In short
The Trust Score combines five FMCSA-published signals — operating authority, crash rate, out-of-service rate, insurance currency, and historical-continuity flags — into a single 0–100 number. Carriers without enough public data are placed in a separate Limited History tier rather than given a misleadingly high score.
1. The five score components
Every score starts at 0 and earns points from each of these five components. The maximum possible is 100. Weights total to 100 with a chameleon penalty applied last.
| Component | Max points | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Operating authority | 25 | FMCSA SAFER status code |
| Crash rate (24 mo) | 25 | FMCSA Crash File |
| Out-of-service rate | 25 | FMCSA Inspection File |
| Insurance currency | 18 | FMCSA L&I Public Lookup |
| Continuity penalty | −30 (max) | FMCSA prior-revoke + officer/address overlap |
a) Operating authority — 25 points
FMCSA assigns each USDOT number a status code. A (Active)
earns the full 25 points. Inactive, out-of-service, or revoked authorities earn 0.
We do not adjust for "newly active" or "pending" — the carrier either has authority right now or doesn't.
b) Crash rate — 25 points
We count reportable crashes in the last 24 months from FMCSA's Crash File. Scoring:
- 0 crashes: 25 points
- 1–2 crashes: 18 points (neutral — some operating activity, low severity)
- 3+ crashes: scaled penalty (25 − 2 × crash count, floored at 0)
- Any fatal crash: additional warning chip surfaced separately (no further score deduction; the chip's prominence is the signal)
Why 24 months? FMCSA's Safety Measurement System uses the same window. We match it so our score is directly comparable to FMCSA's own safety percentile.
c) Out-of-service rate — 25 points
OOS rate = vehicle out-of-service violations ÷ total inspections. This is the strongest single indicator of fleet maintenance discipline. Scoring requires at least 3 inspections on file — below that, the rate is statistically meaningless.
- OOS ≤ 5%: 25 points (clean — better than the FMCSA national average of ~21%)
- OOS 5–20%: 15 points (typical range)
- OOS > 20%: 0 points + warning chip (above FMCSA Vehicle Maintenance BASIC alert threshold)
- Fewer than 3 inspections: 12 points (partial credit + "Limited inspection history" chip)
d) Insurance currency — 18 points
Carriers must maintain BIPD (bodily-injury and property-damage) insurance to keep authority. Lapses are a strong red flag. We award the full 18 points by default if authority is active (FMCSA wouldn't allow active operation without coverage on file). Refinement based on cancellation history is in development; until then, lapse history is surfaced as a separate warning chip rather than a score deduction.
e) Continuity penalty — up to −30 points
FMCSA tracks a pattern called chameleon carriers — companies that lose authority for safety reasons and re-register under a new name with the same officers, address, or fleet. We compute a "chameleon risk" score from three signals:
- Prior revoked authority: +40 to chameleon score (this carrier explicitly succeeded a revoked DOT)
- Officer name continuity: +20 if an officer here also appears at another active or recently-active DOT
- Address continuity: +20 if multiple DOTs share the same physical street, city, and state
That 0–100 chameleon score then maps to a Trust Score deduction:
- Chameleon score ≥ 70: −30 Trust Score points
- Chameleon score 30–69: −10 Trust Score points
- Below 30: no deduction
Common-name false positives (e.g. multiple unrelated carriers run by people named "John Smith") are filtered with a stoplist of high-collision names. Officer matches require at least two name words and six characters total.
2. What each tier means
The 0–100 number is also presented as a tier badge with a color. Tier thresholds:
Healthy — 80–100
Active authority, low or zero crashes, strong inspection record, no continuity flags. Suitable starting point for carrier vetting; due diligence still recommended for any contract over your risk tolerance.
Mixed — 50–79
Some warning signals (a crash, elevated OOS, modest history flags), but no single critical issue. Look at which specific chips contributed to the score before making a booking decision.
Caution — 0–49
Multiple stacked issues: inactive authority, high crash rate, high OOS rate, or strong continuity flags. Verify carefully against FMCSA SAFER and consider alternatives.
Limited History — insufficient data
Carrier has fewer than 3 inspections AND zero crashes on record. The scoring formula would give a misleadingly high number from absence of bad signals. Instead we surface the data gap directly. More on this below.
3. Brand-new carriers — the Limited History tier
About 8–12% of active US motor carriers have less than 3 FMCSA inspections on file. Most are simply new (registered in the past 12–18 months) and haven't hit a roadside inspection station yet. A small number are tiny fleets that genuinely operate at very low miles.
The honest problem: our formula awards full points for "zero crashes" and partial credit for "limited inspection history." A brand-new carrier with no record at all would score 80+ — labeled "Healthy" — even though we have no actual evidence of how safely they operate. That's misleading. Healthy implies "proven track record." A 30-day-old carrier has no track record yet.
