The checks that catch a problem carrier early, and the paperwork worth insisting on before dispatch.
By One Load Board5 min read979 words
The short version
Vetting a carrier is four checks: the authority is active and is motor carrier authority, the insurance certificate came from the insurer rather than from the carrier, the safety record is one you can live with, and the contact details you are using match the public FMCSA record. That last one catches most fraud, because the common attack is not a fake company, it is a real company’s USDOT number with somebody else’s phone number attached to it.
None of these checks takes long, and the one that gets skipped is the one that works.
Authority, from the source
Look the USDOT number up in FMCSA’s own records rather than trusting a screenshot or a PDF in the packet. Confirm the status is active, the authority type is motor carrier, and the legal name matches every document you have been sent.
One thing changed recently. FMCSA stopped issuing MC numbers on 1 October 2025, so the USDOT number is the federal identifier you check. An older carrier still has an MC number in legacy records, which is not a red flag on its own. A carrier who can only give you an MC number, with no USDOT number to look up, is worth a second question.
Confirm the operating status is active and there is no out-of-service order.
Confirm the authority type is motor carrier. A broker authority answering a truckload posting is a load that is about to be re-brokered.
Check how long it has been active, and whether it was reinstated after a long dormancy. A quiet authority that suddenly wakes up is a well-known hijacking pattern.
Check the legal name and DBA against the name on every document you have been sent. Small mismatches matter here.
Insurance, direct from the agent
Do not accept a certificate emailed by the carrier. Certificates are trivially edited, and a forged one is the second half of most identity-theft cases. Request it from the agent or insurer listed on the FMCSA filing.
Confirm four things when it arrives: the named insured matches the carrier exactly, the limits meet your requirements, the policy is current, and your brokerage is listed as certificate holder so you are notified on cancellation. The federal minimum for general freight is $750,000 of public liability, which is a floor almost nobody actually operates at.
Check cargo coverage against the commodity rather than against a default. A $100,000 cargo limit is standard and is nowhere near enough for a full trailer of electronics or pharmaceuticals.
Safety record
Review the carrier’s inspection and crash history and its safety measurement scores. You are not looking for perfection, because every carrier that runs enough miles collects violations. You are looking for a pattern that suggests the load will not arrive: repeated out-of-service violations, a cluster of unsafe-driving entries, or an alert on a category that matters to your freight.
Weigh it against the freight. A carrier you would not put a tanker with may be perfectly appropriate for a light dry-van run, and refusing every carrier with a blemish is how a brokerage ends up with no capacity.
The identity checks that catch the fraud
The common attack is not an invented company. It is a real carrier’s USDOT number presented with a different phone number, a different email domain and different banking details. Every check below exists to find that gap.
Call the number on the FMCSA record. Not the one in the email signature or on the packet. If nobody there knows about the load you just tendered, you have found a hijacked number before it cost you anything.
Look at the email domain. Free webmail, or a domain registered a few weeks ago, on a company claiming years of operation, is worth a second call.
Check the address. A mailbox service shared by dozens of unrelated carriers is a signal. So is an address that does not match anything else in the packet.
Watch for recent changes. A phone number, address or email updated on the FMCSA record within the last few weeks, on an older authority, deserves a direct call to confirm the change was real.
Be careful with urgency. A carrier pushing to skip setup steps on freight nobody else wanted is applying pressure for a reason.
Put it in the carrier agreement
An explicit prohibition on re-brokering or subcontracting without written consent, with a stated consequence.
A requirement to notify you of any change of insurance, authority status or payment details.
Consent to tracking, and agreement on how it will be provided.
A clear statement that payment goes only to the entity named in the agreement or its factor of record.
Verify again at pickup
Onboarding is a snapshot; the load is the moment. Confirm the driver name and the tractor and trailer numbers match what dispatch told you, ask the shipper to note them on the bill of lading, and a photograph of the truck at the dock costs nobody anything. If a different carrier’s truck arrives, the load has been re-brokered and you want to know before it leaves, not when two people invoice you for it.
That failure has a mirror image on the carrier side, and reading both lists together is the fastest way to understand the whole thing: how to spot a double-brokered load. A shipper booking a truck directly runs the same checks with less to go on, and how to check a carrier before you book is this list cut down to what a FMCSA lookup alone will tell you.
Monitor, do not just onboard
Authority lapses, insurance cancels, and safety scores move. Re-check anyone you have not tendered to in a few months, and set your process so a carrier cannot be dispatched on an expired certificate.
The bottom lineLook the number up yourself, get the certificate from the insurer, and call the phone number FMCSA has on file rather than the one you were given. Almost every carrier fraud case fails one of those three.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if a carrier is legitimate?
Look up their USDOT number in FMCSA’s SAFER system, confirm the authority is active and is motor carrier authority, and check the legal name against the documents you were sent. Then call the phone number listed in that public record rather than the one on the packet.
Do carriers still have MC numbers?
Existing carriers do, but FMCSA stopped issuing MC, MX and FF docket numbers on 1 October 2025, so a newly registered carrier will only have a USDOT number. Seeing a legacy MC number is not a red flag; being given one with no USDOT number to look up is worth a second question.
Should I accept a certificate of insurance from the carrier?
No. Certificates are easy to edit and a forged one is a common part of carrier identity theft. Request it from the agent or insurer named on the FMCSA filing, and ask to be listed as certificate holder so you are notified if the policy is cancelled.
What is carrier identity theft?
Somebody presenting a real, active carrier’s USDOT number as their own, with their own phone number, email domain and banking details substituted. It is caught by calling the number on the public FMCSA record instead of the one on the packet, and by treating any mid-load change of payment details as a red flag.
How often should I re-check a carrier I already use?
Authority lapses, insurance cancels and safety scores move, so re-check anyone you have not tendered to in a few months, and build the process so a carrier cannot be dispatched on an expired certificate. Onboarding is a snapshot, not a standing guarantee.
Sources
Every figure in this article is linked in place. The full list, for anyone who wants to check the working.
