What does a DOT number lookup tell you?
A DOT number lookup on CarrierScrub reports whether a carrier's FMCSA operating authority is active, whether insurance on file meets the required coverage, and whether the USDOT number shows a contact-history relationship to a suspended carrier. Safety rating, crash history, out-of-service orders and BASIC percentiles are on the roadmap -- see the note below.
USDOT vs. MC number
A USDOT number is the carrier's permanent federal identifier. An MC number (motor carrier number) is tied to a specific class of operating authority. CarrierScrub accepts either and resolves an MC number to its USDOT number before returning a verdict.
What's checked today, and what's coming
Live today: operating authority status, suspension orders, insurance on file versus required, insurance cancellations and insurer churn, and shared-contact relationships with suspended carriers.
Not yet ingested, shown as pending on every report rather than guessed: FMCSA safety rating, out-of-service orders, crash history, and BASIC percentiles from roadside inspections. A report never shows GO for a section it hasn't actually checked.
Where the data comes from
Operating authority and insurance filings are published free under the FMCSA Motor Carrier open data program, refreshed nightly. Cross-check any result against FMCSA's SAFER system. If a record is wrong, the fix is FMCSA's DataQs process -- we only republish what is on file.