The freight industry is still processing the Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, and one of the first concrete policy responses just landed: Highway is requiring every carrier on its platform to have an active ELD connection by July 5, 2026, or risk getting cut off from broker loads entirely.
This isn't a suggestion. If your ELD isn't connected to Highway by the deadline, your broker connections through the platform will fail. That means no loads from the brokers who rely on Highway for carrier vetting.
What the Montgomery Ruling Actually Changed
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II that freight brokers can be held liable for negligence committed by the carriers they hire. That's a significant shift. Previously, brokers had more room to argue they weren't responsible for what happened after they handed off a load.
Brokers are now on the legal hook for who they put on the road. That changes how seriously they take carrier due diligence — and it changes the commercial leverage that compliance platforms like Highway have over carrier behavior.
According to Highway COO Brittany Graft, brokers using the Highway system may face legal scrutiny if they override ELD requirements in the wake of the ruling. In other words, a broker who manually bypasses the ELD check can't easily claim they did their homework.
What This Means If You're Running Without a Connected ELD
Here's the practical reality: approximately 90% of carriers on the Highway platform were already ELD-connected before the ruling came down, according to Highway. The July 5 mandate is aimed squarely at the remaining 10%.
If you're in that 10%, you have a very short window. The policy was communicated to carriers roughly one week after the Montgomery decision, and the deadline lands on July 5. That's not a lot of runway.
If your ELD is already connected and active on Highway, you likely don't need to do anything. But it's worth logging in and confirming your connection is live — not just installed, but actively transmitting and verified by the platform.
Why Platforms Like Highway Are Now the Enforcement Layer
This is the bigger-picture story. The Montgomery ruling didn't create a new government enforcement mechanism. It created private legal liability. And when brokers face liability, they turn to the platforms they're already using to manage carrier relationships.
Highway's business is built on carrier identity verification and compliance monitoring. The Supreme Court just made that service more commercially essential overnight. Brokers who previously treated ELD visibility as a nice-to-have now have a legal incentive to treat it as mandatory — and Highway is responding to that demand by hardening its own requirements.
Expect other compliance platforms to follow. If Highway is moving this fast, others will be watching closely and making similar calls.
What You Should Do Right Now
If you're hauling loads through brokers who use Highway, check your connection status today — not Thursday. The July 5 deadline is hard, and the consequence (failed broker connections) is immediate and financial.
More broadly, the Montgomery ruling is a signal that broker due diligence requirements are going to tighten industry-wide, not just on one platform. If you're running 1–5 trucks and relying on broker freight, your compliance posture is now a direct factor in your load access. Carriers who make themselves easy to verify will have a competitive edge. Carriers who don't will find doors quietly closing.