FMCSA Carrier Check: Authority & Insurance Monitor

What does FMCSA Carrier Check do?

FMCSA Carrier Check is an FMCSA carrier lookup for freight brokers and their software. Give it USDOT or MC numbers; it returns each carrier's live operating authority status from FMCSA's SAFER site, insurance on file (policies, amounts, pending cancellations), out-of-service orders, suspensions and revocations, safety rating, fleet, cargo, company officers and registered contact details, merged with FMCSA's daily open data.

Run it before a load, or on a schedule in monitor mode to get only the carriers whose authority, insurance, out-of-service status, rating or contact details changed, with what changed.

Input fields · API · Use it from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor (MCP)

Jump to: Monitor it · Fields · Flags · Price · How to use · Input · Output · AI agents (MCP) · Data freshness · Limits · FAQ

Try it in one click: the input comes pre-filled with J.B. Hunt (USDOT 80806) and Werner Enterprises (MC138328). That's 2 carriers, or about $0.006 (2 × $0.003, plus $0.00005 for the run start). Then replace them with the carriers you actually want to check.

Monitor your carriers for authority and insurance changes

1. Put your carriers in USDOT numbers and/or MC / MX / FF docket numbers, switch on Only changed carriers (monitor), and click Start. The first run returns every carrier as new: it's the baseline.
2. Click Save as a new task (top right). A task keeps its own memory, so it always compares with its own last run. To keep several lists apart in one task or from the API, give each a Monitor name.
3. In Apify Console, open Schedules, click Create new, pick how often (FMCSA refreshes its data once a day, by about 9:30 US Eastern, so daily at 10:00 ET is a good default), then Add your task.
4. On the task, open the Integrations tab and send the changes where you work:
   • Slack: pick the channel and the "run succeeded" event; {{resource.statusMessage}} reads like "2 new, 3 changed, 995 unchanged".
   • Gmail: connect Google and attach the dataset as CSV.
   • HTTP webhook: event ACTOR.RUN.SUCCEEDED; then GET https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/<resource.defaultDatasetId>/items?format=json (with your API token) returns only the changed carriers.

Each changed carrier has changeType (new or changed) and a changes list, one entry per field that moved, with before and after. What counts as a change: USDOT status, operating authority status (live, from SAFER), docket status, insurance on file, policies, pending cancellations, suspension and revocation orders, out-of-service status and orders, safety rating and its date, and the registered phone, street or mailing address, email or officers (a carrier whose contact details suddenly change is a classic sign of an identity takeover). Fleet size, mileage and name edits are in the record but don't count on their own.

A failure is never reported as "no change". If one of FMCSA's datasets can't be read, the carriers in that batch are reported as failed in the log and RUN_STATS, aren't charged, and are compared again next run. The same goes for a carrier whose live SAFER check failed: in monitor mode it isn't compared (dataset values next to live ones would look like changes) and isn't charged.

What data does FMCSA Carrier Check return?

One row per carrier (per USDOT number):

