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Carrier Vetting · FMCSA SAFER

MC/DOT Authority & SAFER Snapshot Decoder

Plain-English guide to reading an FMCSA SAFER Company Snapshot when vetting a carrier, plus a quick calculator for how long a carrier's operating authority has been active — a key new-entrant risk signal.

1 · Snapshot field decoder 2 · New-authority risk calc

Reading the SAFER Company Snapshot

What each field means and what "good" looks like when you're deciding whether to book a carrier.
safer.fmcsa.dot.gov/CompanySnapshot.aspx
Operating Status
ACTIVE
Entity Type
CARRIER
Common / Contract / Broker
ACTIVE / ACTIVE / NONE
BIPD / Cargo Insurance
ON FILE / ON FILE
MC/DOT Grant Date
04 / 2026 — feeds the calc below
MCS-150 Filed
Within 24 mo
Driver / Vehicle OOS %
6.1% / 21.4%
Safety Rating
NONE / NOT RATED
Mockup for illustration — field layout mirrors the live Snapshot; pull the real record before booking.
Operating Status

Whether the carrier currently holds valid, in-force operating authority to run for-hire interstate freight. This is the single most important field — everything else is secondary if this is wrong.

ACTIVEAuthority is currently valid. Required before you dispatch a load to this carrier.
NOT AUTHORIZEDNo active authority — MC number was revoked, involuntarily revoked, or never fully granted. Cannot legally haul for-hire freight.
INACTIVEAuthority lapsed (often for failing to maintain insurance filings or missing a biennial update). Do not book.
OUT-OF-SERVICEFMCSA has ordered the carrier to cease all operations — an active federal OOS order. Absolute no-book.
Good looks like:"ACTIVE" — and cross-checked against Authorized For / Common / Contract / Broker below, matching the service you're actually buying.
Authority Types — Common / Contract / Broker

SAFER shows separate authority registrations. A carrier can hold more than one, or none.

COMMONAuthority to haul general freight for any shipper, published open to the public. The typical authority for a for-hire truckload carrier.
CONTRACTAuthority to haul under specific bilateral contracts, not open-market. Some carriers hold both common and contract.
BROKERAuthority to arrange transportation, not to physically haul it. If a "carrier" only shows Broker authority (no Common/Contract), they cannot legally move your freight themselves — a common double-brokering red flag.
NONENot registered for that authority type at all.
Good looks like:Common and/or Contract shows ACTIVE for a trucking vendor. If Broker authority is also active on the same MC, confirm in writing who is physically hauling the load before you tender it.
Insurance on File — BIPD & Cargo

Shows whether the carrier's insurer has an active BMC-91/91X (Bodily Injury & Property Damage liability) or BMC-34 (cargo) filing on record with FMCSA. This reflects a filing, not a policy you can independently verify limits or exclusions for — always request a certificate of insurance (COI) directly from the carrier's agent for your own file.

BIPD Required / On FileStandard for-hire property carriers need a minimum of $750,000 BIPD (higher for hazmat/passenger classes). "On file" means the insurer has an active filing — SAFER does not show the dollar amount here, only that a filing exists.
Cargo — Not Required / None on FileCargo insurance is not federally mandated for all carrier types the way BIPD is, so many legitimately show "not required." If your freight has real value, confirm cargo coverage and limits directly with the carrier regardless of what SAFER shows.
Required but blank / lapsedA required insurance type showing no active filing is a strong signal authority is about to go inactive, or already has for insurance reasons.
Good looks like:BIPD "on file" for the required amount, plus a current COI you've collected independently that matches the carrier's legal name and MC/DOT number.
MCS-150 Mileage & Filing Date

The MCS-150 is the biennial census/identification form every carrier must file with FMCSA (49 CFR § 390.19) — filing month is tied to the last digit of the DOT number, filing year to whether the next-to-last digit is odd or even. It's the source of the power unit count, driver count, and mileage figures shown on the Snapshot.

