Supreme Court decision that found that freight brokers can be held accountable for negligence under state law in crashes involving the commercial vehicles that they hire.

In a June 9 LinkedIn post announcing the petition, Burroughs noted federal action is needed because brokers now bear the burden of determining whether a carrier is safe enough to work with. He also pointed out that brokers are being forced into an enforcement role.

“The ruling has created a heightened and, frankly, untenable expectation on brokers and shippers to independently determine the safety fitness of motor carriers—often without access to consistent, reliable, or complete data. In far too many cases, a carrier’s safety deficiencies are only revealed after a catastrophic incident has already occurred,” Burroughs wrote.

“Compounding this challenge is the reality that more than 90% of authorized motor carriers currently operate without an FMCSA safety rating. This leaves brokers and shippers in the difficult position of effectively serving as the enforcement arm of the Agency—making critical safety determinations in the absence of clear federal standards or sufficient regulatory guidance. While we recognize that the current Administration has taken meaningful steps to improve oversight and accountability—more than any in recent memory—these efforts will take time to fully materialize,” said Burroughs.

The group is also calling on FMCSA to establish clear steps that the brokers should take when selecting trucking companies. TIA stressed the need for a “clear, uniform federal standard outlining the reasonable steps brokers and shippers should take when selecting motor carriers.”