WITH regulatory and legal risks changing the shape of transport, shippers are being warned of perilous and costly ways American truckers will soon be hired.

The days when a shipper or consignee could tell a trucker to deliver within a certain narrow time frame or face penalties or loss of business are coming to an end, reports Newark's Journal of Commerce.

Such was the news imparted by several speakers at the recent Transportation and Logistics Council's conference in Florida said, reported Journal of Commerce.

Under a driver coercion regulation now on the federal drawing board, that shipper or consignee could be accused of "coercing" the truck driver to violate federal safety rules to make an on-time delivery, an offence that will carry a stiff penalty.

The rule-making in question would hit offenders, including motor carriers, logistics operators and shippers, with penalties of up to US$11,000 per offence, and possible revocation of the operating licences.

Mandated by Congress in the last highway bill, the rule-making would extend the regulatory authority of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) well beyond the motor carriers who operate trucks and hire or contract with drivers, to brokers, forwarders and shippers.

"If you ask a driver if he has enough hours (of service) left to deliver your load and he says No, and you refuse him the load and ask his company to send another driver, that could be considered coercion," said Transportation Intermediaries Association CEO Robert Voltmann.

Not asking the driver about his or her hours and expecting him to stick to a contractual delivery time could lead to a charge of coercion as well, he said.

The Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) initiative also came under fire, with speakers and attendees calling the FMCSA's release of a smartphone app sharing CSA scores "a poke in the eye."

Transportation organisations, including TIA and the American Trucking Associations, consider the scores unreliable, an opinion shared by the Government Accountability Office.

The use of those CSA scores in accident litigation could have the most significant and widespread impact.

The days when a freight broker or shipper has thousands of small carriers to choose from and a one-size fits all procurement contract are numbered, according to attorney Hank Seaton with the Seaton & Husk law firm.

This is because brokers and shippers face greater liability in negligent hiring lawsuits following accidents.

"Courts are treating shippers who hire their own motor carriers more like brokers, and brokers may be responsible for motor carrier negligence," said shareholder Ronald Bair in the Bair Hilty law firm who has defended companies against negligent liability lawsuits.

Mr Bair believes the increasing vicarious liability of shippers, as well as concerted union-backed efforts to change national worker classification laws, spell an end for the use of owner-operators by motor carriers and brokers "as we know it today" within a decade.