C.H. Robinson's $604 million thermonuclear verdict after a deadly crash in 2021 has already sent shockwaves through trucking. The huge broker warned of soaring transportation costs, and has already increased ts carrier vetting.
Under Overdrive's recent story about the broker playing the blame game over whether it was negligent in hiring the carrier, or if the carrier's driver was in fact an employee of the broker, one owner-operator offered an illuminating perspective: Blame the ambulance chasers.
Below is comment from Jeff, a leased owner who nonetheless works with a lot with brokers through his carrier. As annoying as many middlemen can be, he sees an entire industry twisted in knots and dragged over coals by plaintiffs and attorneys who see big trucks as big paychecks.
[Related: Brokers' new carrier-selection strategy after $604M C.H. Robinson verdict]
Blame ambulance chasers, not truckers or brokers
While my love of brokers is minimal as an owner -operator, I think these judgments are going to destroy trucking, brokers and the supply chain.
"Four-wheelers" too often drive like fools around big trucks, and truckers are the target for these injury attorneys, simply for the fact we have a big insurance policy, very tempting for these vultures.
Second, there are endless regulations and possible violations that can hit drivers, making truckers look guilty even in accidents that are not really the trucker's fault.
There's one way to boost safety, and that's let the drivers decide when they drive, end these fines in brokers contracts, make FreightGuard slandering illegal if the load was delivered, and pay truckers hourly.
Of course, no politicians are going to support that as the mega carriers and brokers have powerful lobbies that won't stand for that.
Also, these ambulance-chasing frivolous lawsuits a lot of these injury attorneys are filing need to be stopped.
Yes, there are definitely wrecks where truckers are totally in the wrong, but there's thousands of others where there's questionable injuries that are highly exaggerated, if not totally fraudulent, that are driving costs up and giving immoral incentives to attorneys and shady people.
Before suing truckers, it was slip-'n'-fall cases. Before that, dog bites. The ambulance chasers don't care about the fraud, they're the Sal Goodman lawyers looking at those juicy insurance policy limits before they decide if you have a case.
If word got out to this industry of questionable attorneys, doctors and their "clients" that you had to really prove these damages by an independent panel, and if fraud was discovered you'd spend a decent amount of prison time, I'm sure a lot of these cases wouldn't ever get filled.
[Related: Louisiana staged-accident scheme rolls up guilty: Two attorneys, firms convicted at trial]
I'm sorry to the families that have legit cases, but destroying the supply chain isn't the answer.
The more you put brokers in the middle of the relationship between carriers and their drivers, the more drivers are going to leave this already screwed-up industry.
Already counting the time drivers spend in that rig, they're the lowest-paid workers next to the waitress making $2 an hour before tips.
Except a waitress doesn't have to deal with an insurance company, carrier, broker and state, local and feds all looking to hang her for anything that goes bad in 120,000 miles a year.
God bless you drivers out here risking your a$$ for the meager pay you get.
[Related: Insurance to defend against the downhill threat of post-crash litigation]
