Frequently asked questions

What is fleetfax?

fleetfax is a carrier intelligence platform. The federal government already records almost everything about a motor carrier, but it sits scattered across a dozen separate FMCSA systems and most of it is unreadable in raw form. fleetfax pulls it together, makes sense of it, and gives you one clear report: the carrier's status, risk flags with the evidence behind each one, safety measured against carriers of the same size, the fleet and equipment they actually run, and a map of where they operate. The part a plain lookup misses is the connections between the records, like an officer who also runs a revoked carrier, or a brand new company claiming forty trucks with no inspection history, and that is what fleetfax is built to catch.

Three ways to use it: here on the website, where you search by USDOT, MC, name, phone, or email; as a Chrome extension that brings the same check wherever you find carriers; and as a PDF of any report for your file, with a link and QR code back to the live version.

Is it really free? What's the catch?

Yes, and there is no asterisk. Every report on a single carrier is free and complete, with nothing held back: no lookup cap, no trial, no card, no signup. The data underneath is public, and a basic carrier check should be within reach of everyone who books freight.

A Pro tier is coming for what teams need at scale, like checking many carriers at once, monitoring, alerts, and API access, priced to stay genuinely competitive. The single carrier report stays free for good. The mission is to make carrier vetting across freight more transparent, not to meter it.

Where does the data come from?

From the public federal record: FMCSA's published datasets covering carrier registration, operating authority, insurance filings, roadside inspections, crashes, and safety ratings. fleetfax ingests these datasets into its own backend and refreshes them daily, which is also what makes the report fast.

We have no affiliation with FMCSA or the U.S. Department of Transportation, and fleetfax adds no private or paid data sources.

How fresh is the data?

fleetfax re-ingests the federal datasets daily, and each report shows what it is reading. The ceiling is the federal source itself: FMCSA publishes different datasets on different cadences, and nothing built on the public record can be fresher than the record it reads.

What can I search by?

USDOT number, MC number, company name, phone number, or email address. The name search suggests matches as you type. Whatever you have on the rate con or the load board usually works, and an MC number resolves automatically to the carrier's USDOT record, the identifier everything hangs on.

What are the flags?

Named risk signals computed from the public record: things like an active out-of-service order, no insurance on file, an inspection-failure rate far above the national average, or identity overlaps with revoked carriers. Each flag states what the data shows and links to the underlying records.

Does fleetfax tell me whether to book a carrier?

No, deliberately. fleetfax is descriptive: it reports what the public record shows ("blocking issues found", "3 cautions found", "no blockers or cautions found") and puts the evidence in front of you. It never says "safe to book" or "do not book", and it computes no composite score. The booking call is yours. Different brokers run different risk policies, and no single number fits all of them.

A carrier looks clean on fleetfax. Does that mean it's safe?

It means the public federal record shows no blockers or cautions, which is meaningful but bounded. The record can't see yesterday's hiring decision, an unreported incident, or fraud that hasn't surfaced yet, and absence of evidence isn't proof. A clean report is a good data point inside your process, not a substitute for it.

Why does it matter that most carriers have no safety rating?

Roughly 94% of FMCSA-registered carriers have no published safety rating (per FMCSA's own statistics; the agency lacks audit capacity to review more than a fraction of the industry). So "Not Rated" tells you almost nothing, and a vetting process that relies on the rating field alone is blind for most of the market. The underlying data (inspections, out-of-service rates, crashes, authority and insurance history) exists for every carrier, rated or not, and that's what fleetfax reads. Our analysis: what the data shows for unrated carriers.

Are the safety percentiles official CSA scores?

No, and we are careful to say so. FMCSA stopped publishing the official CSA percentiles for freight carriers in 2015, so the real scores are not visible to anyone outside the carrier and enforcement. What fleetfax shows is its own estimate: it takes the same public inspection and crash records and ranks a carrier against others of similar size. It is a useful read on where a carrier stands, but it is a fleetfax estimate, labeled as one, never presented as CSA or an official FMCSA score.

Can I save a record of my check?

Yes. Every report exports a timestamped PDF, generated on your device, suitable for the compliance file. The PDF carries a link and QR code back to the live report so anyone holding the document can re-check the carrier later.

Do you sell my data? Do carriers know I checked them?

No and no. fleetfax requires no account, sells no data, and carriers are not notified of lookups. The website uses ordinary analytics to understand aggregate usage; lookups aren't tied to your identity because we don't know who you are.

Is fleetfax affiliated with FMCSA?

No. fleetfax reads public FMCSA data and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to FMCSA or the U.S. Department of Transportation. And to state the obvious plainly: a fleetfax report is information, not legal advice or a compliance certification.