Free · No signup · Updated for Montgomery v. Caribe Transport

Carrier Safety Audit

Paste a list of carrier DOT numbers. We pull live FMCSA safety data, compare against industry-standard thresholds, and return a defensible pre-tender risk report in seconds.

One-click check on any carrier page

Add the Check Carrier button to your bookmarks bar. Then on a carrier email (Gmail / Outlook) or a TMS load page, click it — it reads the page, pulls the DOT/MC, and opens an instant safety check — a sidebar on pages that allow it (most TMS), otherwise a new tab.

Check Carrier drag me up to your bookmarks bar
  1. 1. Show your bookmarks bar (⌘⇧B / Ctrl+Shift+B).
  2. 2. Drag the green Check Carrier button up into it.
  3. 3. Open a carrier email or load page and click it.

Tip: on a busy inbox, open the specific email first (or highlight the carrier's block) so the check focuses on that carrier.

It'll show your browser's generic globe icon — browsers can't attach a custom icon to a javascript: bookmark. (Functionally identical; the icon's just cosmetic.)

Why brokers now need a documented audit trail

The ruling

In Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, 608 U.S. ___ (2026), the Supreme Court unanimously held that the FAAAA's safety exception preserves state negligent-hiring claims against freight brokers. The pre-emption defense brokers relied on since 2023 is gone.

The standard

Brokers must exercise ordinary care in selecting carriers. In practice: check FMCSA safety data (OOS rates, crash history, authority, insurance) before tendering, document what you saw, and explain any override.

The record

Every load you tender now needs a documented trail — what safety data you saw, when, and the reasoning for any override. Operationally straightforward; the gap is what creates exposure.

Not legal advice. Read the opinion.

Run an audit

One carrier per line. Format: DOT or DOT, LoadID or DOT, LoadID, HAZMAT. Up to 7,500 loads per submission.

⌘ + ↵Anonymous. We don't store your carrier or load IDs.

Want this report every morning — plus the audit trail?

Augie — Augment's AI teammate for supply chain — checks every carrier behind the scenes and documents who's compliant for your records and who isn't, so you can fix it before it becomes an issue.

Augie also handles the rest of the brokerage workflow: carrier selection, track-and-trace, POD collection, customer email triage.

Book a 15-minute demo

Methodology

How scoring works

Each carrier is scored on nine axes, then compared against peer-group percentiles from the May 2026 FMCSA snapshot (~2 million US carriers). Carriers compete against similarly-sized fleets — a 10-truck carrier isn't graded against Schneider. The result table's cell color tells you that axis's status; hover any cell for the exact peer cutoff used.

  1. Crashes per million miles — raw crash count over 24 months ÷ annual VMT × 2. Industry-standard safety metric.
  2. Unsafe Driving rate — driver inspections that found any 49 CFR Part 392 violation (speeding, reckless, distracted, lane changes) ÷ total driver inspections.
  3. HOS Compliance rate — driver inspections with any Hours-of-Service violation ÷ total driver inspections.
  4. Driver OOS rate — driver inspections that ended out-of-service ÷ total driver inspections (last 24 months).
  5. Vehicle OOS rate — same denominator structure, vehicle violations.
  6. Hazmat OOS rate — same, hazmat-placarded inspections only.
  7. Revocations — flags only an involuntary revocation in the last 24 months. Older history is surfaced in the tooltip as context but does not contribute to the tier (a carrier whose authority was pulled in 2006 and has been clean since is not a current risk). Voluntary revocations never trigger a flag.
  8. Operating authority — binary: Active vs. not.
  9. BIPD insurance — required amount vs. on-file amount.

Risk tiers

The overall tier is the worst per-axis status, with bumps for compound signals and the carrier's risk score. Four tiers: Critical, High, Medium, Low.

TierMeaningWhen it fires
CriticalRefuse to tenderBinary regulatory failure (insurance lapsed / BIPD on file < required, FMCSA rating Unsatisfactory, authority not Active); or worst 5% within peer group on an axis; or recent involuntary revocation with any statistical signal; or a multi-signal chameleon cluster; or a high risk score (≥60).
HighNeeds documented overrideWorst 10% within peer group; or recent involuntary revocation (≤24mo); or large enforcement settlement ≥$25k; or crash rate ≥2.0 per million miles (absolute floor); or FAST-Act high-risk; or a moderate risk score (≥30 — e.g. insurance churn + high-risk insurer, or $0 BIPD + new authority).
MediumOperator awarenessWorst 15% within peer group on at least one axis. Not blocking — surface the signal in your audit trail.
LowClear to tenderNo axis flagged and no regulatory, insurance, or risk-score signal — the clean baseline.

Peer groups (by power units)

Industry-standard fleet-size buckets. Cutoffs differ markedly across groups because operational reality differs — mega fleets run safer than owner-ops because of scale (dedicated safety teams, pre-trip programs, newer equipment).

Owner-op
1 PU
Small
2-50 PU
Mid
51-250 PU
Large
251-1000 PU
Mega
1000+ PU

Sample cutoffs — Small fleet (2-50 PU)

Statistical axes flag Critical only at the 95th percentile of the carrier's peer group — a ≈1-in-20 outlier. Below are the P95 cutoffs for a Small fleet. The actual cutoff depends on the carrier's peer group; hover any cell in the result table to see the exact value used.

SignalCritical cutoff (P95)
Crashes per million miles≥ 3.66
Unsafe Driving rate≥ 50%
HOS Compliance rate≥ 48%
Driver OOS rate≥ 38%
Vehicle OOS rate≥ 67%
Hazmat OOS rate≥ 25%

For comparison: Mega fleets (1000+ PU) face tighter cutoffs because of scale — Driver OOS P95 ≈ 7%, Vehicle OOS P95 ≈ 35%, Crashes/M mi P95 ≈ 1.8.

Calibration notes

  • OOS axes use the observed rate (OOS inspections ÷ total) — the same framework FMCSA uses internally for SMS BASIC alerts. Minimum 3 inspections in the 24-month window before scoring.
  • Crashes use per million miles (raw count ÷ MCS-150 VMT) — the industry-standard safety metric. Carriers must report ≥100k annual miles to be scored; below that, the cell shows “—.”
  • Absolute crash floor: 2.0 crashes per million miles bumps the tier up one regardless of peer group — small fleets with operationally bad crash rates don't hide behind “normal for small.”
  • Compound signals: recent revocation + any statistical signal = Critical; a multi-signal chameleon cluster = Critical. Large enforcement settlements (≥$25k) trigger High on their own, as does a moderate risk score (≥30).

Data sources

  • FMCSA SMS Input — Census, Inspection, Crash, Violation files
  • FMCSA Company Census — safety rating, operating status
  • FMCSA Carrier & ActPendInsur — insurance amounts, authority types
  • FMCSA Revocation history (all-with-history file)
  • FMCSA closed enforcement cases
  • FMCSA MCS-150 mileage reports (annual VMT)
  • Hazmat loads flagged for manual PHMSA registration check

Snapshot: May 2026, refreshed monthly. All FMCSA public bulk files — the federal source of record for motor-carrier safety.