Every carrier we dispatch goes through the same verification process before your vehicle moves.
Not most carriers. Not the ones we have not worked with before. Every carrier. Every dispatch. Every time.
This is not a marketing claim. It is a description of a process I built deliberately — informed by eight years in law enforcement where verifying something directly was a professional obligation, and six years inside a major brokerage where I watched what happened when it was not.
Here is exactly what that process looks like.
Our Seven-Step Carrier Vetting Checklist
Step 1 — Active FMCSA Authority Confirmed
Before anything else we verify the carrier holds current, active operating authority through FMCSA SAFER. Not assumed based on a prior relationship. Not taken at the carrier's word. Confirmed directly at the time of dispatch.
Authority can lapse, be revoked, or be suspended between loads. A carrier who had active authority last month may not have it today. We check at dispatch because that is the only check that actually matters.
Step 2 — Insurance Verified — Not Taken at Face Value
We confirm the carrier's current cargo insurance and auto liability coverage. Federal law requires a minimum of $1 million in auto liability coverage per occurrence and $100,000 in cargo insurance. We confirm these minimums are met and that the policy is current.
A carrier-emailed PDF certificate of insurance is not sufficient verification on its own. Insurance documents can be altered. Policies can lapse after a certificate is issued. When warranted we go to the source — the carrier's insurance producer — to confirm coverage is active and current at the time of dispatch.
This step takes longer than accepting a forwarded PDF. It is not optional.
Step 3 — BASIC Score Review
FMCSA's Compliance, Safety, Accountability system tracks carrier performance across seven behavioral categories — called BASICs — based on roadside inspection results, crash records, and investigation findings. We review the carrier's scores across all categories before dispatch.
The categories we focus on most closely:
Unsafe Driving — Speeding, reckless driving, improper lane changes. This BASIC tells us how the carrier's drivers behave behind the wheel when they think no one is watching.
Crash Indicator — Crash history relative to miles driven. A carrier with a high crash indicator relative to their operating mileage is statistically more likely to be involved in an accident on the road with your vehicle.
Vehicle Maintenance — Inspection violations related to brakes, tires, lights, and equipment condition. A carrier who does not maintain their equipment properly is a carrier whose equipment fails on the highway.
HOS Compliance — Hours of service violations. Fatigued driving is a leading cause of commercial vehicle accidents. A carrier with documented HOS violations has a pattern of putting fatigued drivers on the road.
Step 4 — Distracted Driving History
I review distracted driving violations specifically — and I weight them more heavily than most brokers do.
Here is why: in my assessment, distracted driving is the most likely cause of a serious commercial vehicle accident in 2026. Mobile device use, in-cab technology, and the general normalization of distracted behavior behind the wheel have made this the dominant safety risk in modern commercial transport.
After the Supreme Court's ruling in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, a serious accident involving a carrier I dispatched creates real legal exposure for my operation. Distracted driving history is the data point most predictive of the kind of accident I cannot walk back.
Step 5 — Driver License Verified
I request and review an actual image of the dispatched driver's license before the vehicle moves.
I want to explain why this step exists — because it does not exist at most brokerages.
I spent eight years in law enforcement. Verifying that a document is genuine and unaltered was a professional responsibility during that career. I know what a doctored license looks like. I know the specific details that get changed in fraudulent or altered documents and I know how to spot them in a photograph.
Nobody asked me to implement this step. There is no regulatory requirement that a broker verify a driver's license by image. I do it because eight years of investigative work built a professional obligation to verify things directly rather than trust documentation that was never independently checked. Most brokers have never been in a situation where document authentication was their job. I have. This step exists because of that background.
Step 6 — Truck VIN Validated
We confirm that the equipment identified for dispatch matches FMCSA records for the carrier. The truck that picks up your vehicle should be the truck registered to the carrier who accepted the load — not a substituted piece of equipment or a subcontracted driver operating under a different entity.
Carrier substitution without broker approval is prohibited under our Carrier Agreement. VIN validation at dispatch confirms the equipment is what we verified and that the carrier is not operating outside the terms of the dispatch.
Step 7 — Conditional Safety Rating Assessment
If a carrier carries a conditional safety rating we do not automatically disqualify them. We review the totality of their record.
The question I ask is not just whether they are conditional — it is why they are conditional and which direction they are trending.
A carrier who received a conditional rating for a documentation gap, has since filed a corrective action plan, and shows a clean inspection record since then is a different risk profile than a carrier with a conditional rating driven by distracted driving violations, a recent crash, and no evidence of corrective action.
I make a judgment call based on the full picture. That judgment call is documented in the carrier's file. It is the kind of decision the Supreme Court in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II established that brokers are responsible for making with ordinary care. I take that responsibility seriously.
For context on why the Montgomery ruling changed the industry — read: Why Auto Transport Costs More in 2026
For a full explanation of what a conditional safety rating means — read: What Is a Conditional Safety Rating — And Why Your Broker Should Care
Why This Process Exists
I built this vetting process because of two things I have seen up close — what happens when it is done right and what happens when it is not.
Eight years in law enforcement taught me that the verification step you skip is always the one that creates the problem you could not afford.
Six years at a major brokerage showed me a culture where the vetting process was a checkbox at best and a fiction at worst. Speed mattered. Cost mattered. The question of what was actually on that carrier's record came later — if it came at all.
I started Approved Auto Transport because I wanted to build something different. The process above is what different looks like in practice.
Your vehicle matters. The person driving it matters. The record of the carrier operating that truck matters.
We check all of it. Every time.