Government Data for Carrier Reviews: Choose the Source That Answers the Question

Identity and operating records: FMCSA

The Company Census File supplies bulk registration and business information. FMCSA describes a daily export from a database that is already 24 hours old. Use the USDOT number to anchor identity, while preserving legal/DBA names and physical/mailing addresses for comparisons with other systems.

For authority and insurance questions, identify the applicable modern operating-authority dataset or current official lookup. FMCSA separates modern MOTUS files from legacy archives. A successful download of an archived file does not establish current authority. Inspect the dataset description and record dates before integrating it into a current-status view.

Sources: FMCSA Open Data Program

Safety summaries and underlying observations

SAFER combines company information with inspection and crash summaries and any published safety rating. SAFER’s FAQ describes daily company snapshots and weekly inspection/crash aggregates. FMCSA’s Open Data Program describes monthly SMS refreshes. Those different clocks explain why two agency views may not represent the same period.

Raw inspection and crash files answer more detailed questions than an aggregate page, but record counts require interpretation. Identify the unit being counted, inspection category and reporting window. Neither a crash involvement count nor an absent rating supplies an automatic approval decision.

Sources: FMCSA: SAFER frequently asked questions; FMCSA Open Data Program

State filings: four sources with different coverage

Florida’s Department of State directs users to its secured-transaction registry for UCC searches. Corporate registration is a separate lookup. Use the filing identifier and relevant documents to trace the event chain; do not substitute a corporate search result for a UCC search.

Colorado publishes filing, debtor and secured-party information separately. Its metadata describes daily updates after midnight but also contains a conflicting “Never” frequency entry. Verify the actual source timestamps and joins rather than treating a schedule label as proof that all tables refreshed together.

Connecticut’s public lien feed contains UCC and other lien categories and is bounded to active or recently lapsed records, with special handling for no-fixed-lapse records. Oregon’s monthly dataset describes filings entered in the previous month. Neither is interchangeable with a complete lifetime history.

Sources: Florida Department of State UCC information; Filing metadata; Connecticut dataset metadata and retention description; Oregon dataset fields and metadata

Crash research: NHTSA and NTSB

NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System provides yearly data on fatal motor-vehicle traffic crashes nationwide. It is useful for research into that population, rather than a current feed of every incident involving a carrier.

NTSB’s CAROL searches investigations and recommendations across transportation modes. Its help page describes non-aviation investigation records from 2010 onward. An investigation record, preliminary material and a completed finding have different meanings; check the case and document status before describing a cause.

FARS and CAROL are research sources discussed in this library, not a claim that VerifyCarrier imports their records into every carrier profile. Use the crash-source comparison when deciding whether two observations concern the same event or answer the same question.

Sources: NHTSA FARS overview and documentation; NTSB CAROL help

Freight economics: EIA diesel benchmarks

EIA’s weekly on-highway diesel series estimates retail cash self-service prices including taxes. Its current methodology uses Monday observations and Tuesday publication, with a holiday adjustment. Preserve the chosen geography, units, observation week and contract’s effective schedule.

The series can support a reproducible fuel-surcharge calculation. It does not establish what a particular carrier paid at the pump or dictate the surcharge in a private agreement. The benchmark and the pricing formula must remain separate pieces of the quote.

Sources: EIA weekly diesel-price methodology

Check product coverage separately from source availability

VerifyCarrier documents retained UCC history from Florida, Colorado, Connecticut and Oregon. A government source being public does not mean the product has imported every record, supports every jurisdiction or sends alerts for every change. Its UCC documentation identifies supported history, matching rules and source-date limitations; UCC change emails are not currently included.

For each result, keep a compact evidence record: source and URL, entity or filing identifier, covered population, source date, retrieval time and known gaps. A missing result might reflect an unsupported source, failed retrieval, unmatched entity or true absence within the searched population. State which one you established before making the brokerage’s decision.

Sources: VerifyCarrier UCC coverage and matching documentation