fleetfax researchOriginal findings from fleetfax's own analyses of the federal carrier datasets: carrier vetting, fraud, insurance, and safety-rating gaps.https://www.fleetfax.com/research/feed.xml2026-07-14T00:00:00Zfleetfaxhttps://www.fleetfax.com/Free to read and quote with attribution and a link.fleetfaxWhen the record goes quiet: FMCSA's Motus cutover and the carriers that fell out of public datahttps://www.fleetfax.com/research/motus-cutover2026-07-14T00:00:00Z2026-07-14T00:00:00ZOn May 14, 2026, FMCSA moved carrier registration to a new system and forked its public data in two. The new feeds can leave whole carriers out with no marker, and any tool that treats that absence as fact will fail insured carriers.The new-authority washout: what a fresh MC number actually predictshttps://www.fleetfax.com/research/new-authority-risk2026-07-07T00:00:00Z2026-07-07T00:00:00ZA fresh MC number is far more likely to be revoked than a seasoned one, but not because new carriers crash more. About one in seven is revoked within 18 months, almost all for never completing the mandatory federal new-entrant audit.Active, authorized, and uninsured: the carriers the record still shows as bookablehttps://www.fleetfax.com/research/active-uninsured2026-06-30T00:00:00Z2026-06-30T00:00:00ZAbout 1% of authorized carriers hold live operating authority while carrying zero required insurance. FMCSA revokes roughly 8 weeks after the lapse, and the record shows them as bookable the whole time.The thief books the load: how cargo theft became identity fraudhttps://www.fleetfax.com/research/cargo-theft-identity-fraud2026-06-23T00:00:00Z2026-06-23T00:00:00ZStrategic cargo theft grew from 8% of US cargo crime in 2020 to about a third by 2024. How carrier identity fraud actually works: fictitious pickups, purchased MC numbers, hijacked FMCSA accounts, and fourteen years of federal warnings.Reopened, not reformed: finding the carriers that come back under a new numberhttps://www.fleetfax.com/research/chameleon-carriers2026-06-16T00:00:00Z2026-06-16T00:00:00ZWhen a trucking company is shut down for cause, some reopen weeks later under a new USDOT number and a clean record. FMCSA's own disclosure field almost never catches them. Here is how the public record does.The carrier-vetting blind spot: thousands of carriers look like one truck while a fleet runs under themhttps://www.fleetfax.com/research/carrier-vetting-blind-spot2026-06-09T00:00:00Z2026-06-09T00:00:00ZSome carriers declare one truck while a whole fleet runs under their authority. Inspection history, the signal brokers trust most, cannot see the gap, and at its most extreme the pattern concentrates about 28x in Illinois.Most carriers have no safety rating. Here's what the data shows instead.https://www.fleetfax.com/research/unrated-carriers2026-06-02T00:00:00Z2026-06-02T00:00:00ZRoughly 94% of FMCSA-registered interstate freight carriers have no published safety rating. What that number actually means, where it comes from, and how to vet the unrated majority.