After approval
How to Keep a Carrier Review Log Your Team Can Use
By VerifyCarrier · · 2 min read
Imagine booking a carrier a colleague approved yesterday. The shared file says “OK,” and the colleague is unavailable.
What did they check? Which company did they speak to? Was that approval conditional on a document arriving?
The carrier review happened. Most of its value left with the reviewer.
Write for the person who was not there
A useful review log connects the carrier, evidence, decision and unfinished work. It should let another person understand the approval without reconstructing the conversation.
Use the USDOT number and legal name to identify the entity. Record when the review took place, which sources were checked and the facts that mattered. Distinguish the time you retrieved a record from any effective date shown in it.
Keep notes specific. “Insurance checked” offers little help. “Agent confirmation saved with the review; shipment assumptions and restrictions recorded” tells the next reviewer where to look.
Give an unresolved question somewhere to live
Suppose dispatch supplies a new phone number. A useful entry preserves the previous number, the new number and the unanswered confirmation request. It also identifies who is following up.
Once confirmed, add the supporting contact, date and outcome. If a separate question remains, keep it open. A general “approved” label should not hide a condition that has yet to be met.
These are proposed working practices, not a federal recordkeeping standard. Adapt the fields and decision labels to your brokerage’s policy.
Preserve the earlier decision
Use a new entry for a new review rather than overwriting the previous row. Keep a current-status view if it helps daily work, but retain the evidence showing how that status was reached.
The blank CSV below provides a starting point for Excel or Google Sheets. Agree who maintains the working copy and where supporting documents live. Several emailed copies can quickly leave two brokers looking at different answers.
Limit access to the people who need it. Record business facts and evidence; avoid speculative accusations or unnecessary personal information. Set retention and access rules with the appropriate people in your business.
Test the log with a handover
Give a completed entry to someone who did not perform the check. Ask them to identify the carrier, explain the decision and name any remaining work. Each question they cannot answer points to a gap in the record.
Then show them an older alert email. They should be able to find the latest review and see whether the alert still requires action. A dashboard can provide that continuity, but the information has to survive the handover wherever you keep it.
The test is the same at the next booking: can a colleague use the record to decide what needs checking now? If “OK” is all they have, they are starting again.
Sources checked September 12, 2026. Procedures are VerifyCarrier’s recommendations; examples are illustrative. How we prepare and correct these guides.