Carrier Vetting Report → methodology
Methodology and sources
Everything on this site and in every report is derived from FMCSA public records republished on the US DOT open-data portal. This page names each file, its cadence, and exactly how the flags are computed.
Sources
| Dataset | What we take from it | Cadence | Current vintage |
|---|---|---|---|
| FMCSA Company Census File | USDOT registration status, legal/DBA name, physical address, phone, email, company officer, MCS-150 date/mileage, fleet size, docket, entity types, cargo, prior-revoke and undeliverable flags | Weekly full pull; changes diffed | 2026-09-14 |
| FMCSA Licensing & Insurance — Carrier (2026 system, all with history) + FMCSA Licensing & Insurance — Carrier (all, through 2025) | Operating authority per docket: type, status, BIPD/cargo/bond required vs on file, pending applications and revocations | Daily (2026 system); legacy file frozen at 2025-12-31 | 2026-09-18 |
| FMCSA L&I Authority History | Grant, reinstatement, revocation and withdrawal events with dates | Daily | 2026-09-18 |
| FMCSA L&I Insurance History (2026 system) + FMCSA L&I Insurance (all) | Insurance filings: form, type, insurer, coverage, effective and cancellation dates | Daily | 2026-09-18 |
| FMCSA L&I Revocation & Suspension Notices | Revocation and suspension notices with serve and effective dates | Daily | 2026-09-18 |
| FMCSA Out-of-Service Orders | Out-of-service orders, reason, rescission date | Daily | 2026-09-18 |
| FMCSA SMS BASIC measures (property, A/B) + FMCSA SMS BASIC measures (property, C) | BASIC measures, percentiles, alerts; inspection and OOS counts | Weekly | 2026-09-13 |
4,502,467 USDOT registrations in the data, 2,237,648 active. We do not use the QCMobile API or any paid data.
How the flags are computed
- Blocking — USDOT inactive; no active authority on any docket; BIPD required and none on file; broker bond required and none on file; an out-of-service order not rescinded; an involuntary revocation notice in the last 180 days.
- Check — authority granted under 90 days ago; BIPD on file below the required amount; cargo filing required and missing; a cancellation scheduled or effective in the last 90 days; MCS-150 older than two years; undeliverable address; FMCSA's prior-revoke link; contact details changed in the last 120 days; three or more other active USDOT numbers on the same phone, five or more at the same street address; any SMS BASIC alert; vehicle OOS rate over 35% or driver OOS rate over 12% on five or more inspections.
- Note — authority under a year old; registration under 180 days old; a rescinded OOS order; one or two shared-contact matches; no MCS-150 date.
- Clear — none of the above. It means the public record has no blocking or check-level flag today, not that the carrier is safe.
Change detection
Each weekly census pull is compared row by row with the previous one; a change in status, docket status, MCS-150 date, or any contact-identity field (legal name, phone, email, street, city, state, ZIP, officer) is logged with the before and after values. Authority, insurance, order and OOS events come from the daily files with the date FMCSA stamps on them. Change history begins the day this service first saw a record; we cannot reconstruct changes from before that.
Shared contact details
We count how many other active USDOT numbers list the same 10-digit phone or the same street plus ZIP in the census, and show the names. Registered agents, family businesses and office parks share contact details legitimately, so this is presented as a count with names, never as a network, a score, or a conclusion.
What we deliberately do not do
- No safety score or rating of our own. FMCSA's measures are shown as FMCSA publishes them, with its definitions.
- No user-submitted complaints, "do not use" lists, or reviews. Every fact on a report is traceable to a government file and a date.
- No page per carrier for search engines. Per-carrier detail is the free lookup and the paid report; individuals' names in the census appear only inside a paid report.
- No characterization. A shared phone is a shared phone; a new authority is a new authority.
Corrections: reply to any email from us and a human fixes it. Independent data publisher; not affiliated with FMCSA, USDOT, or any government agency.