Higginbotham converts its transportation specialty practice into a full division, which the broker says gives the team greater capacity to invest in transportation-specific staff, services and industry initiatives. Higginbotham says the change comes as trucking companies, freight brokers and insurers face a convergence of legal, insurance and operating pressures, among them a US Supreme Court decision of 14 May. In Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC, a unanimous court held that a negligent-hiring claim against a freight broker is not preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA), because a state’s authority to regulate safety with respect to motor vehicles extends to requiring a broker to use ordinary care when selecting a carrier. The decision reversed the Seventh Circuit. Higginbotham says the ruling exposes brokers to a risk of being held responsible for harm resulting from accidents involving carriers that they select. Brent Allred, managing partner and transportation division leader at Higginbotham, says: "After Montgomery, transportation brokers need to think more carefully about their own exposure. That may affect the insurance they carry, the requirements they put on the trucking companies they work with and, ultimately, the shippers whose freight is being moved. It could have a ripple effect all the way through the chain." Higginbotham says fuel, payroll and insurance, often a trucking company’s largest individual costs, are all under strain, while motor carriers must navigate legal and regulatory environments that shift across state lines. The broker addresses those pressures at its biennial ReFuel Leadership Conference, held on 27 and 28 October in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Joe DiPaola of US Marine Insurance Group speaks on the Montgomery ruling and its potential effect on the industry. Other sessions cover claims, compliance and the changing legal environment, including a panel of leaders from the Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama trucking associations on cross-border co-operation between neighbouring states. Allred says: "The goal with ReFuel is to get motor carriers, insurance carriers and other people across the industry together to bridge some of the gaps between them." The practice originated at Memphis-based Lipscomb & Pitts, which partnered with Higginbotham in 2020. Allred, who is based in Chattanooga, took over the practice in March 2021, and 14 employees joined within the first 10 months, more than doubling the team. The group added further specialised personnel and expanded across the Southeast and Midwest before becoming a division in 2026. Higginbotham puts the division at 31 team members with a combined 372 years of transportation insurance experience. Division status also allows the team to run a transportation-specific version of the Higginbotham Day Two Services model, under which claims and loss prevention staff come from transportation backgrounds and tailor their approach to the size, insurance and operational needs of each client. Rusty Reid, chairman and chief executive officer of Higginbotham, says: "Transportation insurance is a highly specialised business. The claims, legal environments, insurance markets and operating risks are different. This team knows what they’re doing, deeply." Higginbotham is an employee-owned insurance, financial services and employee benefits broker founded in 1948 and headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. The Hales Report ranked it the 16th largest independent insurance brokerage in the US in 2026. The broker also runs a captive insurance practice. Its group captive offering covers homogeneous structures, including industry-sponsored association captives, and heterogeneous arrangements, and names medical captive cover among the policies available. Higginbotham also lists a single-parent captive offering.
