DOT Number Lookup & FMCSA Carrier Check API

This DOT number lookup checks motor carriers in bulk against official FMCSA data: USDOT status, MC number and operating authority, insurance on file, safety rating, out-of-service orders, and 24 months of inspections and crashes. You can look up by USDOT number, by MC number or by company name, or upload your whole carrier list. Every fact comes from the FMCSA files that the U.S. Department of Transportation publishes as open data, and each carrier also gets a risk level and, for your own list, a check that the record really is the company you have on file.

What does DOT Number Lookup do?

Freight brokers, shippers and insurers vet carriers before every load or policy. On the FMCSA website that means one carrier at a time. This Actor does it for hundreds of carriers in one run:

1. Look up USDOT and MC numbers. Paste numbers, get one clean carrier record each.
2. Search carriers by name, optionally within a state.
3. Vet your carrier list. Give your records (USDOT or MC number, or only name and state). Each row gets the FMCSA record, a risk level with the hard flags behind it, and a same company verdict with a probability.

What data you get

Field	What it is
dotNumber, legalName, dbaName	USDOT number and names as registered
usdotStatus	active, inactive or pending
entityType, carrierOperation, businessType	For hire or private, interstate or intrastate, corporation or sole proprietor
mcNumbers, operatingAuthority	Docket numbers; common, contract and broker authority status; pending applications and revocations
operatingAuthority[].bipdRequiredUsd / bipdOnFileUsd	Liability insurance required and on file; cargo and bond required and on file
insurancePolicies	Active and pending filings: type, insurer, policy number, effective and cancellation date, coverage
hasActiveAuthority	True if any common, contract or broker authority is active
safetyRating	Satisfactory, conditional, unsatisfactory or not rated, with dates
outOfServiceOrder	Whether an out-of-service order is active, and the latest order with date and reason
fleet	Power units, trucks, buses, drivers, CDL drivers
hazmat, cargoCarried	Hazmat flag and cargo types
registeredSince, monthsRegistered	USDOT registration date and age
mcs150Date, mcs150AgeMonths, mcs150Mileage	Last biennial update and reported mileage
physicalAddress, phone	Business address and phone
inspections24Months	Inspections, vehicle and driver out-of-service counts and rates, next to the national rates from the same file
crashes24Months	Crashes, fatalities, injuries and tow-aways, plus notPreventableCrashes (crashes FMCSA marked not preventable)
individualOperator	true when the FMCSA census lists the carrier as an individual (sole proprietor or owner-operator), false when it is clearly an organisation (census says corporation or partnership, or the legal name carries a registered legal form such as LLC, INC, CORP, LTD, LP, LLP, PLLC or PC and neither the legal name nor the DBA name looks like a person's name), null when this is not clear, which is the case for most carriers. "Co.", "Company" or "Trucking" in a name do not count as a legal form. null is treated like a possible individual
risk	Level (low, moderate, elevated, high), hard flags, the AI score and a usage note
companyMatch	For your own list: verdict, probability and evidence
saferUrl	The official SAFER company snapshot

Officer names and email addresses are in the FMCSA census, but this Actor leaves them out because vetting does not need them.

How to look up a DOT number step by step

1. Paste USDOT numbers into USDOT numbers or MC numbers into MC numbers.
2. Or put your carrier list into Your carrier list, or link a CSV export.
3. Or search by name under Search carriers by name, for example {"name": "werner enterprises", "state": "NE"}.
4. Click Start. The sample input finishes in about two minutes, because the Actor sends at most one request per second to the open-data portal (as its robots.txt asks). With your own free app token it runs faster.
5. Download JSON, CSV or Excel, or read the results through the API.

