Six Carriers Accuse C.H. Robinson and TQL of Racketeering in Texas Federal Suit
The 66-page complaint says the two largest brokers funnel freight to unsafe 'Illegal Carriers' while avoiding motor carrier registration themselves.
Six asset-based trucking companies sued C.H. Robinson and Total Quality Logistics on Sept. 23 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, accusing the two brokers of running racketeering enterprises with what the complaint calls "Illegal Carriers." The plaintiffs, who demand a jury trial, bring the case under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and the Lanham Act, according to the complaint.
The plaintiffs are Stevens Trucking Co., Western Flyer Express LLC and D&M Carriers LLC, doing business as Freymiller Trucking, all of Oklahoma; IWX Motor Freight LLC and Christenson Transportation Inc., based in Missouri; and E.O.S. Inc. of Arkansas. The defendants are four C.H. Robinson entities headquartered in Minnesota and Total Quality Logistics LLC of Cincinnati. The complaint says the two brokers have ranked among the top three U.S. freight brokerages since 2021 and together have taken in more than $103.45 billion in gross revenue since 2022.
The complaint's central allegation is that the brokers win contracts from shippers by presenting themselves as safe and compliant, then hand the freight to carriers that "are anything but," described as fly-by-night companies registered at fake addresses, severely underinsured, staffed through forced labor of foreign drivers, and prone to falsified logbooks and crashes. That arrangement, the plaintiffs say, lets the brokers offer "impossibly low rates" that compliant carriers cannot match and has "cornered the U.S. market in long-haul trucking" for loads over 650 miles.
The plaintiffs allege the carriers in question, with the brokers' knowledge, dispatch solo drivers on loads that require two-driver teams, pushing drivers past federal hours limits, sometimes beyond 20 hours in a day, and fixing logbooks to hide it. The complaint says broker employees joke about the practice online and have nicknamed the typical driver "Strong Solo Sergey."
A second theory targets the brokers' own status. The complaint says C.H. Robinson and TQL operate as motor carriers under 49 CFR 390.5T, using their own trailers, dispatching drivers and taking custody of freight, yet rely on their broker registrations to avoid registering as carriers. As a result, the plaintiffs allege, crashes and safety violations by the carriers they use never appear on the brokers' own safety records.
The complaint names Super Ego as "one of the Illegal Carrier networks at issue" and notes that C.H. Robinson named the company its 2025 Carrier of the Year. It cites a 60 Minutes investigation, a Department of Transportation press release on an interagency trucking fraud crackdown dated Aug. 31, 2026, and the Supreme Court's decision this year in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, which the complaint says allowed C.H. Robinson to be held accountable for selecting an unsafe carrier.
To tie the case to the Marshall Division, the plaintiffs point to broker offices in Plano and Frisco, Texas, and to two shippers: Graphic Packaging International's Texarkana Mill in Cass County, where E.O.S., Western Flyer, IWX and Christenson say they were priced out of freight, and Pilgrim's Pride facilities in Camp County, where Western Flyer says it lost business. The complaint says the division's six counties recorded 1,302 commercial motor vehicle crashes, 28 fatal crashes and 30 deaths from 2022 to 2024. It also notes TQL is already a defendant in a separate crash case in the district, Nunez v. Total Quality Logistics.
The docket shows summonses returned as executed for several plaintiffs as of Sept. 28. No response from either defendant has been filed.
What it means
This is the first suit to turn the broker-liability question into a RICO claim brought by competitors rather than crash victims, and it pairs that claim with an argument that large brokers are really unregistered motor carriers. If the case survives a motion to dismiss, discovery would reach carrier-vetting records, dispatch practices and the brokers' internal communications about the carriers they use. Carriers that compete for long-haul lanes now have a filed template for similar claims, and shippers named in the complaint may face questions about who is actually hauling their freight.
What's next
The defendants' deadlines to answer or move to dismiss will run from service, which the docket shows occurred in late September. The case is assigned to Judge Rodney Gilstrap's court in Marshall, based on the case number suffix. Watch the docket for a motion to dismiss and for any decision on whether the RICO and Lanham Act claims proceed.
Sources
STEVENS TRUCKING CO. v. C.H. ROBINSON COMPANY, INC., d/b/a C.H. ROBINSON WORLDWIDE (No. 2:26-cv-00869) — Court filing (District Court, E.D. Texas), 2026-09-23
Related coverage
New lawsuit approach: accusing C.H. Robinson, TQL of RICO violations — FreightWaves, 2026-09-26