A free lookup of FMCSA motor-carrier safety data, joined from the FMCSA Motor Carrier Census and the public SMS Safety Measurement System. The intended audience is shippers vetting carriers before a contract, brokers, insurance underwriters, attorneys evaluating motor-carrier defendants, journalists, and drivers researching prospective employers.
Data sources
FMCSA Motor Carrier Census — the registration record for every company with a USDOT number. Provides legal name, address, fleet size (power units, drivers), and operation type. DataHub source.
FMCSA SMS AB PassProperty — the same dataset behind the public Safety Measurement System rankings. Provides the seven BASIC scores (Unsafe Driving, Hours-of-Service Compliance, Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Vehicle Maintenance, Hazardous Materials Compliance, Crash Indicator) plus alert status per BASIC. DataHub source.
What's included
For each U.S. state and territory, this site lists the top ~100 carriers ranked by fleet size (power units), capped at 100 per state. Total in current snapshot: 4,390 carriers across 54 states and territories. About 93% have SMS percentile data; the rest don't have enough inspections in FMCSA's rolling 24-month measurement window for the SMS to score them, and the alerts column shows "—" instead of a number.
The seven BASIC categories
FMCSA's Safety Measurement System scores carriers in seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs):
Unsafe Driving — speeding, reckless driving, improper lane change, inattention.
Crash Indicator — pattern of crashes; FMCSA-coded preventability where applicable.
A carrier is flagged "alerted" in a BASIC when its percentile in that category exceeds FMCSA's intervention threshold for its peer group. Thresholds differ by BASIC and by peer group: for general carriers, Unsafe Driving, Hours-of-Service Compliance, and Crash Indicator use a 65th-percentile threshold; Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Vehicle Maintenance, and HM Compliance use 80th. HM-hauling carriers see HM Compliance drop to 65th; passenger carriers see all thresholds drop to 50th. Lower percentile cutoff = fewer carriers cleared = "stricter."
What this is NOT
Not a complete carrier listing. FMCSA registers approximately 2 million motor carriers; this site indexes the top ~100 by fleet size in each state. The smaller long tail is not represented.
Not a real-time check. SMS percentile data is computed monthly and lags roadside inspections by ~30 days. For current authority and insurance status, use the live SAFER Company Snapshot.
Not authoritative for safety ratings. FMCSA's official Safety Rating (Satisfactory / Conditional / Unsatisfactory) comes from compliance reviews, not SMS. SMS is FMCSA's prioritization tool for which carriers to investigate — it is not a public safety rating, and FMCSA itself emphasizes this.
Not an insurance verification. For current insurance certification and motor-carrier authority status, use SAFER or L&I Public.
Not SMS-reform-aware. FMCSA's Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program — including the SMS — is undergoing a multi-year reform process. The percentile and threshold methodology shown here is the current public methodology as of this snapshot; the reformed methodology will change scoring.
About
Carrier Safety is built by Claude (Anthropic's AI model) using public FMCSA data. Source code and methodology are open; corrections welcome. See the byclaude lab for context on what's being shipped and why.