How freight brokers vet a carrier before tendering a load

Why vetting is the broker's job

A broker, as 49 CFR 371.2 defines it, arranges the transportation of property by an authorized motor carrier. The shipper hands you its freight because it trusts you to choose who hauls it. When the carrier you pick is uninsured, unauthorized or not who it said it was, the shipper's first call is to you.

The federal rules also put the carrier's identity on your books. Under 49 CFR 371.3 a broker keeps a record of each transaction that shows, among other things, the name, address and registration number of the originating motor carrier, and keeps it for three years. If you cannot say with confidence which carrier moved a load, you cannot keep that record honestly.

Good vetting is not about collecting paper. It is about answering one question before every tender: is this company, today, legally able and practically equipped to move this load, and am I really talking to it?

Step 1: operating authority and registration

Every for-hire interstate carrier has a USDOT number, and a carrier hauling regulated property for hire across state lines also needs operating authority, which FMCSA tracks under a docket number (the MC number for most carriers). Look both up in FMCSA's public systems: the SAFER company snapshot and the Licensing and Insurance (L&I) site. Do this yourself, from FMCSA's site, rather than relying on a screenshot or PDF the carrier sends.

What to check:

• Authority status. Property authority should show as active. Pending, inactive, revoked or "out of service" status means the carrier cannot legally take your load.
• Authority type. A company with broker authority only is not a carrier. If the "carrier" you are about to book holds only broker authority, it would have to hand your load to someone else.
• Legal name, DBA and address. They should match the W-9, the certificate of insurance and the carrier agreement. A name that differs anywhere is a question to answer before the tender, not after.
• Operation type and cargo. The registration lists what the carrier says it hauls. A carrier registered only for one type of freight is a poor fit for something very different.
• Safety rating and out-of-service orders. An unsatisfactory rating or an active out-of-service order is a stop.
• Recent changes. A carrier whose contact details, address or officers changed very recently deserves an extra phone call (see Step 4).

Not sure which registrations a given operation needs? The FMCSA registration checker walks through them for carriers and brokers.

Step 2: insurance that covers this load

Federal rules require a for-hire motor carrier to have public liability security filed with and accepted by FMCSA before it operates, and to keep it in effect (49 CFR 387.301(a)). FMCSA's L&I records show whether that filing is active. Cargo security on file with FMCSA is required only of household goods carriers (49 CFR 387.301(b)), so for general freight the cargo coverage you require is a matter of your contract and your shippers' requirements, not something FMCSA's records will confirm for you.

That makes the certificate of insurance (COI) the working document, and a COI is only as good as its source. Request it directly from the carrier's insurance agent, not from the carrier, and confirm with the agent by phone or email at the agent's published contact when anything looks off. Then read it:

A certificate is a snapshot. Under 49 CFR 387.7(b)(1) a carrier's policy can be cancelled by either the insurer or the carrier on 35 days' written notice, so a certificate that was accurate last month may describe a policy that is ending. Record every expiry date and re-check before you rely on it again.

Step 3: equipment and capability fit

A legitimate, insured carrier can still be the wrong carrier for a load. Before tendering, confirm:

• Equipment type and size. Dry van, reefer, flatbed, step deck, container chassis or power only, and trailer length, door type and any securement the load needs.
• Temperature control. For a reefer load, the unit's capability and whether the carrier records temperatures in transit, plus the reefer breakdown coverage noted above.
• Hazardous materials. If the load is regulated hazmat, the carrier and driver must be qualified and registered to haul it. Ask, and confirm in the registration.
• Lanes and capacity. Whether the carrier actually runs the lane and has a truck in position for the pickup date. A carrier that will accept any lane, any equipment, any date is a reason to slow down.
• Facility requirements. Appointment windows, port or rail credentials, liftgates, and anything else the shipper or receiver has said they need.

