Post-Montgomery: how does a small carrier prove they’re safe

Been thinking about this Montgomery/broker liability thing and how it affects small carriers.

Everybody says brokers should check FMCSA/SAFER, but a lot of good small carriers or newer MCs don’t have much rating history. So what are they supposed to show a broker to prove they’re not a risk?

For owner-ops, small fleets, and dispatchers, curious on how has this case impacted:

- Have brokers gotten stricter with setup lately?
- What usually blocks you: new MC, no rating, low inspections, Highway/RMIS/MCP, FreightGuard/Carrier411, insurance, ELD, something else?
- If you’re clean but Not Rated, what do you use to prove it?
- Would limited ELD/driver behavior data help prove safety, or would that just feel like another data grab?
- What would be a hard no?

 

That makes sense.
For people who want to work with brokers in the meantime, i'm curious to know:

what actually helps get approved? What kind of documentations do brokers currently check now?

 

wow SMART trick. I know a lot of brokers nowadays use technology platform like highway to check for compliance and score carriers. How does that actually work? Do brokers actually trust it and say no to carriers with incomplete history?