ELD Mandate: Highway Requires All Carriers Connected by July 5

Highway, a carrier compliance and verification platform, has issued a July 5 deadline requiring all carriers in its network to connect their Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) to its system. This enforcement represents a structural shift in how brokers must validate carrier legitimacy and manage liability exposure following the Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, which clarified that brokers can be held liable for incidents involving carriers they hire.

The mandate reflects heightened risk management in the freight industry. According to Highway's COO Brittany Graft, approximately 90% of carriers on the platform were already connected before this requirement, but the remaining 10%, previously tolerated due to broker discretion, now face mandatory integration. The ruling has fundamentally altered broker risk calculus: brokers can no longer comfortably override ELD connection requirements without facing potential legal scrutiny in court, as they must now defend any decision to work with unverified carriers.

For supply chain professionals, this signals accelerating digital infrastructure adoption as a risk mitigation strategy rather than optional convenience. The deadline creates near-term compliance pressure for smaller carriers, while brokers must now enforce stricter onboarding standards across their networks. This structural change reduces operational flexibility but increases transparency and fraud prevention, a trade-off that liability concerns have made economically rational.