CarrierScrub
Pricing compared
| CarrierScrub | Highway | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $0 on Pay-as-you-go. 25 lookups free every month, then $1.00 each | No price published on its plans page |
| How you start | Sign up in a minute; 3 checks a day need no account | A book-a-demo page; no self-serve price listed |
| Vet a whole list | Up to 1,000 carriers per upload, on Pay-as-you-go | Not listed on the pages fetched |
| How the verdict is reached | Fixed, published rules. The same filings always get the same verdict | Your own rules, applied to every carrier: Pass, Partial Pass, Incomplete or Fail |
| Ongoing monitoring | Watchlist emails you when a watched carrier's verdict or its contact details on FMCSA's record change, included on every plan | Continuous risk monitoring against your rules |
| API and integrations | Every plan: 25 free lookups a month, then $1.00 each; unlimited on Agency ($249/mo) | 30+ TMS integrations; price not published |
What each checks
CarrierScrub reads FMCSA's operating-authority, out-of-service and insurance records and returns a dated GO, CAUTION or STOP by fixed, published rules, including a check for new authority registered at a revoked carrier's phone number under a different name, and the missing cargo insurance or bond filings and returned mail that FMCSA's current Motus record flags. It adds FMCSA's safety rating, roadside out-of-service history and crash history from the SMS snapshot, each dated to it. BASIC percentiles do not appear: FMCSA does not publish them for property carriers. See the verdict rules.
Highway describes Connect as carrier sourcing, vetting and onboarding in one platform. Every carrier gets a Pass, Partial Pass, Incomplete or Fail against the broker's rules, covering insurance, authority, lane history and equipment, and monitoring continues after onboarding. Highway reports certificates of insurance on file for 175,000+ carriers and says it is behind 80% of U.S. brokered loads; both are its own figures. Its wider suite adds Load Lock for load-level protection, Exclusion Intel for cargo insurance exclusions, and the Trusted Freight Exchange.
Who should switch
Brokerages that want a published price, or that mainly need to confirm a carrier's authority and insurance before a tender. CarrierScrub does that on Pay-as-you-go, with batch upload, verdict-change alerts and verifiable packets included. Small Brokerage and Agency add a vetting file: your written carrier-selection policy and every check by carrier or by load, printable and as a CSV. Highway remains the deeper tool if your process depends on verifying the person behind a carrier profile, protecting individual loads, or onboarding carriers inside your TMS.
Where Highway is the better choice
- Identity verification of the person: a government ID, a live photo match and proof they can act for the carrier. CarrierScrub's Shield compares a caller's phone number with the carrier's FMCSA registration, a narrower check.
- Load-level protection (Load Lock) and cargo insurance exclusion scanning (Exclusion Intel).
- Self-serve carrier onboarding, with certificates of insurance on file for 175,000+ carriers by Highway's count. CarrierScrub checks FMCSA filings; it does not onboard carriers.
- Integrations with 30+ TMS platforms, per Highway's partners page.