Carrier Assure founder and CEO Cassandra Gaines has released a new industry framework designed to help brokers, shippers and freight forwarders navigate one of transportation’s most challenging questions: What constitutes a reasonable and defensible carrier-selection process?
The framework, known as The CAVRA Standard, is a 54-page guide built around four principles — carrier assessment, verification, risk and accountability. Gaines unveiled the document during a webinar attended by more than 800 transportation professionals and formally released it Wednesday.
Gaines said the standard was developed in response to growing uncertainty throughout the freight industry, particularly following recent court decisions that have intensified scrutiny of carrier-selection practices.
“Since the Supreme Court ruling on the Montgomery case, the industry has been stressed out,” Gaines said in in a LinkedIn post. “They all want to know what is a reasonable, defensible standard for selecting a motor carrier.”
The CAVRA Standard is intended to serve as a practical benchmark rather than a rigid checklist. Gaines describes it as a framework that transportation companies can use to compare against existing carrier-vetting programs or as a foundation for creating their own policies.
Moving beyond authority and insurance
One of the central themes of the framework is that modern carrier vetting requires more than simply confirming a carrier’s operating authority and insurance coverage.
According to the CAVRA Standard, a reasonable carrier-selection process should also consider factors such as safety data, roadside inspection history, fraud indicators, identity verification, double-brokering risks, shipment suitability and operational red flags.
“The question is not whether every decision was perfect,” Gaines wrote in the framework. “The question is whether the decision was reasonable based on the information available at the time.”
The standard establishes nine core principles for carrier vetting, including continuous monitoring, documentation of exceptions, identity verification and controls designed to prevent double brokering and fraud.
Among the recommendations are minimum authority-history requirements, verification of insurance coverage, review of safety ratings and roadside inspections, and escalation procedures when carriers present elevated risks. The framework also emphasizes documenting carrier-selection decisions and maintaining written carrier-vetting policies.
Designed as an industry resource
Gaines said she intentionally made the framework publicly available rather than positioning it as a proprietary product.
A transportation attorney, expert witness and risk management adviser, Gaines said her experience working with brokers, carriers, shippers, insurers and law firms convinced her that the industry needed a shared resource for carrier selection.
“I don’t believe that a good transportation provider should be in the dark on how to select a motor carrier in a defensible and reasonable manner,” Gaines said. “An industry standard shouldn’t belong to a big association or shouldn’t belong to the carriers or the brokers or the plaintiff attorneys or defense attorneys.”
The document includes an example carrier-vetting policy that companies can adapt to their own operations, though Gaines stresses that organizations should review any policy with legal counsel and tailor it to their specific risk profiles and freight networks.
Addressing a changing risk environment
The release of the CAVRA Standard comes as transportation companies face increasing challenges from cargo theft, fraud, double brokering and litigation involving motor carrier selection.
Gaines said that carrier vetting should be viewed as a risk-management exercise rather than a search for perfection. The framework repeatedly emphasizes that companies should focus on making reasonable, well-documented decisions based on the information available at the time.
“The goal is not perfection,” Gaines said. “The goal is a reasonable, risk-based, defensible carrier-selection process.”
She said the ultimate objective of the CAVRA Standard is to bring greater clarity, consistency, transparency and confidence to carrier-selection decisions across the transportation industry.
“Good brokers deserve a clear standard,” Gaines said.
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