Field	Example	Notes
dotNumber	53467	Stable across runs; use it to deduplicate
docketNumbers	["MC138328"]	MC/MX/FF numbers, from SAFER, the census and Motus
legalName, dbaName	WERNER ENTERPRISES INC	The registered names; dbaName is null when none
street, city, state, zip, country	14507 FRONTIER ROAD, OMAHA, NE	Physical business address
phone, mailingAddress, dunsNumber	(402) 895-6640	Registered phone, mailing address and DUNS number
companyOfficers	["ERIC DOWNING", "JAIME HAMM"]	Officers named on the MCS-150 (up to two)
email	jaime.hamm@werner.com	The email the carrier gave FMCSA: self-reported, can be stale or empty
usdotStatus	active	active, inactive, out-of-service (live) or pending
operatingAuthorityStatus, authorizedFor	authorized, ["Motor Carrier of Property ..."]	Live from SAFER: authorized, not authorized or out-of-service
authority	{"motorCarrier": "active", "broker": "active", ...}	Per kind of authority, from the live status
authorities	type, status, statusSince, grantedOn	Every authority on every docket, with its history (Motus or the 2026-05-14 files)
insurance	{"bipdRequired": 1000000, "bipdOnFile": 5000000, ...}	Required vs on file: BI&PD (dollars), cargo, bond
insurancePolicies	insurer, policy number, coverage, amounts, dates	Active and pending policies (BI&PD, cargo, bond, trust fund)
insuranceCancellations	policy, cancelEffectiveDate, reason	Pending, or ended in the last 30 days
outOfService, outOfServiceDate, outOfServiceOrders	false, null, []	Live status and date, plus every order with its reason and rescind date
suspensionsRevocations	action, served and effective dates	Suspension and revocation orders
safetyRating, safetyRatingDate, safetyReviewDate	satisfactory, 1995-08-08	Or conditional, unsatisfactory, not rated
powerUnits, drivers, cargoCarried, hazmat	9863, 9107	Fleet and operation from the MCS-150
mcs150Date, mcs150Mileage	2024-07-23	Last MCS-150 update and the miles it reported
flags	["mcs150-older-than-24-months"]	Vetting flags, below
liveCheck, sources	ok, {"authority": {"source": "safer", "asOf": "2026-10-02"}, ...}	How the live check went, and where each part came from and how current it is

The phone, addresses, DUNS number, officers and email are the carrier's registration details as FMCSA publishes them, for verifying that you're dealing with the carrier on file. The email comes from the carrier's own MCS-150 filing: FMCSA doesn't check it, so it can be out of date or missing (about 1 in 4 carriers had none in a 2026-10-04 sample). Cell phone and fax aren't returned: under 13% of carriers file them. Every row has the same fields; the full list is under Output. Amounts are dollars and dates are YYYY-MM-DD, whatever format the source used.

Vetting flags

Each flag is a plain fact from the record (the live values when there are), for screening rules in your own system:

Flag	When
usdot-not-active	The USDOT number is inactive, out of service or pending
out-of-service	SAFER shows the carrier out of service, or an out-of-service order newer than SAFER's page isn't rescinded
no-active-authority	A for-hire carrier (it has dockets or authority records) with no authority active now
authority-pending, revocation-pending	An authority is still pending, or in revocation (2026-05-14 records)
suspension-or-revocation-pending	A suspension or revocation order takes effect today or later
bipd-below-required	An active carrier's BI&PD on file and its policies in force are both below the requirement
cargo-insurance-missing, broker-bond-missing	Required but not on file, while the authority is active
insurance-cancellation-pending	A policy is cancelled with a future effective date
safety-rating-conditional, safety-rating-unsatisfactory	That safety rating
authority-granted-within-90-days	An active authority was first granted in the last 90 days
mcs150-older-than-24-months	FMCSA asks for an MCS-150 update every 24 months
insurance-from-2026-05-14-snapshot	The carrier isn't in Motus yet: its insurance is from FMCSA's frozen 2026-05-14 files (see freshness)
authority-from-2026-05-14-snapshot	Same for authority, when there was no live check
live-check-failed, not-on-safer	The SAFER page couldn't be read, or SAFER has no active record: the dataset values stand

How much does it cost to check a carrier?

You pay per carrier returned: $3.00 per 1,000 carriers on the Free plan, $2.70 on Starter, $2.40 on Scale and $2.10 on Business, plus $0.00005 each time a run starts. In monitor mode, a carrier that didn't change isn't returned and costs $0.20 per 1,000 (the reads still have to happen). Never charged: numbers that aren't valid or that FMCSA doesn't know, and carriers whose data couldn't be read.

• The example below: 2 carriers × $0.003 + $0.00005 = $0.00605 (Free plan).
• One carrier per load, from your TMS: about $0.003 a check (Free) or $0.0028 (Starter); 100 loads a day ≈ $8.25 a month on Starter.
• Monitoring 1,000 carriers daily, ~10 changing a day: 30 × ($0.00005 + 10 × $0.0027 + 990 × $0.0002) ≈ $6.75 a month on Starter.
• Caps: Max results per run in the input, and Maximum cost per run in the run options. The run stops cleanly at whichever comes first, before reading carriers it couldn't charge for.