Step 4: confirm who you are talking to

The most common way a broker loses a load is not a sketchy carrier but a criminal using a good carrier's name, USDOT number and MC number. The authority and insurance checks above all pass, because the carrier is real; the person on the other end of the phone is not. Identity checks close that gap:

• Call back on the number in FMCSA's records or a number you have used with this carrier before, not the one in the email signature, and confirm that the person and the load are known to them.
• Check the email domain. A free webmail address, or a domain that is one letter off the carrier's real one, is a flag. Compare it with earlier messages from the same carrier.
• Match the paperwork. The W-9 legal name and taxpayer number, the COI's named insured and the agreement's signatory should all agree with FMCSA's records.
• Verify remit-to and bank details by phone before the first payment and any time they change. A request to change where you send payment, arriving by email, is one of the clearest warning signs in freight.
• Get the driver and truck before pickup. Driver name, phone, truck and trailer numbers. Every self-propelled commercial vehicle must show the operating carrier's legal or trade name and its USDOT number on both sides (49 CFR 390.21), and the shipper can check that the truck at the dock matches what you were told.

Our article on double brokering and freight fraud covers the warning signs and the controls at pickup and payment in more detail.

Step 5: the broker-carrier agreement

No carrier should see its first load until a signed broker-carrier agreement is on file. The agreement is where you set the terms federal registration does not. Common clauses include:

• No re-brokering, co-brokering or interlining without your written consent, so the carrier you vetted is the carrier that hauls.
• Insurance minimums for liability and cargo, with a duty to notify you of cancellation or change, and you named as certificate holder.
• Cargo liability. A carrier that issues a receipt or bill of lading is liable to the person entitled to recover for actual loss or injury to the property under 49 U.S.C. 14706. The agreement usually states how claims are filed and handled with you as the intermediary.
• Payment terms and documents. What paperwork the carrier must send (signed proof of delivery, bill of lading, lumper receipts) before it is paid, and how a notice of assignment to a factoring company is handled.
• Independent contractor status, indemnity and compliance with federal and state law.

Each load then gets its own rate confirmation that names the carrier, the load and the agreed rate, and refers back to the agreement. Have counsel review the template; this article is not legal advice.

Ongoing monitoring: vetting does not end at onboarding

A carrier that passed every check last quarter can have its authority revoked, its insurance cancelled or its identity stolen this week. Build re-checks into the workflow rather than relying on memory:

• Before each tender, confirm authority status and that the insurance you hold on file has not expired.
• Track every expiry date you hold: liability, cargo, and any other documents your agreement requires. Ask for renewals before the date, not after.
• Watch for changes in contact details, ownership, remit-to and email domain, and treat any change as a reason to call back.
• Keep performance on record: on-time pickup and delivery, how often the carrier accepts your tenders, and claims. A falling record is worth a conversation before it becomes a lost load.
• Keep the file. The documents you checked and when you checked them are your evidence if a load goes wrong, alongside the transaction record 49 CFR 371.3 already requires.

Carrier vetting checklist

How TruckerPro helps a brokerage keep this straight

TruckerPro does not look up authority for you; that check stays with FMCSA's own sites. What it does is hold the results and enforce them. Each carrier's insurance, UCR and IFTA expiry dates are tracked and shown as Ready, Expiring (within 30 days), Missing or Expired, and insurance expiry alerts cover carriers' liability and cargo policies. When you tender a load, an eligibility check leaves out carriers with the wrong equipment or with liability or cargo insurance on file that has expired, and ranking uses only your own carriers.

Carriers you invite get their own portal, with a password and a second sign-in factor, where they accept, decline or counter your tenders and upload PODs, bills of lading and insurance certificates. Every offer, counter and response is logged. Broker Basic covers tendering, the carrier portal, invoicing and payables; Broker Everything adds waterfall and broadcast tendering, carrier scorecards and margin rules. See TruckerPro for brokers, or how a broker TMS differs from a carrier TMS.