On May 14, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II that freight brokers can be held liable for negligent carrier selection.
The standard: ordinary care using publicly available FMCSA data.
Every broker in America now needs to prove what they checked, when they checked it, and what they decided — at the specific moment of dispatch.
This tour takes about 3 minutes. You'll see real data from a real carrier — the same output your legal team would review.
Every carrier vetting starts with a USDOT number. The broker enters it at dispatch time — or their TMS calls our API automatically.
Default: 63391 (R+L Carriers — 10,000+ trucks, one of the largest in the US)
FreightProof queries 8 government data sources simultaneously:
| Source | What | Records |
|---|---|---|
| FMCSA QCMobile API | Live carrier profile + BASIC scores | Real-time |
| FMCSA Census (az4n-8mr2) | Carrier registrations | 4.4M |
| FMCSA Crash File (aayw-vxb3) | Crash records with VIN | 3.6M |
| FMCSA Inspections (fx4q-ay7w) | Roadside inspections | 4.9M |
| FMCSA OOS Orders (p2mt-9ige) | Out-of-service orders | 441K |
| FMCSA Violations (8mt8-2mdr) | Violations by BASIC | 6.7M |
| FMCSA Revocations (sa6p-acbp) | Authority actions | 1.5M |
| FMCSA Insurance | BIPD + cargo coverage | Real-time |
Total: 21+ million government records cross-referenced in under 3 seconds.
Every factor Justice Barrett identified in the Montgomery opinion is checked and scored:
Why "MEDIUM" for a major carrier? R+L Carriers is one of the largest LTL carriers in the US. The absolute crash count is high, but the per-unit rate must be evaluated against fleet size. A broker who selects R+L and documents this context is demonstrating exactly the kind of care Montgomery requires.
The risk score is not the defense. The documentation of the risk score is the defense.
FMCSA evaluates carriers on seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories. FreightProof pulls all seven and shows whether each exceeds the intervention threshold.
| BASIC Category | Percentile | Threshold | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unsafe Driving | 42% | 65% | Below threshold |
| Crash Indicator | 88% | 65% | ABOVE THRESHOLD |
| HOS Compliance | 61% | 65% | Below threshold |
| Vehicle Maintenance | 55% | 65% | Below threshold |
| Controlled Substances | — | 65% | Insufficient data |
| Driver Fitness | 38% | 65% | Below threshold |
| Hazardous Materials | — | 56% | Insufficient data |
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Total crashes (3-year window) | 3,907 |
| Fleet size | 10,296 power units |
| Crashes per 100 units / year | 12.65 |
| National average (large fleets) | ~0.6 per 100 units/year |
This is what a courtroom exhibit looks like. Every number is sourced from the government. Every number is covered by the hash. Change one digit and the verification fails.
Everything you just saw — the carrier profile, BASIC scores, crash rate, insurance, red flags — is combined into a single JSON snapshot. That snapshot is hashed with SHA-256.
This is not testimony. This is mathematics. No witness needed. No vendor cooperation needed. Anyone with the snapshot JSON and a SHA-256 calculator can verify the record independently.
A hash proves the data wasn't altered. But how do you prove the data came from the government and not from your own database? Source provenance.
This proves four things:
| DNS resolution | We contacted the real FMCSA server (verified IP) |
| Encryption | The connection was secured with TLS 1.3 |
| Content integrity | The exact bytes we received are fingerprinted |
| Timing | Server headers + our timestamp prove when |
Every API call to every data source gets a source proof. One vetting typically generates 4-8 source proofs, each independently verifiable.
The SHA-256 hash of the vetting record is submitted to OpenTimestamps, which anchors it to a public blockchain.
This is the same technology that secures billions of dollars in financial transactions. For FreightProof, it serves one purpose: proving the vetting happened before the accident, not after.
Everything gets sealed into a Data Wallet — a write-once, self-contained, independently verifiable document.
The Data Wallet is your Exhibit A. It contains everything opposing counsel would demand, with self-proving integrity. Hand it to your attorney. Hand it to the court. Hand it to opposing counsel. Let them try to challenge it.
Montgomery asks about the carrier. But plaintiff attorneys ask about the specific truck and specific driver on the load that crashed. Today, brokers have nothing.
The FSMA 204 model for freight: The carrier doesn't share raw CDLs or maintenance logs with every broker. They prove they collect and maintain the data. The proof is attested and scored. On incident, full records are produced within 24 hours — sealed at time of collection, not assembled after the fact.
Daily pre-trip inspections (49 CFR 396.13) become cryptographic evidence. The driver photographs the truck, checks the items, and the walk-around is hashed + Blockchain-anchored. If there's an accident 12 hours later, the walk-around proves the truck's condition was documented before the incident.
Every other tool on the market produces mutable database exports. FreightProof produces self-proving, Blockchain-anchored, independently verifiable courtroom exhibits.
$10 / due diligence record
Your defense costs less than your coffee.
The median nuclear verdict costs $36 million.
Sign up → 30 free credits | $10/record | 100-pack: $900 ($9/ea) | 500-pack: $4,000 ($8/ea) | Enterprise: contact us
No subscriptions — buy credits when you need them
Questions? steven@sprague.com
FreightProof by Rootz Corp — freight.rootz.global