Motor Carrier API

Parameters

• dot  optional

  USDOT number, for example 428823.

• mc  optional

  Docket number, with or without the prefix — MC227271 or 227271. MC, MX and FF prefixes are all supported. Docket numbers were not retired by FMCSA's 2026 registration modernization.

• checks  optional  premium

  Set to true to include a per-check evaluation against C.H. Robinson's published carrier selection criteria: authority active, safety rating acceptable, BI&PD and cargo coverage thresholds, no out-of-service order, no pending insurance cancellation, and MCS-150 currency. Returns the individual checks and their reasons, not an overall verdict.

• min_bipd  optional  premium

  BI&PD threshold in dollars used by checks. Defaults to 1000000, the market contractual floor. The federal minimum is $750,000 under 49 CFR 387.9.

• min_cargo  optional  premium

  Cargo coverage threshold in dollars used by checks. Defaults to 100000.

Response fields

Every key is always present, with null where a value is unavailable. Premium fields return a placeholder string below Business.

• found

  Boolean. false when no carrier matches the identifier.

• carrier

  Object with the carrier record, or null when found is false. Contains dot_number, legal_name, dba_name, status, entity_types, carrier_operation, business_type, registration_date, physical_address, mailing_address, dockets, authority, power_units, drivers, mcs150_date, safety_rating, safety_rating_date, out_of_service, out_of_service_date and out_of_service_reason on every plan; and phone, fax, cell_phone, email_address, company_officer_1, company_officer_2, undeliverable_address, prior_revocation, prior_revocation_dot_number, mcs150_mileage, mcs150_mileage_year, mcs150_due_date, mcs150_overdue, recordable_crash_rate, operation_classifications, cargo_classes, equipment, hazmat and dun_bradstreet_number on Business and above.

• criteria

  Present only when checks=true. Contains criteria_source, checks, checks_passed, checks_failed and note.

• data_as_of

  Upstream publication date per source, e.g. census, insurance, authority, inspections. Together with retrieved_at this is the point-in-time record of what FMCSA showed when you checked.

• retrieved_at

  UTC timestamp of this response.

• source

  Source attribution string.

• disclaimer

  Object of notices: affiliation, accuracy, and where applicable permitted_use, no_safety_determination and coverage.

Parameters

• name  optional

  Company name, minimum 3 alphanumeric characters. Matching is prefix-based against a normalized form of both the legal name and the DBA name: case, punctuation and a leading "The" are ignored, so knight transportation and The Knight Transportation, Inc. match the same records.

• state, city, zip  optional

  Filter by the physical address on file.

• status  optional

  One of active, inactive or pending.

• phone, email  optional  premium

  Reverse lookup: find every carrier registered with a given phone number, email address, or email domain. A phone or domain shared across several carriers is a standard double-brokering signal.

• limit, offset  optional

  limit defaults to 20, maximum 100. offset is capped at 10000.

Response fields

• count

  Number of carriers returned in this page.

• limit

  Page size used.

• offset

  Offset used.

• carriers

  Array of matches. Each has dot_number, legal_name, dba_name, city, state, zip, status, carrier_operation, power_units, drivers and safety_rating.

• data_as_of

  Upstream publication date per source, e.g. census, insurance, authority, inspections. Together with retrieved_at this is the point-in-time record of what FMCSA showed when you checked.

• retrieved_at

  UTC timestamp of this response.

• source

  Source attribution string.

• disclaimer

  Object of notices: affiliation, accuracy, and where applicable permitted_use, no_safety_determination and coverage.

Parameters

• dot or mc  required

  USDOT number or docket number. Provide exactly one.

Catching a lapse before it happens

Insurers must give FMCSA 30 days' written notice on Form BMC-35 before cancelling a policy (49 CFR 387.313(d)). That creates a window in which a carrier still shows insurance on file while counting down to no coverage at all. The summary object exposes it directly:

• cancellation_pending — a filing is scheduled to cancel within 30 days
• days_until_cancellation — how many days remain, where 0 means today
• bond_below_threshold — a broker bond under the $75,000 floor in 49 CFR 387.307
• insurer_count — distinct insurers on file; frequent churn signals financial instability

Response fields

• found

  Boolean.

