USDOT number lookup
Check a carrier’s DOT number before you book a load or sign a contract. See the legal name, whether FMCSA allows it to operate, how many trucks and drivers it runs, and its address.
20 free lookups a day, no account needed. Enter the number on its own or as “USDOT 1234567”. Answers come from FMCSA.
Allowed to operate
- Legal name
- Example Freight LLC
- USDOT status
- Active
- Allowed to operate
- Yes
- Power units
- 42
- Drivers
- 45
- Address
- 200 Depot Rd, Columbus, OH 43215, US
Example result with made-up details.
What a DOT number lookup tells you
Interstate trucking and bus companies, and many intrastate ones, must register with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and display their USDOT number.
- Who the carrier is
- The legal name and any “doing business as” name, so you can match the paperwork to the company.
- Whether it may operate
- FMCSA’s allowed-to-operate flag and the USDOT status. An out-of-service or inactive carrier shouldn’t be hauling your freight.
- How big it is
- The number of power units (trucks and tractors) and drivers it reports, plus its physical address.
Need more than 20 a day?
Brokers and shippers vet carriers every day. On the TrustLookup API a USDOT lookup uses no credits on any plan, so you can check every carrier at onboarding and again before each load.
Request
curl https://api.trustlookup.io/v1/lookup \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $TRUSTLOOKUP_KEY" \
-d q="1234567" \
-d checks="usdot"Response (shortened)
{
"type": "usdot",
"results": {
"usdot": {
"ok": true,
"credits": 0,
"data": {
"usdot": "1234567",
"found": true,
"legal_name": "Example Freight LLC",
"status": "active",
"allowed_to_operate": true,
"power_units": 42,
"drivers": 45
}
}
}
}Questions
Is this DOT number lookup free?
Yes. Carrier records are public FMCSA data, and this page checks up to 20 numbers a day without an account. On the API, USDOT lookups use no credits.
What does “allowed to operate” mean?
It’s FMCSA’s own flag for whether the carrier may currently operate. It turns to “No” when a carrier is placed out of service, has its registration revoked, or hasn’t kept its registration up to date.
Is a USDOT number the same as an MC number?
No. The USDOT number identifies the company for safety records. An MC number is operating authority for carrying regulated goods across state lines for hire. Many carriers have both; this tool looks up the USDOT number.
Can I search by company name?
Not here yet: this tool looks up one USDOT number at a time. To find a number from a name, use FMCSA’s SAFER company snapshot, then check it here or through the API.
How current is the data?
We ask FMCSA directly and reuse an answer for the same number for up to a day. Fleet size and drivers are what the carrier reported in its last update to FMCSA.
Run these checks from your app
250 free credits every month for phone, email, IP and domain checks. NPI, USDOT and blacklist checks don’t use credits.