Carrier vetting checklist

A practical checklist
before booking a carrier.

Use a repeatable carrier vetting checklist covering authority, identity signals, safety data, insurance context, notes, and review history.

What a broker should document

A carrier check is stronger when the team documents what was reviewed, when it was reviewed, and why the carrier was approved or flagged for another look.

CarrierOwl supports that checklist with lookup, saved checks, PDF reports, watchlists, and weekly monitoring digests on paid plans.

Authority and identity

Review company name, USDOT, MC number, operating status, and basic profile consistency.

Safety and history

Look at inspection, crash, and safety context without treating one metric as a complete decision.

Review record

Save the check, notes, report, and date so your team can revisit the decision later.

Checklist workflow

Category
Manual checklist
CarrierOwl
Free lookup
Often account-based, vendor-specific, or spread across public sources.
Public carrier lookup remains available before an account is required.
Review records
Often screenshots, notes, PDFs, or spreadsheet rows maintained manually.
Saved carriers, search history, and PDF review reports on paid plans.
Monitoring
Manual re-checking or a separate monitoring workflow.
Watchlists and weekly monitoring digests on Broker Pro and Team.
Pricing
Can require sales calls, quotes, or plan comparison work.
Visible pricing: Free, Broker Pro at $79/month, Broker Team at $149/month.

Make the checklist repeatable.

Search carriers for free, then use paid plans when your brokerage needs saved checklist records and monitoring.

Compare plans

CarrierOwl provides informational reports based on available freight and public data. CarrierOwl does not provide legal advice and does not guarantee that any carrier is safe, unsafe, compliant, or non-compliant.