How to check a carrier by USDOT or MC number

1. Open FMCSA Carrier Check and click Try for free (or Start if you're signed in).
2. Paste USDOT numbers into USDOT numbers and/or MC numbers into MC / MX / FF docket numbers, one per line.
3. Optional: switch on Only changed carriers (monitor) for scheduled checks, and set Max results per run.
4. Click Start, then open the Output tab and export as JSON, CSV or Excel.

Example: J.B. Hunt and Werner

The pre-filled input:

{"dotNumbers": ["80806"], "docketNumbers": ["MC138328"]}

It returned 2 carriers. Werner's (real output from a local run on 2026-10-04; cargoCarried and two of the four policies shortened, sources trimmed to four of its eleven groups):

{
  "dotNumber": "53467",
  "docketNumbers": ["MC138328"],
  "legalName": "WERNER ENTERPRISES INC",
  "dbaName": null,
  "street": "14507 FRONTIER ROAD", "city": "OMAHA", "state": "NE", "zip": "68138", "country": "US",
  "phone": "(402) 895-6640",
  "mailingAddress": {"street": "PO BOX 45308", "city": "OMAHA", "state": "NE", "zip": "68145-0308", "country": "US"},
  "dunsNumber": "022086565",
  "companyOfficers": ["ERIC DOWNING", "JAIME HAMM"],
  "email": "jaime.hamm@werner.com",
  "usdotStatus": "active",
  "entityTypes": ["carrier", "broker"],
  "operatingClasses": ["AUTHORIZED FOR HIRE", "PRIVATE PROPERTY"],
  "carrierOperation": "interstate",
  "hazmat": true,
  "cargoCarried": ["General Freight", "Metal: Sheets, Coils, Rolls", "Building Materials", "..."],
  "powerUnits": 9863, "trucks": 9821, "buses": 42, "drivers": 9107,
  "mcs150Date": "2024-07-23", "mcs150Mileage": 796071597, "mcs150MileageYear": 2023,
  "addedOn": "1974-06-01",
  "safetyRating": "satisfactory", "safetyRatingDate": "1995-08-08",
  "safetyReviewDate": "2024-11-15", "safetyReviewType": "Non-Ratable",
  "dockets": [{"docketNumber": "MC138328", "status": "active"}],
  "operatingAuthorityStatus": "authorized",
  "authorizedFor": ["Motor Carrier of Property (Except Household Goods)", "Broker of Property (Except Household Goods)"],
  "authority": {"motorCarrier": "active", "broker": "active", "freightForwarder": "none"},
  "authorities": [
    {"docketNumber": "MC138328", "type": "Broker of Property (Except Household Goods)", "status": "active",
     "statusSince": "1989-08-25", "statusReason": "GRANTED", "grantedOn": "1989-08-25"},
    {"docketNumber": "MC138328", "type": "Motor Carrier of Property (Except Household Goods)", "status": "active",
     "statusSince": "2026-06-16", "statusReason": "Granted", "grantedOn": "1992-04-24"}
  ],
  "authoritySource": "motus",
  "insurance": {"bipdRequired": 1000000, "bipdOnFile": 5000000, "cargoRequired": false, "cargoOnFile": false,
                "bondRequired": true, "bondOnFile": true},
  "insurancePolicies": [
    {"docketNumber": "MC138328", "coverage": "BI&PD", "form": "BMC-91X", "layer": "excess",
     "insurer": "Ace American Insurance Company", "policyNumber": "XSAH11428927", "coverageAmount": 4000000,
     "underlyingLimit": 1000000, "effectiveDate": "2025-08-01", "postedDate": "2025-07-28",
     "cancelEffectiveDate": null},
    {"docketNumber": "MC138328", "coverage": "bond", "form": "BMC-84", "layer": null,
     "insurer": "Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America", "policyNumber": "106001707",
     "coverageAmount": 75000, "underlyingLimit": 0, "effectiveDate": "2013-10-01", "postedDate": "2013-10-01",
     "cancelEffectiveDate": null}
  ],
  "insuranceCancellations": [],
  "suspensionsRevocations": [],
  "outOfService": false,
  "outOfServiceDate": null,
  "outOfServiceOrders": [],
  "liveCheck": "ok",
  "sources": {
    "authority": {"source": "safer", "asOf": "2026-10-02"},
    "authorityHistory": {"source": "motus", "asOf": "2026-10-03"},
    "insurance": {"source": "motus", "asOf": "2026-10-03"},
    "outOfServiceOrders": {"source": "oos-orders", "asOf": "2026-10-03"}
  },
  "saferUrl": "https://safer.fmcsa.dot.gov/query.asp?searchtype=ANY&query_type=queryCarrierSnapshot&query_param=USDOT&query_string=53467",
  "flags": ["mcs150-older-than-24-months"],
  "matchedInputs": ["MC138328"],
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T08:11:30Z"
}

