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Broker guides: vetting carriers with FMCSA records

Live from the public record (2026-10-25T17:58:34+00:00): 125,716 active authorities, 5,609 brokers of property, 6,312 authority grants in the last 30 days, 865 insurance cancellations and 2,003 revocations or suspensions in the last 30 days.

• How to vet a carrier before tendering a load
  A five-minute public-record check: authority, insurance, safety, identifiers, history.
• How to check if an MC number is active
  Where authority status lives, what Active, Inactive and Not Authorized mean, and how to read the dates.
• How to verify a carrier's insurance with FMCSA
  Filings, insurers, effective dates, cancellations and what a certificate of insurance does not prove.
• What is a BMC-91 filing
  The insurer's certificate of liability coverage behind every active property authority.
• What 'authority revoked' means
  Involuntary revocation for lapsed insurance or BOC-3, voluntary revocation, and reinstatement.
• What is an involuntary revocation
  The notice period, the triggers and how it shows in the record.
• Vetting a carrier with a new MC number
  Why authorities under 90 days old get extra scrutiny, and what the record offers.
• What is double-brokering
  Definition, why it matters to brokers and shippers, and what public records can and cannot show.
• Contact changes after authority approval
  Why a phone, email or address change in the first 90 days is worth a call.
• How to read the FMCSA SAFER snapshot
  Operating status, entity type, MCS-150 date, power units, drivers and what each field comes from.
• What is an out-of-service rate
  Driver and vehicle OOS rates from roadside inspections, and the national averages.
• Conditional vs Unsatisfactory safety rating
  What an FMCSA safety rating is, how it is issued and what it means for tendering freight.
• What is a BOC-3 process agent
  The designation of agents for service of process required for authority.
• What is the MCS-150 biennial update
  The census filing behind power units, drivers, cargo and contact fields.
• MC number vs USDOT number for brokers
  Two identifiers, two systems, and which one to vet against.
• How to monitor a carrier roster for changes
  From a one-time check to daily monitoring of every carrier you use.
• What to do when a carrier's insurance is cancelled
  Reading the BMC-35 notice, the 30-day window and the replacement filing.
• How long an insurance cancellation takes to take effect
  The 30-day rule for FMCSA filings and how CarrierDaily counts pending cancellations.
• What is a broker bond (BMC-84)
  The $75,000 surety bond or BMC-85 trust every property broker must keep on file.
• Chameleon carriers: what the record shows
  Reincarnated carriers in the public record and the identifier matches that surface them.
• How to check a carrier's cargo insurance
  What FMCSA requires, what it does not, and how to read a BMC-34.
• Carrier vetting checklist for freight brokers
  Twelve public-record checks in order, each with its source.
• How to use the public Trust API
  One JSON call per carrier, rate-limited, no key; keyed access for subscribers.
• What are shared-identifier matches
  Phone, address, email domain and officer names matched on one-way hashes across every DOT record.
• How to verify a carrier's phone number
  Where the number of record lives, how changes show up, and the call-back rule.
• What is a pending insurance cancellation
  A cancellation notice on file whose effective date has not arrived.
• Authority reinstatement: what it means
  The record after a revocation is cured, and why the next 90 days are watched.
• Operating authority status: Not Authorized
  What SAFER's status means and how to find the cause.
• How often FMCSA data updates
  Register, L&I, Census and SMS cadences, and how CarrierDaily compares them.
• Verifying a carrier's officer names
  Company officers in the Census, how matches across DOT records are shown, and the limits.
• Free carrier vetting tools compared
  What SAFER, L&I, SMS and CarrierDaily's free tools each show.

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Data reflects official public records published by the U.S. Department of Transportation (FMCSA) as of Oct 25, 2026 11:58 MDT. CarrierDaily provides factual public-record change monitoring and is not a consumer reporting agency under the FCRA.