A clearer view of your carriers

Carrier vetting and monitoring
for freight brokers.

Look up carriers, check shared contact details and follow filing changes. Save what your team checked and why it approved or rejected a carrier.

Free public lookup · Paid monitoring from $49/month · Self-service signup

Look up a carrier ↗Explore carrier vetting
Carrier recordIllustrative example

Example Freight Co.

USDOT 0000000 · MC 000000 · TX

  • Operating authorityActive · Motus, 09-29-26OK
  • BIPD insurance filingOn file · observed 09-29-26OK
  • Reported phoneShared with 3 other USDOTsReview
  • Mailing addressChanged on 09-22-26Changed
  • Safety ratingNot rated · 4 inspections, 24 moInfo
  • Team decisionApproved, with notes and evidenceSaved
Source dates on every row. Your decision stays separate from the public data.
In the FMCSA record

Counted from CarrierTrail’s daily imports of public FMCSA data, as of 2026-10-29. How we count

3,517new census recordslast 7 days
103,623census field changes observedlast 7 days
6,606operating authorities grantedlast 30 days
15,783authority suspension noticeslast 30 days
Public FMCSA dataSource timestamps includedPrivate team notesDecisions backed by saved snapshots
Your carrier vetting work

Check the carrier. Then keep watching.

Freight broker tools for the checks you run during carrier onboarding, and for the changes that happen after a carrier is approved.

01

Before you book

Look up the USDOT or MC number, confirm the company, and read its authority, insurance and safety records with their source dates.

Run a free lookup →
02

After approval

Put approved carriers on a watchlist. Daily checks compare new records with the last snapshot and queue every change for review.

How monitoring works →
03

Every decision

Approve or reject with notes, and keep the evidence you saw at the time. The next reviewer picks up where you left off.

About decision evidence →
What you can check

Everything your team reviews before and after approval

Public FMCSA records with their source dates, your team’s notes and decisions, and the changes that happen after a carrier is onboarded.

Monitoring

Carrier monitoring

Monitor saved carriers for published authority, insurance, safety and contact changes.

Learn more →Locator

Carrier locator

Find carriers by state, city or ZIP radius, cargo, fleet size, safety rating and authority.

Learn more →Contacts

Phone and contact checks

Compare reported phones and addresses with other public records and earlier details.

Learn more →Safety

Safety summaries

Inspections, violations, crashes and safety ratings, with the dates needed to read them.

Learn more →Certificates

Insurance certificates

Keep each carrier’s certificates with its record and see which need review or expire soon.

Learn more →Records

Due diligence records

Preserve the source observations and reasoning behind each team decision.

Learn more →Teams

Team workspaces

Keep carrier decisions, notes and review ownership together for your team.

Learn more →Import

CSV import and export

Move carrier lists in and out without retyping USDOT and MC numbers.

Learn more →Alerts

Carrier alerts

Get notified when a monitored carrier’s authority, insurance, safety rating or contact details change.

Learn more →Rules

Qualification rules

Set your own rules and see which carriers meet them, need review or do not meet them.

Learn more →Reports

Carrier reports

Filter your whole watchlist and download it as CSV or Excel.

Learn more →SmartWay

SmartWay carriers

See which carriers are listed in EPA’s SmartWay carrier performance file.

Learn more →CARB

CARB carrier lists

See which carriers are on CARB’s TRU list and among its Truck and Bus compliant fleets.

Learn more →Onboarding

Carrier onboarding

Identity, authority, insurance, safety and contact checks before the first load.

Learn more →
After onboarding

Know when a carrier’s record changes

Add approved carriers to your watchlist. Daily checks compare new published observations with the last usable snapshot and put changes in your review queue.

  • Authority and insurance filings, compared with the previous snapshot.
  • Safety ratings, contact details and registration fields from the census.
  • Failed or stale checks shown as unavailable, never as a clean result.
  • Notifications when a watched carrier changes.
How monitoring works
Changes 3 newIllustrative example
  • Insurance filings changedExample Freight Co. · Published filing rows: 2 → 3
  • Census details changedSample Hauling Inc. · Phone: (214) 555-0199 → (214) 555-0100
  • Authority records changedDemo Logistics LLC · Published filing rows: 1 → 2
  • Team decision updatedExample Freight Co. · Review → Approved
Each change waits in your review queue until someone on your team has looked at it.
A team working at computers in an open-plan office
Your team’s decisionIllustrative example
ApproveNeeds reviewReject

“Called dispatch on the listed number. The certificate matches the BMC-91X filing on Motus.”

