FMCSA Carrier Lookup: USDOT Number, Safety Rating and Fleet Size

FMCSA Carrier Safety Lookup looks up US motor carriers (trucking companies, brokers, bus operators) in the official FMCSA Company Census File on data.transportation.gov, the same USDOT registration data behind the SAFER Company Snapshot. Search by USDOT number, company name, state or city and get one flat row per carrier: status, legal and DBA name, operation type, address, power units, drivers, safety rating and a link to the SAFER snapshot. It uses public open data only.

Input

Provide usdotNumbers for exact lookups, or combine the name, state and city filters. This example looks up two carriers by USDOT number:

{
  "usdotNumbers": ["9694", "1234567"],
  "maxResults": 100
}

Or search by name and place:

{
  "companyName": "express",
  "state": "TX",
  "city": "Marshall",
  "activeOnly": true,
  "maxResults": 100
}

• usdotNumbers: exact USDOT numbers. If set, all other filters are ignored.
• companyName: text matched against legal name or DBA name, case-insensitive.
• state: two-letter code of the carrier's physical address (default TX).
• city: city of the physical address.
• activeOnly: return only carriers with Active census status (default true).
• maxResults: maximum carriers returned (default 100, maximum 5000).

Output

One row per carrier. Real example row for USDOT 9694:

{
  "usdotNumber": "9694",
  "legalName": "COAST COUNTIES EXPRESS INC",
  "dbaName": null,
  "status": "Inactive",
  "carrierOperation": "A",
  "entityType": "CORPORATION",
  "city": "MARSHALL",
  "state": "TX",
  "zip": "75670-3301",
  "powerUnits": 39,
  "totalDrivers": 34,
  "safetyRating": "S",
  "safetyRatingDate": "19900828",
  "hazmat": false,
  "mcs150Date": null,
  "url": "https://safer.fmcsa.dot.gov/query.asp?searchtype=ANY&query_type=queryCarrierSnapshot&query_param=USDOT&query_string=9694"
}

safetyRating and carrierOperation are the codes as published in the FMCSA census file. Values the file leaves blank come back as null.

Use cases

Search phrases this actor is built for:

• "Check USDOT carrier safety rating": pass the USDOT number and read safetyRating, safetyRatingDate and status.
• "FMCSA carrier lookup by USDOT number": vet a whole list of carriers before tendering freight.
• "Trucking company fleet size and drivers": read powerUnits and totalDrivers, or build a prospect list of active carriers in a state or city.

Typical users are freight brokers, shippers, insurers, factoring companies and sales teams. It also works as a tool for AI agents through the Apify MCP server.

Pricing

Pay per result: each carrier row returned is one billable result, listed at $0.002 per carrier ($2 per 1,000). Set a maximum charge on the run for a hard ceiling.

Limits

• Data is the FMCSA Company Census File, refreshed by FMCSA about daily, so it can be up to a day old.
• Inspection counts, crash counts and out-of-service rates are not included; use the url SAFER link for those.
• Contact details of individuals are not returned.
• maxResults is capped at 5,000 per run.

FAQ

Where does the data come from? The FMCSA Company Census File on data.transportation.gov (dataset az4n-8mr2).

Is it real-time? No. The census file is refreshed daily by FMCSA.

Can I look up by MC number? Not in this version. Use USDOT number, company name, state or city.