Guides
Reading the federal record
FMCSA publishes a great deal about motor carrier companies and explains almost none of it. These guides cover what the fields mean, which ones move together, and where the record simply stops being able to answer your question.
How to vet a carrier
The federal record in the order a person actually checks it: identity, authority, insurance, then the dates that tell you how much any of it is worth.
ReadDouble brokering: what it is and what the record shows
Why a load ends up with a company you never hired, which federal fields disagree when it happens, and what a lookup can and cannot tell you.
ReadLooking for a Carrier411 alternative
What to compare when you are shopping for carrier data, and exactly what this one does — stated plainly, without speaking for anyone else.
ReadThe identifiers, one at a time
Trucking runs on an alphabet soup of numbers and filings, and most of the confusion in vetting comes from treating two different things as the same thing. Each page below settles one of them — and carries the lookup tool, so you can check a real record while you read.
What Is a USDOT Number
A USDOT number identifies a company in the federal motor carrier system. It is free, it is permanent, and it is the key every federal record about that company is filed under — including the ones on this page.
What Is an MC Number
An MC number is not another ID for the same thing. It is the permission itself — issued by FMCSA, held by type, and revocable independently of whether the company still exists.
MC Number vs DOT Number
They are not two names for one thing, and confusing them is how a load ends up with a company that was never allowed to take it.
Who Needs a USDOT Number
The thresholds are specific and they are not about how big the company is. One vehicle over the weight line, used in interstate commerce, is enough.
How to Get an MC Number
This is an outline of the federal process so you know what to expect. The filing itself happens with FMCSA — this site is a records service and is not part of the application.
USDOT Number on a Truck
Federal marking rules exist so anyone can identify who is operating a vehicle. That makes the door of a truck the cheapest vetting tool in the industry — if you check what is painted on it against the record.
What Is an MCS-90
The MCS-90 is a promise to the public, attached to an insurance policy and kept in a filing cabinet at the company. What FMCSA publishes is a different piece of paper — and the difference decides what a lookup can and cannot prove.
BMC-84 and BMC-85
Every page selling you a broker bond is written for the broker buying one. This one is written for the other side of the table: the shipper or carrier who wants to know whether the bond behind a load actually exists today.
MCS-150 Biennial Update
Every federal record about a company carries one date that quietly rates all the others. This is what puts it there, when it is due, and what a stale one is actually telling you.
What Is a BOC-3 Filing
It is the least glamorous filing in interstate trucking and one of the few that can switch a USDOT number off. Here is what it designates, who may submit it, and the honest limit of what a lookup can confirm about it.