MC SENTRY

FMCSA authority monitoring for shippers

Shippers carry negligent-selection exposure even when a broker picked the carrier. Monitoring the filings directly is how you can show what you knew and when.

By MC Sentry · · How these figures are computed

FMCSA authority monitoring for shippers exists because of a gap in who checks what. Your broker vets the carrier. Your contract says they will. But if a carrier operating without insurance causes a loss on your freight, the question asked afterwards is what *you* knew and when — and "our broker handles that" is a weaker answer than a dated record.

What a shipper is actually exposed to

Negligent selection claims turn on whether reasonable care was exercised in choosing the carrier. A broker's assurance is evidence. A contemporaneous record of the federal filings on the tender date is better evidence, because it is checkable against the same public source anyone else would pull.

The practical version of the question is narrow:

  • Did this carrier hold active operating authority on the day it took the load?
  • Was insurance on file with FMCSA that day, at what limit, from which insurer?
  • Had a cancellation been filed that had not yet ripened into a suspension?

The third one is the one that catches people. It is the 17-day window between an insurer filing a cancellation and FMCSA suspending the authority. During it, the public authority field reads Active — so a check that stops at authority status produces a record showing everything was fine, on a day it was not.

Why not rely on the certificate

Because a certificate of insurance is issued by a broker of insurance, describes coverage as of its issue date, and is not the filing. The FMCSA filing is what the federal record holds and what determines whether authority stays active. The two disagree more often than most shippers expect — certificate of insurance vs FMCSA filing sets out how.

A COI in your file from four months ago tells you what was true four months ago.

What monitoring looks like on a shipper's side

You do not need to vet carriers. You need to know, for the carriers that actually touched your freight, what the record said on those dates.

That means: a list built from your own tender history, read daily against the FMCSA files, with changes emailed and readings retained. When a carrier's coverage lapses, you find out the day it is filed rather than the day a claim is opened.

It also means you can ask your broker a specific question — "USDOT 1234567's primary was cancelled on the 3rd, is it still on your board?" — which is a different conversation from a general request for assurance.

Start with one carrier

<p><a class="b6" href="/">Look up a USDOT or MC number</a></p>

Every carrier page shows authority status, insurance on file with limits and insurer, and the date we read the record. Free tier watches five carriers with no card; $39/month covers 500.

We report what is on file with FMCSA. We do not rate carriers, and nothing here is legal advice.

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