Building Open Data for the US Trucking Community
CarrierSafetyData provides fast, clear, and 100% free safety records for over 139,000 verified active US commercial motor carriers.
Hi, I am Sahajul. I am an independent full-stack developer and open-data enthusiast based in Assam, India.
I built CarrierSafetyData after seeing how difficult it was for everyday truckers, small fleet owners, and freight dispatchers to quickly check US Department of Transportation safety records.
Official government sites like SAFER and MCMIS are useful, but their servers frequently freeze during busy dispatch hours. More frustratingly, commercial directories lock this exact same public government data behind expensive subscriptions costing $100 to $300 every month.
I believe safety data belongs to everyone on the road. That is why I wrote the automated scripts to clean federal records and host them on high-speed edge servers — so anyone can verify a motor carrier in milliseconds without paying a single rupee or dollar.
Why Checking US Truck Safety Was So Frustrating
In the United States, commercial semi-trucks move more than 72% of all domestic freight. Over 4 million heavy trucks travel across state highways every day.
To ensure highway safety, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and state highway patrols inspect trucks at weigh stations and roadside checkpoints. They record every mechanical violation, traffic citation, roadside out-of-service order, and accident.
While this safety information is officially public record under US open government rules, finding it in real-world situations has always been painful:
- • Legacy Portal Slowdowns: The government's SAFER portal runs on aging databases that time out or crash when thousands of dispatchers log on between 7:00 AM and 11:00 AM.
- • Cryptic Regulatory Codes: Roadside inspection tickets list numbers like "49 CFR 396.3(a)(1)" or "49 CFR 395.8(a)". A busy broker or shipper cannot spend 20 minutes looking up what each code means.
- • Fragmented Information: Basic company details are on SAFER, insurance filings are on the Licensing & Insurance (L&I) portal, and detailed violation history is buried in MCMIS. You have to open three different websites just to check one truck.
- • Predatory Paywalls: Private data companies bundle this public information into subscription packages and charge small owner-operators and independent dispatchers steep monthly fees.
CarrierSafetyData was created to solve every one of these problems with clean software engineering.
How CarrierSafetyData Makes Truck Records Clear and Fast
We combined all these separate government databases into one lightning-fast search engine. When you look up a USDOT number or MC number on our website, here is what happens:
Sub-50ms Response Times
Carrier pages are deployed across a global edge network. Profiles load almost instantly, whether you are on high-speed office fiber or checking from a smartphone in a truck cab.
No Bureaucracy Jargon
We translate 49 CFR federal regulation codes into simple words. Instead of an obscure number, you immediately see "Brake hose cracked", "Tire tread under 2/32 inch", or "Logbook falsification".
Unified Safety Profile
Active operating authority status, BMC-91X liability insurance policies, 24-month roadside inspection history, crash records, and fleet equipment counts all appear on a single page.
Best of all, you never need to create an account, log in, or provide a payment card. The data is openly accessible to everyone.
How Our Monthly Data Ingestion Pipeline Works
We maintain a transparent automated pipeline that ingests official monthly data dumps released by the federal government. Here is the exact technical process:
Direct Download from Federal Sources
Our ingestion script connects to the FMCSA open data repository and retrieves the monthly Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) census, roadside inspection files, and L&I insurance master tables.
Filtering Active Operating Carriers
Millions of USDOT numbers belong to companies that closed down decades ago. We filter for active commercial interstate and intrastate motor carriers, eliminating ghost entities so users search only currently operating fleets.
Data Normalization & Sanitization
Company names, DBAs, addresses, and MC docket numbers are formatted consistently. We calculate Out-of-Service (OOS) percentages for both vehicle and driver categories and compare them against official national benchmark averages.
Edge Database Deployment
Cleaned records are indexed into Cloudflare D1 distributed SQLite storage. Queries hit local edge nodes near the user, preventing server lag and ensuring 99.9% uptime.
The 4 Principles That Guide Our Platform
Principle 1: 100% Free Public Access Forever
We believe transportation safety information is a public right, not a corporate commodity. Core carrier search, safety profiles, violation breakdowns, and insurance verification will always remain free with no mandatory credit card or account creation.
Principle 2: Zero Pay-to-Remove Policy
We will never take payment from a motor carrier, freight broker, or lawyer to hide, edit, or delete violation records. Doing so would deceive the public and put drivers and road users at risk. Everything on our platform strictly mirrors official US government public records.
Principle 3: Plain-English Translations
Technical legal codes should not prevent people from understanding vehicle safety. We translate complex federal regulations into clear, plain language so any dispatcher, shipper, or driver can understand an inspection in seconds.
Principle 4: Supporting Fair DataQ Dispute Rights
We know state troopers and inspectors can occasionally make mistakes on roadside inspection forms. We actively publish free guides teaching motor carriers how to use the official federal DataQ system to appeal unfair citations and have dismissed tickets removed from their record.
Who Relies on CarrierSafetyData Every Day?
Freight Brokers & 3PLs
Verify active motor carrier operating authority, check current BMC-91X primary liability policies, and spot double-brokering warning flags before dispatching high-value loads.
Truck Drivers & Owner-Operators
Check a fleet's true maintenance culture before accepting a lease or driving job. Avoid trucking companies that force drivers onto highways with faulty brakes or bald tires.
Shippers & Insurance Adjusters
Evaluate real fleet risk, monitor 24-month crash statistics, and compare out-of-service violation percentages against national averages to protect against cargo loss and liability.
Modern Web Engineering for Sub-Second Speeds
Many government portals use decade-old web architectures that crawl under heavy load. CarrierSafetyData was engineered from scratch using modern high-performance web tooling:
Questions About CarrierSafetyData & Our Mission
Straight answers about our data pipeline, independence, update frequency, and policies.
No. CarrierSafetyData is an independent public-data platform created by developer Sahajul. We are not a US government agency, nor are we affiliated with or endorsed by the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) or the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). All company profiles, inspection records, and insurance details shown are public records published under US Freedom of Information rules.
Never. We uphold 100% data integrity and transparency. We do not sell "score removal" or "profile hiding" services. If a motor carrier has recorded roadside violations, they will display accurately according to federal records. If an officer made a mistake or a citation was dismissed in court, the carrier should file an official appeal through the FMCSA DataQ portal. Once the government updates their database, our next monthly sync automatically reflects that correction.
We sync our database monthly in coordination with the official FMCSA open-data release calendar. This ensures you always view the latest 24-month rolling inspection window, current insurance filings (Form BMC-91/BMC-91X), and up-to-date fleet power unit counts.
Because public safety data belongs to the public. By using lightweight edge architecture (Astro static builds and Cloudflare serverless D1 databases), our server costs remain tiny compared to traditional enterprise systems. We believe drivers, dispatchers, and small trucking businesses deserve open access without paying hundreds of dollars every month.
Disputes must be submitted directly to the official government system called FMCSA DataQ (dataqs.fmcsa.dot.gov). You can submit a Request for Data Review (RDR) along with court dismissal documents or correct vehicle inspection slips. We also have a free step-by-step tutorial available: How to Dispute DOT Violations via DataQ.
You can email Sahajul directly at support@carriersafetydata.com or connect on X at @saddamh58509953. We appreciate suggestions, feature requests, and bug reports from the trucking community.