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How Cargado vets carriers

Cargado checks a carrier's authority and identifiers before they can bid; your own onboarding still decides who you dispatch.

Broker
Updated
September 21, 2026

Every carrier passes an identity and authority check tied to their home country before Cargado lets them see or bid on your freight. That check runs separately from, and before, your own onboarding process.

What Cargado checks, by country

  • United States: the carrier's USDOT number must be on file with active common or contract operating authority, plus an MC number or a cross-registered Mexican number. A carrier with no active authority is not added to Cargado.
  • Mexico: the carrier's legal name and RFC are required, and their SCT permit is collected as a document along with proof of the company's legal standing (constancia de situación fiscal, acta constitutiva), proof of address, and the legal representative's ID.
  • Canada: the carrier must provide at least one of NSC, CVOR or NIR, plus documents such as a safety fitness certificate and proof of insurance.

As part of setting up their profile, a carrier also gives three commercial references.

For a U.S. carrier, Cargado also confirms that the person signing up speaks for that DOT number, using the contact details FMCSA has on file for it. Mexican and Canadian carriers upload their company documents during signup.

How this relates to your own onboarding

Cargado's vetting decides whether a carrier can be on the marketplace at all, and it runs before your own onboarding, not instead of it. A carrier that clears Cargado's check still shows as Needs to onboard until you've onboarded them yourself. If your onboarding link is on file with us, the match message sends the carrier to it so they can start.

What you see about a carrier on a bid

Every bid shows the carrier's DOT, MC or SCT number (see Your DOT, MC, RFC, NSC, CVOR and NIR numbers), plus a status badge: Onboarded, Needs to onboard, or Do not dispatch if you've blocked them.

Three bids on a posting, each with the carrier name, lane, MC and DOT numbers and a status. Kross Border Truckerz's "Needs to onboard" status is outlined in blue; the others read Onboarded and Do not dispatch.
Every bid shows the carrier's identifiers and where it stands with your company.

Your own controls

You still decide who actually hauls your freight. You can block a carrier on any posting yourself, and we can block them across your whole company: see Block a carrier from your freight. If your carrier relationships sync into Cargado through an integration, a carrier you've already onboarded shows as Onboarded, and one you've marked Do not dispatch never sees your freight in the marketplace.

Still stuck?

Email us and a person on our team will answer. Send the posting link or a screenshot if you have one.

carriers@cargado.comfor carrierssuccess@cargado.comfor brokers and shippers

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