Glossary
Out-of-service (OOS) order
An out-of-service order is a federal order shutting a carrier down: the company is prohibited from operating commercial vehicles on public roads while the order is in effect. It is issued against the carrier as a whole, which makes it categorically different from an individual inspection's out-of-service result.
How carriers end up under one
Common causes include an imminent-hazard determination, a final Unsatisfactory safety rating, failure to pay fines, failing or refusing a new-entrant safety audit, and operating without required insurance. The order stays on the record with its date and reason, and a later rescission shows when it was lifted.
What it means at the booking desk
A carrier under an active OOS order that is quoting freight is offering to operate illegally; there is no benign reading. fleetfax treats an active order as the highest-priority blocking issue on the report, checks for it even when other parts of the federal record are unavailable, and shows the order's reason and date so the finding is verifiable against the public record.
Related terms
Out-of-service (OOS) rate
The percentage of a carrier's roadside inspections that ended with the vehicle or driver ordered off the road. Compared against published national averages, it's a core inspection-failure metric.
Operating authority
FMCSA's grant of legal permission to operate for hire: common, contract, or broker. Active, inactive, pending, revoked, and the gaps in between.
Conditional & Unsatisfactory ratings
The two adverse FMCSA safety ratings. Conditional means a compliance review found inadequate safety controls but the carrier may keep operating; Unsatisfactory leads to a federal prohibition on operating.
fleetfax reads public FMCSA data and is not affiliated with FMCSA or the U.S. Department of Transportation. This page explains terminology; it is not legal advice.