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5 min readA USDOT number is a government tracking identifier used by the best moving companies. It’s kind of like a license plate number. You can type a company’s USDOT number into a government website and instantly see its complaint history, safety rating, and accident record.
We’ll take the stress out of your move by showing you how to check your company’s USDOT number—and what to look for when you do.
A U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) number is a unique identifier that tracks safety information for commercial motor vehicles like moving trucks. A USDOT agency called the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) requires every motor carrier that takes cargo across state lines to have a USDOT number.
Additionally, 38 states require local companies that transport goods within state lines to obtain USDOT numbers from the FMCSA.
A USDOT number (sometimes called a DOT number or US DOT number) is important because it protects customers against fraud. It’s an easy way to check a company’s safety record and complaint history—and to verify the company is legitimate.
Some companies try to skirt their safety records by creating fake USDOT numbers.
It’s sketchy, and it’s rare, but it happens. In those cases, you can use the FMCSA website to see if the USDOT number on your moving company’s website is legit.
You can avoid getting ripped off by checking the company’s USDOT number with the FMCSA. We’ll show you how below.
A USDOT number connects a transport company to its safety record. If a company also has an MC number, it is allowed by the FMCSA to provide interstate transportation. Any moving company you hire to take your belongings across state lines should have an MC number.
To check a USDOT number, go to the FMCSA website and search for a company by name, DOT number, or MC number. Movers should list their USDOT and MC numbers on their websites—though this info isn’t always obvious. Otherwise, you can search by name.
You can use the results to check a company’s record for complaints, crashes, safety, and insurance.
It’s easy to do a DOT number lookup, but the results can be tricky to understand. We’ll walk you through what to look for to make sure your moving company is legit.
The easiest way to verify a company is legit is to make sure the info on its website matches what you see when you search the FMCSA’s website:
You can do more to avoid fraud than check a company’s USDOT number. Check out our tips for avoiding moving scams.
You can check a company’s crash record by clicking on the hyperlinked text that says “Inspections/Crashes In US” in the upper left corner of the search results screen.
Crash records include crashes reported by states to the FMCSA for the previous 24 months and are broken down into three categories:
You can check a company’s safety rating by clicking on the hyperlinked text that says “Safety Rating” in the upper left corner of the search results screen. The FMCSA assigns one of three grades to the moving company:
You can order a detailed FMCSA report called a company safety profile if you want more info than what’s available in the company snapshot online. Reports cost $20, and requests take 72 hours to process.
Insurance records aren’t included in the main FMCSA search results, but you can access them by clicking on “Licensing & Insurance” in a blue box in the top right corner of your screen.
Enter the company’s USDOT number or name to search for licensing and insurance info. We’ll warn you: the report may not tell you much, but you’ll be able to cross-check the company’s basic information and find out whether its insurance is pending or has been revoked.
The FMCSA is surprisingly unhelpful when it comes to customer complaints. Many times, a USDOT search won’t reveal any complaint information. Rather than rely on the FMCSA for complaint details, we recommend you spend 5–10 minutes reading reviews online. Google and Yelp are good places to start.
Check out our guide on how to file a complaint if you’ve had a bad experience with your moving company (like damaged items and contract violations).
A USDOT number is necessary for commercial motor vehicles that have a gross vehicle weight of 10,001 pounds or more and engage in interstate commerce. Many states also require USDOT numbers for intrastate commerce (when a company doesn’t cross state lines).
If you don’t have a company’s USDOT number, you can do a DOT number search by entering the company’s name or MC number into the FMCSA database. You can also often find the USDOT number on the moving company’s website.
To see the FMCSA safety audit for your moving company, go to the FMCSA website, search for the company’s record, and click on the hyperlinked text that says “Safety Rating” on the results page.
To see the FMCSA safety audit for your moving company, go to the FMCSA website, search for the company’s record, and click on the hyperlinked text that says “Safety Rating” on the results page.
A company’s safety rating is negatively affected if it doesn’t follow USDOT regulations. A company that doesn’t have any violations has a rating of satisfactory, while unsafe companies receive ratings of conditional or unsatisfactory.
Learn more about how to find legit moving companies:
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