How the risk level works

Code reads the hard facts first and sets a minimum level:

Flag set by code	Minimum level
usdot_not_active, active_out_of_service_order, for_hire_without_active_authority, unsatisfactory_rating	high
conditional_rating, liability_insurance_below_required, authority_revocation_pending	elevated
mcs150_older_than_24_months, new_carrier_under_12_months, vehicle or driver out-of-service rate above 1.5 times the national rate (at least 10 inspections)	moderate

Then an AI judge reads the whole record, including fleet size next to crash and inspection counts, and gives a calibrated level on the same four-step scale. The final level is the AI level, but never below the minimum from code, and the AI alone can never set high: it can raise a carrier at most to elevated. So an active out-of-service order is always high, whatever else the record says.

Crashes that FMCSA marked as not preventable stay in the output but are left out of the risk input, so a carrier is never rated higher because of a crash it could not have prevented.

The risk level supports your own review. It must not be the sole basis for decisions about individual owner-operators. high always needs one of the hard official facts above (inactive USDOT number, active out-of-service order, for-hire without active authority, unsatisfactory rating). Every row carries this note in risk.note. For carriers that may be individuals, risk.note also says that the record is not a consumer report under the US FCRA.

How the same-company match works

For each row of your list the Actor compares your company name and address with the FMCSA legal name, DBA name and physical address. Legal forms (LLC, Inc., Corp.) are separated first, then code compares names, state, city and ZIP. An AI judge returns the probability that it is the same business, and code turns it into same, uncertain, related (for example an older inactive registration of the same business) or different. When you give only a name and state, up to five candidates are compared and the best one is returned.

How much does it cost?

Pay per event:

Event	Price	When
Carrier record	$0.004	Each carrier found: census, authority, insurance, out-of-service orders, inspections and crashes
Risk label	$0.003	Each carrier that gets a risk level
Company match	$0.006	Each row of your own list compared with the FMCSA record
Actor start	$0.00005	Once per run

Not charged: numbers that are not in the FMCSA census and rows where the open-data service did not answer. Example: vetting 500 carriers from your TMS with risk level and match costs about $6.50.

Input

{
  "dotNumbers": ["264184", "53467"],
  "mcNumbers": ["MC-138328"],
  "records": [
    {"reference": "C-1", "dotNumber": "264184", "name": "Schneider National Carriers, Inc.", "state": "WI"},
    {"reference": "C-2", "name": "Blue Water Trucking LLC", "state": "GA"}
  ],
  "carrierSearch": [{"name": "werner enterprises", "state": "NE"}],
  "includeSafetyHistory": true,
  "riskLabel": true,
  "companyMatch": true
}

CSV columns for your list: dotNumber (or dot, usdot), mcNumber (or mc), name, city, state, zip, reference.

Output

One row from the sample run on 29 October 2026 (shortened):

{
  "dotNumber": "53467",
  "legalName": "WERNER ENTERPRISES INC",
  "usdotStatus": "active",
  "entityType": "PRIVATE PROPERTY;AUTHORIZED FOR HIRE",
  "carrierOperation": "interstate",
  "mcNumbers": ["MC138328"],
  "hasActiveAuthority": true,
  "safetyRating": {"rating": "satisfactory", "ratingDate": "1995-08-08", "reviewDate": "1995-08-04"},
  "outOfServiceOrder": {"active": false, "latest": null, "ordersOnRecord": 0},
  "fleet": {"powerUnits": 9863, "trucks": 9821, "buses": 42, "drivers": 9107, "cdlDrivers": 9107},
  "hazmat": true,
  "registeredSince": "1974-06-01",
  "mcs150Date": "2024-07-23",
  "mcs150AgeMonths": 27,
  "physicalAddress": {"street": "14507 FRONTIER ROAD", "city": "OMAHA", "state": "NE", "postalCode": "68138", "country": "US"},
  "inspections24Months": {
    "inspections": 11654, "vehicleInspections": 6250, "vehicleOutOfService": 1243,
    "vehicleOosRate": 0.199, "nationalVehicleOosRate": 0.226,
    "driverInspections": 11641, "driverOutOfService": 113,
    "driverOosRate": 0.01, "nationalDriverOosRate": 0.061, "hazmatOutOfService": 11
  },
  "crashes24Months": {"crashes": 675, "fatalities": 15, "injuries": 301, "towAways": 652},
  "risk": {"level": "moderate", "flags": ["mcs150_older_than_24_months"], "aiScore0to3": 0.64, "confidence": 0.36},
  "summary": "USDOT 53467: WERNER ENTERPRISES INC, USDOT active, operating authority active. Risk: moderate."
}

In the same run, a carrier with an out-of-service order issued two days earlier came back as high with the flag active_out_of_service_order, and a for-hire carrier whose authority was inactive and whose last MCS-150 dated from 2008 also came back as high.

