How to Vet Carriers (And How We Can Help)

When you book carriers directly instead of through a broker, carrier vetting becomes your responsibility. That's a good thing—you're building relationships with carriers who know your freight, your lanes, and your expectations. But it also means you need to know what to look for.

Here's the practical guide to vetting carriers, from the basics to the red flags that experienced brokers watch for.

The Minimum: What Every Shipper Should Check

Before booking any carrier for the first time, verify these basics:

1. Active MC/DOT Authority

Check SAFER (safersys.gov) or FMCSA's licensing portal. You're looking for:

• Operating status: "Authorized" or "Active" (not "Inactive" or "Not Authorized")
• Operation classification: "Authorized For Hire" (not just private carrier)
• No pending revocations or suspensions

This takes 2 minutes and catches the most obvious problems.

2. Insurance Verification

A Certificate of Insurance (COI) proves coverage existed when issued. It doesn't prove coverage exists today.

Better approach: Call the insurance company directly. Verify:

• Auto liability: Minimum $1M for general freight, $5M for hazmat
• Cargo coverage: Minimum $100K, but consider your freight value
• Policy is active as of today, not just as of the certificate date

Ask for "cert holder" status so you receive automatic cancellation notices.

3. Safety Rating

FMCSA assigns safety ratings: Satisfactory, Conditional, or Unsatisfactory. Check SAFER for the current rating.

• Satisfactory: Passed a compliance review
• Conditional: Has safety issues but is allowed to operate (dig deeper)
• Unsatisfactory: Should not be operating
• No rating: Most carriers—means they haven't been reviewed yet

No rating isn't necessarily bad, but it means you need to look at other data.

Going Deeper: What Experienced Shippers Check

The basics catch obvious problems. These checks catch the carriers that look fine on paper but have issues hiding beneath the surface.

OOS Rates (Out-of-Service)

When a carrier gets inspected at a weigh station, some percentage of their trucks and drivers get put "out of service" for violations. High OOS rates indicate maintenance problems, HOS violations, or driver qualification issues.

National averages:

• Vehicle OOS: ~21%
• Driver OOS: ~5%

What to look for: Carriers at or below national averages. Carriers with 30%+ vehicle OOS rates have equipment or maintenance problems that will eventually affect your freight.

Find OOS data on the FMCSA SMS website under "Inspection Results."

Authority Age

Fraudsters often obtain fresh MC numbers using stolen identities. A carrier with 30 days of authority history is riskier than one with 3 years.

What to look for:

• Under 90 days: Extra scrutiny required. Not automatically disqualifying, but verify everything else more carefully.
• Gaps in authority: Did they have authority, let it lapse, then reactivate? Why?

Physical Address Verification

Google Street View the carrier's address. Is there actually a trucking operation there, or is it a vacant lot, residential address, or UPS Store?

Legitimate carriers have terminals, yards, or at least a real office. Addresses that don't match a trucking operation are a red flag for fraud or identity theft.

Phone Callback

Call the phone number listed on SAFER—not the number the carrier gave you. Do they answer as the same company? Is the contact consistent?

Carrier identity theft often involves using a legitimate carrier's MC number with different contact information. The SAFER callback catches this.

Red Flags That Should Stop a Deal

Some signals should make you walk away or at least pause and investigate further:

Any one of these might have an innocent explanation. Multiple red flags together should stop the deal.

How LoadSolved Helps

On-Demand Carrier Vetting

Don't have time to run these checks yourself? That's one of our core services. Send us a carrier's MC number and we'll run the full verification:

• Authority and operating status
• Insurance verification (direct with insurer)
• FMCSA safety data and OOS rates
• Address and phone verification
• Red flag assessment

You get a clear answer: green light, yellow flag (proceed with caution and here's why), or red flag (don't book and here's why).

The LoadSolved Carrier Network

Every time we vet a carrier for a client, that carrier goes into our database. Over time, we accumulate a network of carriers we've already verified—carriers who have hauled for LoadSolved clients and performed well.

Need capacity on a lane? We can check if we have vetted carriers who run it. You get the benefit of other shippers' due diligence.

This network grows with every client engagement. The more shippers use LoadSolved, the more carriers we've vetted, the more value everyone gets.

Ongoing Monitoring

Carrier status changes. Insurance lapses. Safety scores degrade. We monitor carriers in our network and flag changes that matter.

If a carrier you've used before has a new red flag, we'll let you know before you book them again.

The Bottom Line

Carrier vetting isn't complicated, but it takes time and attention. Most shippers can handle the basics. The question is whether you want to spend your time on due diligence, or spend it running your business.

LoadSolved gives you options:

• Do it yourself with the guidance above
• Use us for on-demand vetting when you need a fast answer
• Tap our carrier network for pre-vetted options on your lanes

Your freight, your choice. We're here to help either way.