• dot_number

  The resolved USDOT number.

• summary

  Rolled-up view: bipd_coverage, cargo_coverage, bond_coverage, active_filings, cancellation_pending, days_until_cancellation, bond_below_threshold, bond_threshold and insurer_count.

• filings

  Array of active filings. Each has form_code, insurance_type, insurer_name, policy_number, coverage_amount, coverage_currency, underlying_limit, effective_date, cancellation_date, days_until_cancellation, cancellation_pending and docket.

• cancellation_notices

  BMC-35 filings, listed separately because they are cancellation notices rather than coverage.

• note

  Explains the dollar normalization and the BMC-35 split.

• data_as_of

  Upstream publication date per source, e.g. census, insurance, authority, inspections. Together with retrieved_at this is the point-in-time record of what FMCSA showed when you checked.

• retrieved_at

  UTC timestamp of this response.

• source

  Source attribution string.

• disclaimer

  Object of notices: affiliation, accuracy, and where applicable permitted_use, no_safety_determination and coverage.

Parameters

• dot or mc  required

  USDOT number or docket number. Provide exactly one.

Response fields

• found

  Boolean.

• dot_number

  The resolved USDOT number.

• carrier_class

  property or passenger. Determines whether percentiles exist.

• window_months

  Measurement window, 24 months.

• crashes

  total, fatal, injury, tow_away. A crash can be both fatal and injury, so the parts do not sum to the total.

• inspections

  Keyed by vehicle and driver, each with inspections, out_of_service, out_of_service_pct and national_average_pct (Business+).

• basics

  Array of BASIC results with basic, code, measure, inspections_with_violation, acute_critical_violation, percentile, alert, trend (Business+), and availability on the two withheld BASICs.

• percentile_availability

  passenger_carriers_only or available.

• percentile_note

  Why percentiles are null for property carriers.

• not_public

  BASICs FMCSA withholds: Crash Indicator and HazMat Compliance.

• coverage_note

  Scope limits, including the absence of Canadian data.

• data_as_of

  Upstream publication date per source, e.g. census, insurance, authority, inspections. Together with retrieved_at this is the point-in-time record of what FMCSA showed when you checked.

• retrieved_at

  UTC timestamp of this response.

• source

  Source attribution string.

• disclaimer

  Object of notices: affiliation, accuracy, and where applicable permitted_use, no_safety_determination and coverage.

Parameters

• dot or mc  required

  USDOT number or docket number. Provide exactly one.

Why linkage matters

Freight fraud in 2026 shifted from creating fake carriers to buying real ones. When a ring purchases an active authority with its insurance and phone number intact, every single-entity check passes: the authority is active, the insurance is current, the phone connects. The pattern only appears across entities — a shared address, a reused officer name, an email domain that also belongs to a carrier whose authority was revoked last month.

Answering that question requires holding the complete 4.4-million-record census rather than looking up one carrier at a time.

Response fields

• found

  Boolean. false when the carrier shares no indexed attribute with another carrier.

• dot_number

  The resolved USDOT number.

• linked_carrier_count

  Distinct carriers linked by any attribute.

• links

  Array grouped by attribute. Each has link_type (address, phone, email_domain or officer), description, shared_value, association, linked_carrier_count and linked_carriers.

• linked_to_revoked_authority

  True when any linked carrier has held revoked or suspended authority. The chameleon-carrier signal.

• revoked_linked_dot_numbers

  USDOT numbers of those carriers.

• note

  How to read linkage.

• data_as_of

  Upstream publication date per source, e.g. census, insurance, authority, inspections. Together with retrieved_at this is the point-in-time record of what FMCSA showed when you checked.

• retrieved_at

  UTC timestamp of this response.

• source

  Source attribution string.

• disclaimer

  Object of notices: affiliation, accuracy, and where applicable permitted_use, no_safety_determination and coverage.