Filed within ~24 monthsCurrent and compliant. Power unit / mileage figures are a reasonably fresh self-report.
> 24 months oldCarrier has missed its biennial update — FMCSA can and does deactivate the DOT number for this. Treat as a red flag even if Operating Status still shows Active; deactivation can be imminent.
Good looks like:A filing date inside the last two years, with a power-unit/driver count that's plausible for the fleet size the carrier is representing to you.
Out-of-Service (OOS) Rates — Driver / Vehicle / Hazmat

Percentage of roadside inspections in the last 24 months that resulted in a driver, vehicle, or hazmat OOS order — the carrier failed the inspection badly enough to be pulled off the road on the spot. FMCSA publishes national average thresholds (used as the "top 30%" cutoff for the Hazardous Materials Safety Permit program) that double as a useful public benchmark for any carrier.

Below national averageCarrier's OOS rate is under the published threshold for its category — performing better than most of its peers.
At or above national averageCarrier is in the worst-performing tier for that inspection category. Combine with low inspection-count caution (see below) before over-weighting a single bad number.
CategoryNational average threshold
Driver OOS rate9.68%
Vehicle OOS rate33.33%
Hazmat OOS rate6.82%
Good looks like:Rates below the thresholds above, on a meaningful number of inspections (a "0%" OOS rate on 1 inspection is not the same signal as 0% on 40 inspections — check the inspection count, not just the rate).
Safety Rating

FMCSA's formal rating from a full Compliance Review, distinct from OOS rates or CSA scores.

SATISFACTORYPassed a full compliance review.
NONE / Not RatedMost carriers — especially newer or smaller ones — have never been reviewed. This is normal, not a red flag by itself.
CONDITIONALReviewed and found deficient in one or more safety management areas, but not severe enough to be Unsatisfactory.
UNSATISFACTORYFailed review. Federal property carriers with this rating are subject to an out-of-service order 45 days after the rating is issued — do not book.

New-authority risk mini-calc

Enter the MC/DOT authority grant date from the Snapshot to see how long the carrier has been active and where that falls against FMCSA's own new-entrant monitoring window.
Authority active for
—
0 mo6 mo12 mo18 mo (new entrant ends)
— MONTHS ACTIVE Enter a grant date
Everything above is decoded from the last time you pulled the Snapshot. Pull the live record before you book. Open live SAFER Snapshot →

Why authority age matters

Under FMCSA's New Entrant Safety Assurance Program (49 CFR Part 385, Subpart D), every newly authorized carrier is classified as a "new entrant" for its first 18 months of operation. During that window FMCSA is actively monitoring the carrier's safety performance and has not yet completed the new-entrant safety audit that confirms basic safety management controls are in place — the carrier is legally allowed to haul freight, but the federal safety vetting process on them is still incomplete.

Authority age is one input, not a verdict. A 4-month-old carrier can be completely legitimate; an 8-year-old carrier can have been recently sold, re-flagged, or associated with a fraud pattern. Combine this with the Snapshot fields above and independent verification (call the carrier's listed phone number, confirm insurance directly with the agent, check for recent authority reinstatements) before you dispatch.

Source — Snapshot fields, authority types, insurance filings: FMCSA SAFER Company Snapshot & L&I system, safer.fmcsa.dot.gov; operating authority types per fmcsa.dot.gov/registration/types-operating-authority.
Source — MCS-150 biennial update: 49 CFR § 390.19, ecfr.gov/current/title-49/.../section-390.19.
Source — New Entrant Safety Assurance Program (18-month window): 49 CFR Part 385, Subpart D, ecfr.gov/current/title-49/.../part-385/subpart-D; program overview at fmcsa.dot.gov/safety/new-entrant-safety-assurance-program.
Source — OOS national average thresholds (9.68% driver / 33.33% vehicle / 6.82% hazmat): FMCSA Hazardous Materials Safety Permit "top 30%" cutoff rates, safer.fmcsa.dot.gov/HazMatRates.aspx and fmcsa.dot.gov — HMSP top-30% calculation. These are the most current published FMCSA national-average cutoffs at time of writing — verify against the live SAFER page, as FMCSA updates them periodically.