Every carrier applies, and our carrier team reviews the application before turning the account on. Until then, a carrier can't see or bid on freight. What a carrier submits depends on where it's based.
What carriers submit, by country
USA
U.S.-based carriers
Carriers apply with their USDOT number, and the application looks it up in FMCSA records. Before our team can turn on a U.S.-based carrier's account, our records must show active common or contract authority.
MEX
Mexican carriers
Mexican carriers can apply without a USDOT number. They submit their RFC and constancia de situación fiscal, SICT operating permit, proof of address and ID for their legal representative, and companies add their acta constitutiva. Our team reviews these documents. If your load needs U.S. registration or authority, confirm the carrier holds it before you tender.
CAN
Canadian carriers
Canadian carriers submit their provincial safety registration number (CVOR, NIR or NSC), a safety fitness certificate, a certificate of incorporation and a certificate of insurance. Carriers with employees also submit a workers' compensation clearance.
References
Carriers applying today are asked for three references from companies they've hauled for: brokers, 3PLs, shippers or freight forwarders.
After approval
Our team is alerted when a carrier's USDOT status is no longer active. Brokers can block a carrier on any load or lane they post. If our team deactivates a carrier, it can no longer see or bid on freight.
What this means for brokers
Only reviewed carriers bid
A carrier can't bid on your freight until our team has turned its account on.
Set your own requirements
List requirements like CTPAT, bonded status or cargo insurance on each posting. Carriers state these on their own profile, so confirm them before you tender. Cargado's review doesn't replace your own carrier onboarding.
Report a problem
Tell us about a carrier and our team will look into it. We can restrict or deactivate the account.
2,400+ carriers
Carriers across the U.S., Mexico and Canada, each turned on by our team.
Vetted means four things, and we want brokers to know exactly which four. First, a U.S. DOT number is looked up live with FMCSA when a carrier signs up, and operating authority is synced from FMCSA onto the carrier's profile. Second, Mexican and Canadian carriers upload company documents, and a person on our team reads them. Third, new carriers give three commercial references, and our team contacts them. Fourth, a person on our team approves or denies the carrier. There is no automatic approval and no score that lets a carrier in on its own.
Mexican permits, Canadian registrations, certifications such as C-TPAT, customs bonds and cargo insurance are declared by the carrier and kept on file, and our team reviews the documents. U.S. authority is the one credential checked against FMCSA records.
What we collect from carriers in each country
The signup is different in each country because the paperwork is different.
U.S. carriers: a USDOT number. The legal name comes back from FMCSA. Signup blocks a DOT that is inactive, not found, or registered as a broker. Before a U.S. carrier is approved, it needs active common or contract authority.
Mexican carriers: legal name, RFC, an optional USDOT, and uploads of the tax status certificate (constancia de situación fiscal), articles of incorporation for companies, the SICT (formerly SCT) federal permit, proof of address and the legal representative's ID.
Canadian carriers: registration type and number (CVOR in Ontario, NIR in Quebec, NSC elsewhere), legal name, an optional USDOT, and uploads of the safety fitness certificate, certificate of incorporation, certificate of insurance and, when the carrier has employees, its WCB, WSIB or CNESST clearance.
Most carriers are reviewed within one business day. A signup that sits for 30 days without carrier activity expires.
How the process guards against identity fraud and double brokering
Identity fraud usually starts with someone claiming a real carrier's DOT number. Signup stops the easy versions: a DOT registered as a broker cannot sign up as a carrier, and an inactive or unknown DOT is turned away. A carrier claiming a U.S. DOT can also be asked to confirm it with a one-time code sent to the email or phone on its FMCSA record, which an impersonator does not control.
References and a manual review catch some of what records cannot. Our team contacts the commercial references, which must be brokers, 3PLs, freight forwarders or shippers, never other carriers, and records whether each one checks out. No single step is proof, so the honest answer is layers: FMCSA data, documents read by a person, references, and a human decision before any freight is visible.
What you still confirm before you tender
Our vetting gets a carrier into the network. Your own carrier setup still decides who hauls your load. Before you tender, we suggest you confirm:
U.S. authority is active today, in FMCSA's public lookup. Our sync can lag FMCSA, so check on the day.
The contact you are dealing with matches the FMCSA record or the company's published details.
Certifications you require, such as C-TPAT or OEA, with the program itself. Ours are carrier-reported.
The certificate of insurance, with the insurer, for the amount your customer needs.
For Mexican carriers, the SICT permit and RFC on the documents match the company you are paying.
For Canadian carriers, the CVOR, NIR or NSC number with the province that issued it.
The Mexican and Canadian authority pages walk through each number and where to check it.
Controls you keep as a broker
Cargado's review is separate from your own onboarding. The "Onboarded" and "Needs to onboard" badges come only from the carrier statuses your company sends to Cargado, for example from your TMS through our API. A carrier you have not sent a status for shows no badge. You can block a carrier from all of your freight or from one load or lane. You can post a load so only carriers in your own network see it. The marketplace also applies country rules before anyone sees a load: domestic freight goes to carriers from that country, and U.S. interior freight goes only to carriers with the right U.S. authority.
On Cargado
How vetted carriers reach your load on Cargado
Post the load with its equipment and requirements. Only carriers that are allowed to haul it can see it and bid, and your requirements narrow that pool. Certifications and bonds are declared by the carrier, so ask for proof of each one you require. Carriers hear about it through their saved lanes, their service areas and trucks they have posted near your pickup. You also get a ranked list of suggested carriers, each with the reason it was picked: "Available truck", "Preferred lane" or "Service areas". Carriers join free, and Cargado takes no cut of the freight.