The run cost $0.00605 at the Free-plan price (2 carriers and the start), and took 9.5 seconds locally (two SAFER pages and eight dataset requests).

Input

Field	What it does
USDOT numbers	One per line, e.g. 80806; leading zeros and a USDOT prefix are fine.
MC / MX / FF docket numbers	One per line, e.g. MC138328, MC-138328, FF51075; a bare number is read as MC. An MC/MX number FMCSA's datasets don't have is looked up on SAFER.
Live check on FMCSA's SAFER site	On (default): each carrier's SAFER page, one a second, for current status. Off: datasets only, about 20 times faster for big batches.
Only changed carriers (monitor)	Return only carriers that changed since this monitor's last run (first run: all, as new).
Monitor name	Keeps separate memories, e.g. approved-carriers vs prospects. Default: the task's own, else default.
Max results per run	Caps the carriers returned.
Socrata app token (optional)	Your own free token from data.transportation.gov; avoids throttling on busy shared addresses. Stored encrypted, never logged.

A carrier named more than once (by USDOT and by MC number, say) is checked and charged once, with every input line in matchedInputs. Up to 10,000 carriers per run. A monitor keeps separate memories with the live check on and off, so switching starts a fresh baseline instead of a burst of false changes.

{
  "dotNumbers": ["80806", "3496484"],
  "docketNumbers": ["MC138328"],
  "onlyChanges": true,
  "monitorName": "approved-carriers"
}

Output

Every row has the same fields; a field FMCSA doesn't publish for that carrier is null (or an empty list).

• dotNumber, docketNumbers, dockets (each docket with the census active/inactive flag), legalName, dbaName, street, city, state, zip, country, phone, mailingAddress (street, city, state, zip, country), dunsNumber, companyOfficers, email.
• usdotStatus, entityTypes (carrier, broker, freight forwarder, shipper, ...), operatingClasses (e.g. AUTHORIZED FOR HIRE), carrierOperation (interstate, intrastate hazmat, intrastate non-hazmat), hazmat, cargoCarried.
• powerUnits, trucks, buses, drivers, mcs150Date, mcs150Mileage, mcs150MileageYear, addedOn.
• safetyRating, safetyRatingDate, safetyReviewDate, safetyReviewType.
• operatingAuthorityStatus, authorizedFor, authority, authorities (docketNumber, type, status, statusSince, statusReason, grantedOn), authoritySource (where authorities and insurance came from: motus, snapshot-2026-05-14 or none).
• insurance (bipdRequired, bipdOnFile, cargoRequired, cargoOnFile, bondRequired, bondOnFile), insurancePolicies (coverage, form, layer, insurer, policyNumber, coverageAmount, underlyingLimit, effectiveDate, postedDate, cancelEffectiveDate), insuranceCancellations (coverage, insurer, policyNumber, cancelEffectiveDate, reason: cancelled, replaced or name change).
• suspensionsRevocations (docketNumber, authorityType, action, servedDate, effectiveDate), outOfService, outOfServiceDate, outOfServiceOrders (date, reason, rescindedDate, active).
• liveCheck (ok, off, not on SAFER, record inactive on SAFER, failed: <why>, skipped: <why>) and sources: for each group (identity, officersAndEmail, usdotStatus, authority, authorityHistory, insurance, outOfService, outOfServiceOrders, safetyRating, fleet, operation), {"source": ..., "asOf": "YYYY-MM-DD"}, where source is safer, motus, census, oos-orders, snapshot-2026-05-14 or none. trucks, buses and hazmat always come from the census.
• flags, saferUrl (the carrier's SAFER page, for a person to look at), matchedInputs, checkedAt.
• Monitor mode only: changeType and changes (field, before, after).

