One Broker Cut 35,000 Carriers From Its Approved List
Landstar's approved carrier list has fallen from more than 100,000 companies to about 64,600 in four years. Here is what the screening actually reads, and where your policy sits in it.
A broker finally put a number on carrier vetting
FreightWaves reported on Monday, August 10, that Landstar has removed more than 35,000 trucking companies from its approved carrier network. The list has fallen from more than 100,000 carriers in the second quarter of 2022 to about 64,600 in the second quarter of 2026, a 35 percent reduction, with the count down another 7 percent year over year in the most recent quarter and 19 percent in the quarter before it. Matt Miller, the company's vice president and chief safety officer, described the four year drop to investors as deliberate work on safety, security and service.
For most of this year the broker liability story has been told through courtrooms. This is the quieter half of it, and it does not arrive as a lawsuit. It arrives as a load board that stops showing you freight.
Why the screening got tighter
Two forces pushed it. The first is freight fraud. Landstar built identity checks, stricter compliance measures and new technology to deal with double brokering and stolen loads, and that work started before the courts weighed in. The second is the Supreme Court decision in May 2026 in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, which cleared the way for negligent hiring claims against brokers. Landstar reported $10.5 million in unfavorable prior year claims adjustments in the second quarter, and three of its five largest claims came out of truck brokerage. Chief executive Frank Lonegro told investors that greater federal clarity around carrier vetting and selection standards would support a more predictable operations, insurance and claims environment.
Read that last part closely. The industry is asking the regulator for a standard, not for relief. A standard means the screen gets more uniform across brokers rather than something you can shop around.
Your liability limit is an admission ticket now
C.H. Robinson raised its own carrier minimum from the federal floor of $750,000 to $1 million, as Land Line reported in June, and stopped working with carriers holding a Conditional safety rating. It also added a seven day waiting period for a newly issued authority and screens out carriers its internal metrics flag as high risk. The company said the carriers it notified represented less than 1 percent of its annual North American truckload volume, which is exactly why the change went unnoticed by everyone except the carriers on that list.
If you are still running the federal minimum of commercial auto liability, understand what actually changed. The limit used to be protection you bought for the bad day. It is now also a number a compliance system reads before deciding whether you get an offer. Most owner-operators overestimate the step from $750,000 to $1 million, because the extra layer only responds in a severe loss, so the premium difference is usually smaller than the freight you give up by not carrying it.
A lapse costs more than the gap it creates
Here is the mechanism small fleets underestimate. A broker does not check your certificate of insurance once at signup. Brokers subscribe to monitoring that pushes a notice the moment a policy cancels, lapses or drops below the limit their contract requires. A cancellation notice for nonpayment that you cure in three days can still deactivate you inside a broker's system, and getting switched back on is a manual request that happens on somebody else's schedule. No trucking policy reimburses the loads you did not get while that was being sorted out. The same holds for motor truck cargo, because a limit that dropped below what a customer contract calls for reads as a failed check rather than as a smaller policy.
Your safety data is read twice now
Your percentiles were already priced into your renewal by an underwriter, and we walk through that in our guide on how a CSA score prices into your premium. The same numbers are now pulled by a compliance team deciding whether to hand you a load. That doubles what it is worth to correct bad data. A violation that belongs to another carrier, or a crash that was not preventable, used to cost you money at renewal. It can now cost you the customer as well, and the correction takes weeks, so it has to start long before you need it.
What to check this week
Pull your declarations page and write down your liability limit and your cargo limit. Pull your safety rating and your CSA data and look for anything that is not yours. Confirm your agent has current contact information so a verification request or a cancellation notice reaches a human the same day it goes out. Then find out what the next limit up actually costs instead of guessing, which is where our breakdown of what commercial truck insurance costs helps.
Get a truck insurance quote in under a minute and we will price $1 million in liability next to your current limit so you can see the real difference, with cargo and physical damage sized to the freight you are hauling right now. Request a quote or call or text 423-264-4255 and we will shop it for you.
Common questions
Do brokers require more than the federal minimum liability now?
Some do. The federal minimum for general freight is still $750,000, and that is what keeps your authority in good standing. It is not what keeps you on a broker's approved list. At least one of the largest brokers in the country now asks for $1 million in liability before it will offer a load, and brokers set their own contract minimums independent of the federal number.
Can I lose access to a broker's freight without doing anything wrong?
Yes. Approved networks are screened continuously rather than once at signup, so a short insurance lapse, a cancellation notice you later cure, or a limit that fell below a contract requirement can deactivate you. Nothing in a standard trucking policy pays for the loads you miss while that gets fixed, which is why it is worth confirming your agent can respond to a verification request the same day.
Does a Conditional safety rating stop me from hauling broker freight?
It can now. At least one major broker has ended its practice of working with Conditional rated carriers, and others screen on their own internal risk metrics. The same rating raises what you pay for coverage, so cleaning up the underlying violations pays you back twice.
How much more does $1 million in liability cost than $750,000?
Usually less than owner-operators expect, because the extra layer only responds in a severe loss. The real number depends on your radius, your commodity, your driving records and your loss history. Call or text 423-264-4255 to get a truck insurance quote and we will put both limits side by side so you can see the difference before you decide.
Ready for a better rate?
We shop A-rated carriers against each other to find your lowest rate, fast. Under a minute to start, and no obligation.
Prefer to talk it through? Call or text (423) 264-4255 and a licensed agent will walk you through your options.