Use cases

• Freight brokers: vet a new carrier before tendering a load; re-check your whole carrier base every week.
• Shippers and 3PLs: audit the carriers your brokers use.
• Insurers and factoring companies: check authority, insurance filings and crash history of carrier businesses as one input to your own commercial review (not as a consumer report on individuals; see the FAQ).
• Fleet and compliance teams: find overdue MCS-150 updates and authority issues in your own registrations.

Why not the FMCSA website or the QCMobile API?

The SAFER website shows one carrier per page. The FMCSA QCMobile API needs a personal web key and is built for looking up one carrier at a time. This Actor reads the same FMCSA data from data.transportation.gov, where FMCSA publishes the census, authority, insurance, out-of-service and SMS files as public open data, joins them into one record per carrier and adds the risk level and the match. No key is needed.

FAQ

Is this official FMCSA data?

Yes. Every field comes from FMCSA datasets published on data.transportation.gov, the U.S. Department of Transportation open-data portal: the Company Census File, the Carrier (authority) file, active and pending insurance, out-of-service orders, and the SMS input files for inspections and crashes. The risk level and the company match are added by this Actor and are marked as such.

Where does the data come from and how may I use it?

The Actor reads only datasets that FMCSA publishes on data.transportation.gov as public U.S. government open data (dataset rights: public). You are responsible for using the results lawfully. This is not a consumer report: do not use it for employment, consumer credit, personal insurance or tenant decisions (US FCRA). Many carriers are sole proprietors, so some names, addresses and phone numbers are personal data. Use them only for carrier vetting and follow the privacy rules that apply to you. The Actor leaves out officer names and emails.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by FMCSA or the U.S. DOT.

What happens to the data I put in?

Your input and the results are stored in your own Apify account (dataset and key-value store of the run) under your Apify retention settings. When the risk level or the company match is switched on, the carrier record and, for the match, the name and address from your list are sent to an external AI scoring service that returns the score. Switch off riskLabel and companyMatch to keep all data within the run on Apify.

How current is the data?

The census, authority, insurance and out-of-service files are updated daily on data.transportation.gov. The SMS inspection and crash files are updated monthly and cover the last 24 months. The run summary lists the sources.

Does FMCSA have an API?

Yes, the QCMobile API, which needs a free web key. The open-data files used here need no key. See "Why not the FMCSA website or the QCMobile API?" above.

How much does a DOT number lookup cost?

$0.004 per carrier record, $0.003 for the risk level and $0.006 for the match against your own record.

Is the risk level an FMCSA safety rating?

No. The safety rating field is FMCSA's own rating. The risk level is this Actor's summary to help your review: hard facts set the minimum in code, and a calibrated AI level is added on top. It must not be the sole basis for decisions about individual owner-operators.

How accurate is the company match?

The probability is calibrated across many rows. The hard cases are generic names ("Blue Water Trucking" exists in several states). Add the state, city or ZIP to your records for the best results.

Can I use it from Python, n8n, Make or an AI agent (MCP)?

Yes. Every Apify Actor has a REST API, Python and JavaScript clients, and integrations with n8n, Make, Zapier and MCP-capable AI agents. See the API tab.

Can I monitor my carriers every day?

Yes. Save your carrier list as an Actor task and schedule it daily or weekly in Apify. Compare the risk level and the out-of-service flag between runs.

About Reliable Tools

Reliable Tools builds compliance and lookup Actors on official public registries, with calibrated AI checks where a plain lookup leaves a question open. Found a problem or need a field? Open an issue on the Issues tab and we answer fast.