Company data sources
RideShipper builds carrier and broker profiles from federal FMCSA files: the company census, the licensing and insurance file, and the Motus insurance file, joined on the USDOT number and the docket. Each fact is dated. Insurance on file means a filing was in the public record. It does not mean the vehicle is covered for the trip.
Key facts
- Files
- FMCSA company census, licensing and insurance, and Motus insurance, joined on USDOT and docket
- Source: data.transportation.gov
- Insurance on file
- A filing in the federal record on the date shown. Not a promise of cover for the car.
- Hidden on purpose
- Officer names, the census email field, and power-unit counts that are junk values
The sources are listed on this page.
Company facts on RideShipper come from federal motor-carrier files, not from the company's advertisement. The page joins three public files on the USDOT number and the docket number, and it shows the date of the file.
The count of licensed auto-transport carriers in those records is 29,725 licensed auto-transport carriers in federal records, as of .
The three files
| File | What RideShipper uses it for | What it is not |
|---|---|---|
| Company census | Legal name, DBA, USDOT, physical location, phone, interstate or not, cargo checkboxes, power units, drivers, tractors and trailers, MCS-150 date, safety rating and date | A list of companies that ship cars well. Checking "motor vehicles" includes dealers and private fleets. |
| Licensing and insurance | Whether broker or carrier authority is active, and authority dates | A complete list of auto-transport brokers. The census has no auto-broker flag. General freight brokers are in this file too. |
| Motus insurance | Insurance form, insurer, limit, effective date, bond and cargo flags, and suspension marks | Proof that a particular car is covered. |
Motus and the licensing file do not report the same count of active brokers. RideShipper uses the licensing file for whether authority is active today, and Motus for the insurance policy detail. It does not print Motus's broker count as the number of brokers in the United States.
Out-of-service rates are not in the census file used here. RideShipper does not invent a complaint count. The profile links the federal SAFER record so the reader can look at the official snapshot.
What each licence field means
USDOT and docket (MC or FF). Identifiers in the federal record. They are not a quality score.
Authority status. Whether the licensing file shows active authority on the date checked. Inactive authority is a warning on the profile. Active authority means the company may legally operate in the role on the filing. It does not mean RideShipper assigned that company to a load.
Insurance on file. The public file showed a filing on the date displayed: the form, the insurer, and the limit when those fields are present. A liability filing, a cargo filing, and a broker bond are different. A common liability form in the Motus file is the BMC-91X. A cargo filing is not that form. A broker bond is not the value of the car. See BMC-91X and broker bond.
Safety rating. Satisfactory, conditional, unsatisfactory, or none. Most companies have none. The honest line is "no FMCSA safety rating on file."
Fleet and MCS-150 date. Power units, drivers, and owned tractors and trailers, plus the date of the last census filing. An old MCS-150 date means the filing is stale. It is shown so the reader can see that.
What is hidden
Officer names are not published. The email field in the census is not published. Power-unit values that are junk in the file, including 99, 999, and 99999, or counts above a few thousand that no second source confirms, are hidden rather than shown as a fleet size.
The census keeps only a few docket slots, so authority is read from the licensing file or Motus, not guessed from a similar company name.
A profile is not an endorsement and not an affiliation. The company name is used to identify the company. Logos are not used unless the company has given permission. Terms such as deposit and cancellation, when shown, come from the company's own pages and carry the date those pages were read. Those terms are not in the FMCSA files.
Questions
Does insurance on file mean my car is insured?
No. It means the public file showed a filing, such as a liability form, an insurer, and a limit, on the date displayed. Cargo insurance, a broker bond, and liability insurance are different filings. RideShipper does not insure the vehicle.
Why is there no safety rating?
Most companies in the census have no FMCSA safety rating. The page says no FMCSA safety rating on file. That sentence is not a finding that the company is safe.
How current is the licence block?
The profile shows the date the file was checked. Authority status is taken from the licensing file. The census form date is shown so a stale filing is visible.