dotsearch.us

Methodology: where the data comes from and how it is produced

dotsearch.us republishes public FMCSA registration records. This page explains exactly which official sources are used, how often they are refreshed, how derived fields such as "Authorized" are computed, why some figures are withheld, and how to correct a record.

Sources

  • FMCSA motor-carrier census (the public dataset behind SAFER): identity, addresses, USDOT status, operation type, fleet and driver counts, cargo, safety rating, company officers, MCS-150 dates. This is the base record for every carrier page.
  • FMCSA operating-authority registry (Licensing and Insurance): common, contract and broker authority by docket, plus the history of grants and revocations.
  • FMCSA insurance filings: BMC-91X liability, BMC-34 cargo, and BMC-84/85 surety and trust filings with insurer, coverage amount, effective and cancellation dates.
  • FMCSA safety data (SAFER and the QCMobile service): 24-month inspection and out-of-service counts, crash counts, and current authority status, fetched per carrier and cached.

Refresh cadence

The census is republished by FMCSA roughly once a day at a variable time. dotsearch.us watches the publication timestamp every few minutes during FMCSA's usual publishing window and ingests a new release within minutes of it appearing, then runs a full reconciliation daily and a complete refresh weekly. New USDOT registrations and new operating-authority dockets are detected on every ingest and feed the new trucking companies lists. Each carrier page shows the date its record last changed.

How derived fields are computed

USDOT status vs. operating authority

These are independent. USDOT status (Active / Inactive) is the registration status on the census. Operating authority (Authorized / Not Authorized) means the carrier holds at least one active common, contract, or broker authority in the registry. A carrier can be Active but Not Authorized (private, exempt, newly registered, or revoked). Where the live SAFER snapshot and the census disagree on status, the page shows the SAFER value, which is computed from the biennial MCS-150 rule.

MCS-150 biennial status

Carriers must update their MCS-150 at least every two years. A filing older than 24 months is shown as overdue. FMCSA may deactivate a USDOT number for a missed update, so this is a useful early warning.

Fleet figures and the plausibility check

The FMCSA census contains filing errors in the fleet fields, for example a two-driver company recorded with over two million power units. dotsearch.us does not repeat a fleet figure as fact when it is internally inconsistent: implausible figures are withheld from the page text, rankings, and structured data and flagged as inconsistent, and such records are excluded from "largest fleet" lists. A figure is treated as plausible when it is within realistic bounds, is not a placeholder value, and does not exceed roughly twice the reported driver count.

What is deliberately not shown

Email addresses are not republished on the public carrier pages, and sole proprietors are shown at city level rather than street address, because those fields frequently contain personal rather than business contact details. Contact information remains available to signed-in users under the terms of service, and any individual can request suppression through the data removal page.

Corrections

The authoritative record lives with the FMCSA. To correct a registration (address, officers, fleet), file an MCS-150 update with the FMCSA; the change reaches dotsearch.us automatically with the next release. If a page on this site appears to misrepresent the official record, use the request form and include the USDOT number and the field in question.

Independence

dotsearch.us is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the FMCSA or the U.S. Department of Transportation. Data may be incomplete or outdated; verify critical details on the official FMCSA SAFER system before acting on them.