How to Vet a Drayage Carrier: Authority, Insurance, and the Questions to Ask

Anyone can put a logo on a truck and call themselves a drayage carrier. Confirming that the company moving your container actually has the legal authority and insurance to do it is a five-minute check that can save you from cargo claims, missed pickups, and a container that quietly sits at the terminal while two companies argue over who's responsible for it. It costs nothing to ask, and a legitimate carrier will never treat the question as an insult.

This isn't about distrust. It's about doing what any experienced shipper or forwarder already does before handing over a container: check the paperwork, ask direct questions, and know what a real answer sounds like versus a dodge. Below is what to check, what a real certificate of insurance looks like, and the questions worth asking before you book.

Drayage moves fast. A container clears the terminal, a rate gets quoted, and the pressure is to book now before free time runs out and demurrage starts stacking up by the day. That urgency is exactly when corners get cut. A carrier with no active operating authority, lapsed insurance, or no real dispatch presence can still send a quote and show up for a pickup — right up until something goes wrong, and then the lack of a paper trail becomes your problem, not theirs. Building the check into your normal drayage quote checklist means it happens every time, as routine as confirming a chassis type or a delivery window, not just when something feels off.

Every for-hire motor carrier operating in interstate commerce needs an MC number issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. You don't have to take a carrier's word for it. The FMCSA's SAFER system is public, free, and takes about two minutes to search, whether you're booking a single move or setting up a long-term lane.

1. 01Search the FMCSA SAFER system by company name, MC number, or DOT number
2. 02Confirm the operating authority status reads active, not revoked, involuntary revoked, or pending
3. 03Check the authority type matches the move — common or contract authority for property carriers
4. 04Look at the carrier's DOT number and last-updated date as a sanity check against what they told you
5. 05Cross-reference the legal company name and address against what's printed on the quote or rate confirmation

A carrier that hesitates when you ask for their MC number, or gives you a number that doesn't match the company name on the quote, has already told you something worth paying attention to.

A certificate of insurance is the standard proof that a carrier is covered, but not every COI is worth the paper it's printed on. Before you rely on one, look for these specifics rather than just confirming a document exists:

• The named insured matches the carrier you're booking, not a related company, a shell entity, or a broker sitting between you and the truck
• Auto liability coverage at a level appropriate for the freight, commonly $750,000 or more for interstate trucking depending on what you're moving
• Cargo insurance listed separately from auto liability, since auto liability alone typically doesn't cover freight that's damaged or lost in transit
• Current effective and expiration dates, since an expired certificate tells you nothing about today's coverage
• Your company named as certificate holder, so the insurer notifies you directly if the policy lapses or gets cancelled mid-contract

For high-value freight, it's also worth asking whether the carrier carries any coverage above the standard cargo policy, and whether their insurer can confirm coverage directly if you call. A COI that only exists as a PDF someone forwarded to you, with no way to verify it independently, isn't much better than no COI at all.

Most vetting problems show up as a pattern, not a single red flag. Watch for:

• Won't provide a certificate of insurance or authority documents on request, or keeps stalling when you follow up
• No direct dispatch contact, just a general inbox or a broker relaying every message with no visibility into who's actually driving
• Operating authority that shows as revoked, inactive, or pending on FMCSA SAFER, even if the sales rep sounds confident on the phone
• Pricing far below every other quote you've gotten for the same move, with no clear reason
• Vague or evasive answers about which port or rail ramp they actually service, or what equipment they run

None of these prove a carrier is unreliable on their own — a small carrier might genuinely have a simple dispatch setup, for example. Together, though, they're a pattern worth taking seriously, and they're exactly why working through a broker or forwarder doesn't remove the need to know who's actually underneath the load. A broker's paperwork is only as good as the carrier they've actually vetted.

A short call or email thread before your first move answers most of this at once:

1. 01Can you send your MC number and a current certificate of insurance?
2. 02Do your drivers carry TWIC, and can they access the terminals I need?
3. 03Is dispatch reachable directly, and what happens if my container needs to move outside normal business hours?
4. 04Is your fleet GPS-tracked, so I can get real-time status once the container is picked up?
5. 05What's your process if a container gets held at the terminal or flagged for a customs exam?

A carrier that answers plainly and quickly is telling you something just as clearly as one that hedges or goes quiet. TWIC in particular is worth confirming directly — it's a federal credential required for unescorted access to secure port and terminal areas, and a driver without one simply can't get to your container no matter how good the rest of the operation looks on paper. If you're new to what that credential covers and why it matters for scheduling, our guide to TWIC and port credentials walks through it in more detail.

The five minutes it takes to check an MC number and read a certificate of insurance is cheap compared to the cost of a carrier that can't actually perform — a missed pickup, a cargo claim with no real coverage behind it, or a container stuck at the terminal with no one answering the phone. Treat it the same way every time, for every new carrier relationship: check authority, check insurance, ask the direct questions, and only then book the move. Our FAQ page covers the basics if you need a quick reference, but for a move where real money and a real container are on the line, the fuller checklist above is worth running every time.