Checking the carrier again at pickup, not just at booking
Carrier verification at pickup is the check most brokers skip. The carrier cleared onboarding months ago, the load is covered quickly, the paperwork looks clean, and then an invoice arrives from a company you never booked, or the freight does not arrive. A check at onboarding tells you who a carrier said it was back then. This page is about the second check, at the dock, and what we would build to run it on every load.
Example workflow. Not client work.
All trucking problems we build forHow to prove detention time to a broker
Why a check at onboarding is not enough
Most brokers and shippers vet a carrier once. The carrier packet (operating authority, insurance certificate, W-9 and contact details) is collected, the MC and USDOT numbers are looked up, and the carrier is approved. Much of what is in that packet is what the carrier said about itself.
What changes afterward is where loads go wrong. A contact email moves to a lookalike domain. A new phone number starts answering for an old, clean carrier. The remit-to address on an invoice is not the one on file. A load is quietly passed to another carrier, which is double brokering, and the truck at the shipper’s dock belongs to a company that is not on the rate con. None of that shows up in a check that ran once.
What we would build
- Input. The booking: the carrier, its MC and USDOT numbers, the dispatcher's name, email and phone, and where the rate con was sent. Read from your TMS or load board workflow as the load is covered.
- Check at booking. Operating authority status is read from the public FMCSA record at that moment, not the one from onboarding. The insurance certificate on file is compared with the carrier's legal name and dates. The email domain, phone number and remit-to details on this booking are compared with the ones on file.
- Capture at pickup. The driver, or the shipper's dock clerk, opens a link sent with the load and photographs the truck door (company name and USDOT number), the trailer number and the signed BOL. Each photo carries the time and location.
- Exception. A lapsed authority, an insurance certificate in another name, a changed email or phone, or a USDOT number on the door that is not the carrier on the rate con goes to an exception queue before the load is released. Someone calls the carrier on the number on file, not the one in the latest email.
- Record. Every check is kept on the load, with its source, time and result, and who cleared it. When an invoice arrives, its company name and remit-to details are compared with the carrier that was checked at pickup.
Beside your TMS and the checks you already run
Bookings are read from your TMS through its API or an export, where it offers one, and the result of each check is written back onto the load. If you already pay for a carrier monitoring service, we read from it where it offers an API instead of replacing it. What we add is the check at the moment of booking and the photo at pickup, tied to one load. For the onboarding side, Cargohold publishes a carrier packet checklist covering what to check on each document.
Nothing is installed on the carrier’s side. The pickup link opens on any phone the driver or dock clerk already has. The booking screen and the exception queue your team works in are custom internal tools, and reading a carrier packet and an insurance certificate is AI automation for logistics paperwork.
Where your team decides
The check reports what it sees and a person decides. It does not detect fraud and cannot promise a load is safe. Many mismatches have a clean explanation: a rental tractor, a new truck not yet lettered, a new dispatcher. Whether to release the load, hold it or cancel the booking is your team’s call, made with the evidence in front of them.
Sample carrier check
Run a sample carrier check at booking and pickup.
Interactive simulation · sample data
A fictional load is booked with a fictional carrier that was approved at onboarding. Pick what the checks find.
Choose what happens
Pick one above. Nothing here is live: no call is placed, no message is sent and nothing is saved.
FAQ
Does this detect fraud?
No, and we would not claim it. It compares what it sees with what you booked and shows your team every mismatch. Deciding what a mismatch means stays with a person.
Does it replace our carrier vetting service?
No. It adds a check at the moment of booking and at pickup, and it can read from the service you already use where that service offers an API.
Can a shipper use it, not just a broker?
Yes. A shipper’s dock clerk can take the pickup photos and compare the truck with the carrier the broker named, which is often the first point anyone outside the broker sees the truck.
Do you photograph the driver?
Not by default. The photos are of the truck door, the trailer and the paperwork. Any check on the driver’s own identity is a separate decision, made in the scope with what you collect and how long you keep it.
What should a broker check at pickup?
The MC and USDOT numbers lettered on the truck door against the carrier on the rate confirmation, the tractor and trailer numbers against what the carrier gave you at dispatch, the driver’s name against the dispatch, and the BOL signed at the shipper. A photo of each, taken at the dock, is what turns that into a record rather than a memory.
How often should an approved carrier be re-checked?
Operating authority and insurance change between loads, so the useful answer is every booking rather than every quarter. The contact details, the remit-to details and the email domain the rate con goes to are worth comparing on every load too, because those are the things that change when someone else takes over a carrier’s account.
What are the signs of double brokering on a load?
A carrier that takes the load well under the going rate and covers it fast, a dispatcher writing from a lookalike email domain, a remit-to address that is not the one on file, a truck at the shipper lettered for a different company, and a second invoice for the same load. None of these proves anything by itself. Each is a reason to call the carrier on the number you already have on file, not the one in the latest email.
When did you last check a carrier you already approved?
Tell us how you vet carriers today and where a load has gone wrong. Someone from our team replies within one business day.