Revision 4 · evidence savedCensus, authority and insurance snapshot · SHA-256 checksum
PDF
Your team’s record

Save what you checked, and why

Every approval or rejection keeps the source evidence available at the time, with your notes. The next reviewer starts from your work instead of from scratch.

  • Private decisions and notes; other customers’ decisions are never shared.
  • Evidence exports for a particular historical review.
  • Pause a carrier to free a slot and keep its saved record.
About decision evidence
Compare

CarrierTrail, manual checks and vetting suites compared

Price, monitoring after approval, where the reasoning is kept and how you get started.

CarrierTrail
Checking by hand
Large vetting suites
How it is priced
CarrierTrailFrom $49 a month. Cancel anytime.
Checking by handFree, paid for in staff hours
Large vetting suitesOften by quote, often yearly
Who watches after approval
CarrierTrailDaily checks, changes in a review queue
Checking by handWhoever remembers to re-check
Large vetting suitesIncluded, inside a larger system
Where the reasoning lives
CarrierTrailSaved with the evidence it was based on
Checking by handInboxes, notes and memory
Large vetting suitesIn the platform
Getting started
CarrierTrailSign up and pay online, same day
Checking by handNothing to set up
Large vetting suitesDemo, quote, then onboarding

Using Carrier411 today? CarrierTrail and Carrier411 side by side.

Carrier directories

Browse carriers by state.

4,416,498 census records across the 50 states, with city directories, cargo classes and public carrier profiles showing authority, insurance and safety.

Open the directoryMC number lookup
AK9.5kME26kWI102kVT8.4kNH20kWA89kID30kMT21kND17kMN122kIL146kMI131kNY215kMA81kOR54kNV28kWY15kSD17kIA58kIN109kOH124kPA170kNJ132kCT48kRI15kCA505kUT43kCO81kNE52kMO73kKY84kWV30kVA70kMD96kDE15kAZ61kNM24kKS46kAR38kTN80kNC135kSC63kOK58kLA46kMS46kAL83kGA223kHI6.6kTX379kFL290k
FewerMore census records
Pricing

Carrier monitoring from $49 a month

Billed monthly. Cancel anytime. The public lookup stays free: 3 record lookups and 10 name searches a day.

Starter

$49 / month

  • 500 active monitored carriers
  • 2 workspace members
  • Private decisions, evidence and CSV exports
  • Notifications when a carrier changes
Choose Starter

Team

$99 / month

  • 5,000 active monitored carriers
  • 5 workspace members
  • All Starter features
  • Shared team review and access controls
Choose Team
Built on public records

Source data you can check yourself

Official FMCSA datasets

Census, Motus authority and insurance, and public safety records, each shown with its publication date. Data and methodology.

No hidden gaps

A failed or stale check stays visible as unavailable. A missing row is never presented as proof that coverage is absent.

Your team decides

CarrierTrail does not certify coverage or label a business fraudulent. Your decisions and notes stay private to your workspace.

Questions

Common questions

Still deciding? Ask us a question or read the broker guides.

Is the carrier lookup free?

Yes. The public lookup needs no account and allows 3 record lookups and 10 company-name searches a day across the lookup tools. Look up a carrier.

Can CarrierTrail help with double brokering?

It shows signals worth checking, such as a phone number or address shared with other carriers, or contact details that changed recently. It never labels a carrier fraudulent; your team reviews the context and decides.

Does it replace my carrier onboarding packet?

No. CarrierTrail checks the carrier’s public record during onboarding and keeps watching after approval. Collect contracts and tax forms as you do today; insurance certificates can be kept with the carrier’s record. See carrier onboarding checks.

How often are carriers checked?

Scheduled source checks run daily. Source publication delays and failed checks can affect freshness, so the dashboard shows source dates and check status.

What counts toward my plan limit?

Only active monitored carriers. Pausing a carrier keeps its saved record and releases the slot.

Does CarrierTrail tell me whether to use a carrier?

No. It shows public records with their dates and keeps your team’s evidence. Your team remains responsible for its own approval decision.

How do I cancel?

Open Billing in your dashboard and choose Manage billing. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid period; there is no annual commitment.

Monitor carriers after approval

Save carriers to a watchlist, review changes and keep notes with each decision.

Choose a monitoring plan ↗