Built for brokers and 3PL carrier-sales reps in the 20-minute window between tender and pickup.
Stop double-brokers from costing you a load.
Paste a carrier name, MC, DOT, or VIN. Get verified operating authority, current insurance, fraud flags, and observed lane footprint — refreshed daily. Free, no signup.
- Authority
- Insurance
- Inspections
- VIN-level
What a free public lookup doesn't show you
Same MC, two views. A free public lookup gives you raw registration fields. Carrier Check joins authority, current insurance, observed equipment, and fraud rules so the three numbers a broker actually needs — is the authority real, is the insurance live, and are they who they say they are — surface in one card.
- Dormant MC reactivatedNo inspections 2022-04 → 2025-09. Authority reactivated 38 days ago.
- VIN reuse across MCs3 VINs observed under 2 other active MCs in the last 12 months.
- Fleet size mismatchClaimed 120 power units. Observed 7 distinct VINs on inspections.
Illustrative carrier. MC number and data are mocked for the comparison; live carrier records use the same layout.
Everything in Carrier Check
The hero above is the fastest path — paste an identifier and see a card. Below is every tool the site exposes; nothing's hidden behind a sign-up wall.
What Carrier Check actually checks
Each signal below feeds the verification card. We don't re-skin a free public lookup — we join authority, insurance, observed inspections, lanes, and fraud-rule output into a single, broker-facing view.
Active authority status
Verified operating authority (active, inactive, revoked) — refreshed daily. The first thing a fraudster's fake MC can't fake.
Insurance status
Active vs lapsed liability and cargo coverage, drawn from the latest filings on record. Lapsed insurance is the single largest reason brokers eat a load.
Fleet size & power units
Reported vs observed fleet. Big delta is a paper-carrier signal — small carriers claiming hundreds of trucks rarely have them.
Operating states & lane footprint
Where their trucks have actually been inspected in the last 12 months. The observed lane footprint is the ground truth, not the registration address.
OOS rate vs national
Out-of-service rate over the last 365 days, scored against the national baseline. A 2× rate is a real red flag, not a number on a screen.
Active fraud flags
Algorithmic flags from VIN reuse, insurance / cargo mismatches, implausible movement, and dormant-MC reactivation. Each flag links to evidence.
Composite carrier score
A weighted 0–100 score across authority, insurance, dormancy, OOS, fraud, and recency. Bands: offer / consider / avoid.
Dormancy state
Active / stale / warning / dormant — derived from recent inspection history. Reactivated dormant MCs are the textbook double-broker setup.
Authority churn
How often the carrier has gone in and out of authority. Frequent churn is correlated with both insurance gaps and identity-flip fraud.
How to verify a carrier in three steps
The tool is the page. There's no form, no popup, no signup gating the basic verification flow.
- Step 1
Paste an identifier
Drop in any MC number, DOT number, or 17-character VIN. The search bar at the top accepts all three and figures out which is which.
- Step 2
See a verification card
The card resolves in place — no page navigation. Authority, fleet size, dormancy state, fraud signal count, and the composite carrier score render directly under the search.
- Step 3
Check the MC, vet the carrier
If the card looks good, hit "View full profile" for the deep view: lane footprint, inspection history, score breakdown, and the evidence behind every fraud flag.
Free for everyone. Sign in to go deeper.
The verification card a broker needs during a tender window is free, no signup. Signing in unlocks the evidence behind every flag, form-level insurance, and bulk tools — the things a carrier-sales rep or fraud analyst uses across the workday.
- Verification cardFull fraud-flag detail with evidence
- Lane footprintInsurance form-level filings
- Composite carrier scoreSaved searches + history
Frequently asked questions
The questions brokers actually ask when they first land on the tool. The same answers are emitted as Schema.org FAQPage data so Google can surface them in rich results.
How do I verify a carrier?
Paste the carrier's MC number or DOT number into the search bar at the top of this page. Carrier Check resolves the identifier and renders a verification card with active authority, current insurance, fleet size, recent inspection history, and any active fraud signals. For the deep view — lane footprint, score breakdown, full inspection list — click 'View full profile' on the result card.
What is a double-broker check?
A double-broker check verifies that the carrier presenting itself for a load is the real entity behind the MC number, not a fraudster who has hijacked a dormant authority. Carrier Check flags the classic signals: dormant MCs that just reactivated, VINs registered under multiple unrelated authorities, fleet sizes that don't match observed VINs, and insurance limits that are implausible for the claimed fleet. The fraud flags list on every carrier profile surfaces these patterns automatically.
How is this different from a free public carrier lookup?
Free public lookups show you the raw registration fields — legal name, authority date, fleet count claimed, insurance form filings. Carrier Check joins that with two years of observed inspection history, an inferred lane footprint, a composite carrier score, and an algorithmic fraud-flag layer. The verification card is built for the twenty-minute window a broker has between tender and pickup, not for a compliance team's monthly review.
Is Carrier Check free?
Yes. The carrier verification card, the lane lookup, the directory, and the guides are all free to use with no signup. Signing in unlocks search history and insurance-detail / fraud-flag-detail views, but the headline verification flow works for anonymous visitors.
How do I look up a DOT number?
Type or paste any 1–8 digit DOT number into the search bar. The result card renders inline; you don't have to click into a separate page. You can also link directly to /c/<DOT> for a permanent URL — these are the canonical pages we submit to the sitemap and that appear in Google search results.
How do you compute the carrier score?
The composite carrier score is a weighted 0–100 across six components: authority status, insurance status, dormancy state, out-of-service rate vs national, active fraud flags, and inspection recency. Each component is scored 0–100 independently and combined with fixed weights documented on every score card. Bands are offer (≥80), consider (50–79), and avoid (<50). The full breakdown is on the carrier profile page.
What does the dormancy state mean?
Dormancy is a bucket derived from recent inspection history: active (inspected within the last 90 days), stale (90–180 days), warning (180–365 days), or dormant (365+ days). Reactivated dormant MCs are the textbook double-broker setup — a fraudster buys a dormant authority, slaps a fresh name on it, and starts booking loads. The dormancy badge on the verification card surfaces this in one glance.
Do you sell my searches?
No. Anonymous searches are not logged to any account. Signed-in searches are kept in your own user_search_history so you can revisit recent lookups; that history is private to you and never sold or shared. The aggregate query stream feeds product analytics (popular DOTs, common queries) but not individual targeting.
Where does the data come from?
Public-domain carrier filings — operating authority, insurance, roadside inspections, and registry data — refreshed daily. We're happy to walk through specific provenance with customers and regulators on request. The value we add is in the joins (lane footprint from inspection activity, fraud rules across VIN and MC tables, identity-graph reconciliation) and in surfacing the result fast enough to use during a live tender.