Mega-broker C.H. Robinson faces a landmark broker liability case in the Supreme Court, and part of it includes a deposition in which a carrier alleges an employee of the broker instructed him on how to evade enforcement time and time again.
Overdrive obtained a transcript of the deposition of Alexander Delgado, the owner of a series of carriers who says he moved thousands of loads for C.H. Robinson almost exclusively.
In the deposition, Delgado says through a translator that he operated at least four fleets that hauled for the broker, regularly double brokered loads, and when his fleets got shut down, a C.H. Robinson employee repeatedly instructed him to start a new fleet.
The deposition runs counter to C.H. Robinson's public statements in the wake of CBS reporting around chameleon carriers and a 2022 fatal crash involving a C.H. Robinson-brokered load and a Delgado-run carrier.
[Related: C.H. Robinson, Super Ego chalk up 'chameleon carrier' outrage to a big misunderstanding]
Delgado's BLF Truck Transportation double brokered the load to another carrier before the crash killed a family of four on Christmas Eve.
Delgado, in a sworn deposition, said that BLF worked exclusively with C.H. Robinson. Records show, according to lawyers deposing Delgado, that BLF had moved around 900 loads for the broker.
Asked if C.H. Robinson knew BLF would "subcontract" loads to other trucking companies, Delgado suggested they must have.
"Well, I only had one truck, so it was impossible to move all the loads," he said.
Delgado further stated that he would send these "subcontracted" trucks to C.H. Robinson's Miami warehouse, and that the mega broker never raised an issue with him about sending trucks with different a DOT number and name on the door to pick up the loads.
Asked directly about the fateful load that caused the Christmas Eve crash in 2022, Delgado said even though he sent a truck from a company called Unique Freight, C.H. Robinson said nothing of the discrepancy.
Delgado said he kept 8% of payment for the loads he "subcontracted," and that he didn't know what double brokering was. He said he also didn't know what an MCS-90 form was. (It's the federal endorsement required that shows a carrier holds a liability insurance policy.)
BLF wasn't Delgado's first venture that worked with the mega broker, he said. Previously he ran a carrier called JDA Transportation, then JAJ Trucking, then BLF.
JDA Transportation was shut down by FMCSA in 2019, after which Delgado said a C.H. Robinson employee named Thoni Huembes instructed him to just open up another fleet.
Lawyers examined records and said JDA moved more than 3,000 loads for C.H. Robinson, which Delgado said he had no reason to doubt.
[Related: TIA responds to 'chameleon carrier' firestorm around Super Ego, C.H. Robinson]
"What did Huembes tell you to do after JDA got shut down?" the lawyers asked.
"That I should open another company to continue doing loads," he said.
Later, when JAJ was shut down, Huembes gave the same advice, he said.
"I knew that the company was going to be shut down, and I told [Huembes] that it was going to be closed. And [Huembes] said, open up another one," Delgado said at another point in the deposition.
By 2022, Delgado was operating BLF, based at his wife's home address.
At the time of the deposition, on January 6, 2026, Delgado said he'd started a new trucking company, Nes Line Trucking Corp, based about six miles away in the same town in Florida. The fleet remains active with 13 listed trucks.
Nes Line, according to Delgado's deposition, moved loads for C.H. Robinson.
Reached for comment, C.H. Robinson didn't deny its employee had instructed Delgado as described in the deposition, but said it was investigating the matter.
"This allegation comes from a carrier owner whose credibility is in question," the broker told Overdrive. "We are taking all necessary steps to investigate. Any employee who encourages a carrier to obscure or circumvent federal safety regulations is in clear and direct violation of our policies and principles and would be immediately terminated for violating company policy. Such behavior is not tolerated.”
Regarding the idea that C.H. Robinson knew about Delgado's double brokering, or that they must have known given the volume of loads his one-truck operation was moving, the mega broker blamed federal records for being ambiguous.
“The data presented is misleading," the broker said. "Carriers report truck counts to the FMCSA every two years, and it is typical in the meantime for carriers to acquire more trucks as their business grows. It was communicated to us by BLF during the course of our relationship that they were operating additional trucks, which were sufficient to cover the brokered loads. As soon as we became aware they had deceived us and had double brokered a load, we ceased doing business with them and blocked them from any future loads.”
As for if Nes Line is still hauling C.H. Robinson loads, the broker said "no" Thursday, May 7.
In a previous statement on "freight safety and misleading media representation," C.H. Robinson said that only FMCSA could evaluate carrier fitness.
"We rely on the FMCSA’s expertise and proprietary data in vetting and licensing carriers," the broker wrote. "The FMCSA is uniquely positioned to evaluate carrier safety. As a federal agency, it has access to confidential driver records and data that no broker can obtain, giving it the authority and expertise to vet carriers."
As for Delgado saying he'd double brokered loads from C.H. Robinson for years, including the one involved in the Christmas Eve accident, the broker said that's rare and they take steps to fight it.
"We strictly prohibit double brokering," the mega broker wrote. "In the rare cases where a carrier deceptively double brokers, they are immediately and permanently blocked from our systems."
Although the larger Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II SCOTUS case doesn't necessarily hinge on Delgado's deposition or the Christmas Eve crash, at least one Supreme Court Justice, Brett Kavanaugh, suggested "brokers could do more to ensure that carriers are hiring safe drivers who don't have issues with their history."