The run's RUN_STATS record lists every input line with its outcome (returned, unchanged) or the reason it failed, the date of each source read, the number of requests, and the live check's tally (safer: requests, failures, the last errors, and whether the run stopped asking SAFER).

Run it on a schedule, or from your own code

1. Save your input as a task and add it to a schedule; the steps are under Monitor it.
2. Collect results: download the dataset as JSON, CSV or Excel; call the API (GET https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-tasks/<task id>/runs/last/dataset/items?status=SUCCEEDED&format=json, with your API token); let a webhook tell your TMS when a run succeeds; or connect Make, Zapier or n8n through Apify's integrations.

For a check per load, call the actor synchronously with one number (POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/humble-echidna~fmcsa-carrier-check/run-sync-get-dataset-items with {"dotNumbers": ["80806"]}). A one-carrier check with the live check took about 9 seconds in local runs, plus Apify's start-up time.

Can I use FMCSA Carrier Check from an AI agent (MCP)?

Yes, through Apify's MCP server, from Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any other MCP client. Add this to your client's MCP configuration; your client signs you in to Apify:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=humble-echidna/fmcsa-carrier-check"
    }
  }
}

To use an Apify API token instead of signing in, add "headers": {"Authorization": "Bearer <APIFY_TOKEN>"} next to url.

The agent passes the numbers, e.g. {"dotNumbers": ["80806"]} or {"docketNumbers": ["MC138328"]}, and reads flags, operatingAuthorityStatus, insurance and outOfService for a yes/no answer, with sources for how current each part is.

Who it's for

Freight brokers and 3PLs who vet a carrier before tendering a load and keep watching the carriers they've approved, and the TMS, load-board and compliance software that does it for them. The recurring job: the same few hundred or thousand carriers, checked before every load or every morning, with an alert only when authority, insurance or out-of-service status changes.

Why this one?

• Live where it matters. USDOT status, operating authority and out-of-service come from each carrier's SAFER page at run time, so a carrier FMCSA hasn't moved to its new system yet still gets its current authority. In a sample of 52 such carriers on 2026-10-04, 4 had a different authority status on SAFER than in the frozen May files (3 now out of service, 1 newly authorized).
• Honest about freshness. Every part of the record names its source and date in sources; insurance that only exists in FMCSA's frozen 2026-05-14 files is flagged.
• Monitor mode with the change itself. Only changed carriers come back, each with before and after per field; an unchanged carrier costs $0.20 per 1,000.
• Screening-ready. Policies are de-duplicated (Motus repeats each one per authority), amounts are dollars, dates are ISO, and the flags list covers the usual broker checks.
• One price per carrier. No compute, proxy or storage charges on top, apart from the $0.00005 run-start fee.
• Polite and safe. It identifies itself honestly (User-Agent HumbleEchidnaApify), follows the portal's robots.txt and its Crawl-delay of one request a second, reads SAFER one page at a time with a second between pages, and only contacts data.transportation.gov and safer.fmcsa.dot.gov.
• Reliable. A bad number never affects the others, and a dataset that fails fails its batch rather than returning a record with a hole in it. The log and RUN_STATS say which input had a problem and why.