Our solution: when a carrier has 0 crashes AND fewer than 3 inspections, we suppress the numeric score and show the Limited History tier instead. The widget displays a question mark, "No data" subtitle, and a direct link to the carrier's FMCSA SAFER profile so users can verify and form their own opinion.
This costs us a tidier-looking score on tens of thousands of pages. We accept that cost because telling the truth about data gaps is more useful to shippers, brokers, and insurers than a confidence-projecting number that doesn't reflect reality.
4. What we do NOT use
The Trust Score uses only public, machine-verifiable government data. We deliberately exclude:
- User reviews or ratings. Trucking-industry "review" sites are full of retaliatory feedback from disputes, brokers blacklisting carriers, or coordinated reputation attacks. They don't reflect safety.
- Broker-credit reports. Whether brokers paid a carrier on time tells you nothing about whether their trucks pass DOT inspections.
- BBB ratings, social media sentiment, news mentions. Subjective signals drift further from safety with every step.
- Manual editorial overrides. No human at O Trucking can raise or lower an individual carrier's score. The formula is the same for every USDOT number on the site.
- Pay-to-promote signals. Carriers cannot buy a higher score. We do not offer that product.
Every input maps to an FMCSA or NHTSA public dataset that anyone can audit independently.
5. Data sources and freshness
| Dataset | Source | Refresh cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Carrier registration (Census) | FMCSA SAFER | Monthly |
| Inspection records | FMCSA SMS | Monthly |
| Crash records | FMCSA Crash File | Monthly |
| Insurance & bond | FMCSA L&I Public Lookup | Weekly |
| Vehicle recalls | NHTSA Recalls API | Daily delta-fetch |
Each carrier page shows a dateModified
in its structured data, set to the carrier's most recent MCS-150 update date as published by FMCSA.
FMCSA-generated changes (e.g., a revoke decision today) typically appear on our pages within
4–6 weeks of the FMCSA action.
6. Why we publish this score
FMCSA publishes carrier safety data in a deliberately raw, technical format intended for inspectors and compliance officers. Most of it is correct, useful, and free — but practically inaccessible to a small fleet owner trying to vet a partner, or a shipper trying to pick a carrier for next Tuesday's load.
The Trust Score is one number that lets people who don't live inside FMCSA terminology start a vetting conversation. It's explicitly not a substitute for due diligence — every carrier page on this site links directly to the carrier's SAFER snapshot for verification. It's a starting point, not a verdict.
7. Frequently asked questions
Does my carrier need to pay anything to get a score?
No. Every USDOT-registered carrier in the FMCSA database has a Trust Score on this site, computed from public data. There is no paid tier, no remove-my-score fee, and no manual adjustment available for purchase.
My carrier's score looks wrong — how do I correct it?
Trust Scores are computed automatically from FMCSA's public data, which we re-sync monthly. If a fact on your carrier page is wrong, the underlying record at FMCSA SAFER is almost always the source of the error. Update your MCS-150 directly at portal.fmcsa.dot.gov; our score will reflect the change at the next sync.
My address matches another carrier's — we're unrelated. Why are you linking us?
The "Other Carriers Registered at This Address" block surfaces address overlaps from FMCSA's public registry. Shared addresses commonly reflect legitimate co-location (industrial parks, registered-agent services, multi-fleet owners). The block carries an explicit disclaimer that overlap does not imply wrongdoing. If a specific entry is incorrect at FMCSA, fix it at the source via your MCS-150.
Why doesn't my brand-new carrier have a number?
Carriers with fewer than 3 FMCSA inspections and zero crashes are placed in the Limited History tier. The formula would otherwise give a high score from the absence of bad signals, which would mislead shippers about the carrier's actual track record. Once you accumulate inspection history, your score will appear automatically.
Is this the same as the FMCSA SMS percentile?
No. SMS percentiles are FMCSA's seven BASIC scores (Unsafe Driving, HOS Compliance, Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances, Vehicle Maintenance, Hazmat, Crash Indicator). They're used for FMCSA prioritization. Our Trust Score is broader — it includes authority status and continuity flags — and produces one number a non-specialist can act on. Both have value; we link to FMCSA SMS where applicable so you can compare.
Does O Trucking use these scores when dispatching for owner-operators?
When we dispatch loads on behalf of carriers we work with, we vet the broker on the other end — not the carrier we're representing. The Trust Score is a tool for the public; our internal vetting goes deeper and uses additional non-public signals (broker-credit history, payment timeliness, etc.) that don't belong on a public page.
About this page: Methodology last updated April 28, 2026 by the O Trucking Research Team. Material changes to component weights or tier thresholds will be noted here with a dated changelog.
Have a question or correction? Email research@otrucking.com with the relevant USDOT number.