Limits

• Insurance for carriers not yet in Motus is from 2026-05-14. FMCSA stopped updating its old Licensing & Insurance files on that date, and its Licensing & Insurance website (li-public.fmcsa.dot.gov) is retired for filings and behind a reCAPTCHA, so it isn't read. Carriers that haven't moved to Motus (most of them in October 2026) get the snapshot's insurance and authority history, flagged; their authority status, USDOT status and out-of-service status are live from SAFER. Confirm such a carrier's insurance on saferUrl before relying on it.
• The live check is one SAFER page a second: about 1,000 carriers in 18 minutes. For big batch jobs where the daily datasets are enough, switch Live check off (about 1,000 carriers a minute).
• SAFER's page is a day or two behind FMCSA's systems (it states its own date, in sources), and it leaves the safety rating off an out-of-service carrier's page; the census' rating is used then.
• No name search: look carriers up by USDOT or docket number. Many carriers are one-person businesses registered under the owner's name, and a name search would make this a people search.
• No cell phone or fax: too few carriers file them to be useful (2.4% and 12% in a 2026-10-04 sample).
• No CSA/SMS BASIC scores, inspections or crash records.

FAQ

Is it legal to use FMCSA carrier data?

The data is FMCSA's own: open data on the US DOT portal (each dataset's metadata says "Public Access Level: public"), read through the portal's documented Socrata API, and each carrier's public SAFER Company Snapshot, which FMCSA offers "to industry and the public over the Internet". No login is used. As a US government publication it isn't under copyright, and DOT's own site policy treats information on its sites as public information that "may be distributed or copied". FMCSA's disclaimer says the data is a snapshot "for informational purposes only", so treat it as a screening input, not a legal determination. The registered name, phone, addresses, officers and email are the public registration details of a licensed carrier, as FMCSA publishes them, returned for verification.

How fresh is the data?

sources gives each part's source and date. What's live and what isn't:

Part	Source	How current
USDOT status, operating authority status, out-of-service status and date	SAFER, at run time	SAFER's stated date, a day or two behind (2026-10-02 on a 2026-10-04 run)
Names, addresses, phone, DUNS, fleet, MCS-150, classification, operation, cargo, safety rating	SAFER (the census when SAFER has no record)	Same
Company officers, email	Census	Daily (but self-reported on the MCS-150, so only as fresh as the carrier's last filing)
Out-of-service order history, docket active flags, trucks, buses, hazmat	FMCSA's daily datasets	Refreshed daily by about 9:30 US Eastern
Authority history and insurance, carriers in Motus	Motus datasets	Daily
Authority history and insurance, carriers not in Motus yet	Legacy files	Frozen on 2026-05-14

With Live check off, everything comes from the datasets, and authority status for carriers not in Motus is the 2026-05-14 snapshot.

Why did a USDOT or MC number return nothing?

The log and RUN_STATS say why, per line: not a valid number, a USDOT number the census doesn't have, a docket number FMCSA's authority records don't have, or a dataset that couldn't be read (retried next run). None of these are charged.

Can I get only the carriers that changed since my last run?

Yes: switch on Only changed carriers (monitor) (onlyChanges). The memory lives in a key-value store named fmcsa-carrier-check-memory in your own Apify account, one per monitor name or task, and moves on only for carriers you actually received, so a run cut by your maximum cost reports the change next time.

How is this different from FMCSA's SAFER website or QCMobile API?

SAFER shows one carrier at a time to a person, without insurance policies; QCMobile needs a key you register for. FMCSA Carrier Check reads SAFER's current status for each carrier and joins it with the insurance policies, cancellations, orders and authority history from FMCSA's open datasets into one record, for thousands of carriers per run, with a change monitor on top. The gap is insurance for carriers not in Motus yet (above).

Do I need a Socrata app token?

No. Without one, the portal may throttle a busy shared address; the actor waits and retries. If you check thousands of carriers often, a free token from your own data.transportation.gov account (Developer settings) avoids that.

Related actors

Actor	Use it when
Join Datasets	You want the results joined back onto your own carrier list (CSV or dataset) by USDOT number.
Dataset Transformer	You want a flat CSV or Excel of just a few fields, or only the carriers with flags.
Dataset Diff	You keep your own snapshots and want new, changed and removed rows between any two.

Feedback and support

Found a bug, or need a field FMCSA publishes that isn't here? Open an issue on the Issues tab with the input you used.

Versions

Current version: 0.1. See the Changelog tab for what changed in each version.