How to evaluate an operation with a DOT# ? 🚛🚛🚛

The_Underwriter_s_Playbook.mp4

STEP 1 - The Driver

Before an underwriter even glances at your trucks, your cargo, or your financials, they look at one thing: who is sitting behind the wheel. The driver is, without a doubt, the single most important factor in their entire calculation.

Clear Connect Solutions

When you pull an MVR from Clear Connect (via the portal), you are checking for the following specific information regarding the driver's history:

1. Driving History & Safety Record

The MVR provides a comprehensive look at the driver's behavior on the road. You are checking for:

• Moving Violations: Speeding tickets, failure to obey signals, etc.

• Accidents: Any reportable accidents within the required timeframe (usually 3–5 years depending on the carrier).

• Traffic Tickets: Non-moving or administrative citations.

• Suspensions/Revocations: You must verify that the license is valid and has not been suspended or revoked.

2. License Status & Endorsements

• CDL Class: Verifying the driver holds the correct license class (Class A, B, or C) for the vehicle they are operating.

• Tenure: Confirming when the CDL was originally issued to ensure they meet carrier experience requirements (e.g., 2 years of CDL experience),.

• Medical Certification: Ensuring the driver has a valid medical certificate, which is often tracked alongside the CDL status.

3. Operational Notes for Clear Connect

• Pennsylvania (PA) Restriction: Clear Connect currently has issues processing PA licenses. For Pennsylvania drivers, you must use "WEB MVR" instead.

• Text Invite System: The Clear Connect process often involves sending a text invite to the driver to authorize the report.

• Cost: If the agency pulls these reports for the insured, the fee depends on the state of the DL, please check the MVR Price List

https://client-prod-hub.thecleartrac.com/login

Step 2 - Safety Score

The next thing an underwriter does is zoom out. They start looking at your company as a whole. And they’re asking one simple question: Does the prospect run a safe operation? To review this, we have the following tools:

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

We check the FMCSA data to verify the following specific information:

1. Safety and Performance Scores (SMS)

The FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System (SMS) is considered an underwriter's "primary tool" to assess risk. We check the 7 BASIC categories, where higher percentiles indicate worse performance:

• Unsafe Driving: Speeding, seatbelt violations, and reckless behavior.

• HOS Compliance: Hours of Service/logbook violations.

• Crash Indicator: History of reportable crashes (this is highly weighted by underwriters).

• Vehicle Maintenance: Brakes, lights, tires, and oil leaks.

• Drugs/Alcohol: Violations found during inspections.

• Hazardous Materials: Packaging or placarding issues.

• Driver Fitness: Issues with CDLs or expired medical cards.

Red Flags: We look for the "Alert" symbol (a gold triangle). Most "A-rated" markets will decline accounts that have more than two alerts.

2. Operational Authority and Status

• Operating Status: We verify if the carrier is "Active" or if their operation has been placed "out of service" by an FMCSA enforcement action.

• Authority Type: We confirm if the entity is listed as "For Hire (Authorized or Exempt)". If a carrier claims to be a specific type of business (e.g., Agricultural Hauler), we verify they are authorized to haul goods for hire in SAFER.

• Chameleon Carriers: We check the age of the USDOT number. If a client has obtained a USDOT number recently but claims to be an established operator, we investigate if they are a "chameleon carrier"—a motor carrier that obtained a new number to hide a poor safety record,.

3. Commodities and Cargo

We review the "Cargo Carried" section in SAFER to ensure the business class matches the quote and to avoid audits,.

• Agricultural: Must list "grain, feed, hay" or "agricultural/farm supplies".

• Auto Haulers: Must show "Automobiles" as cargo carried.

• Dirt, Sand & Gravel: Must list "dirt," "sand," "gravel," "soil," or "aggregate".

• Specialty Risks: We check for high-risk commodities like logs, coal, or debris.

• General Checks: During the renewal process, we check commodities in FMCSA to confirm they match the current application.

4. Fleet and Driver Consistency

• Vehicle Count: We compare the number of vehicles listed on the insurance application against the number reported in SAFER. It is a "red flag" if a carrier reports operating many more power units in SAFER than they wish to insure, as they may be hiding vehicles.

• Garaging Address: We verify if the business address in SAFER matches the garaging address on the policy. If they differ, we may need proof of the garaging location.

5. Insurance History

• Loss Runs verification: The renewal process explicitly requires checking the "last 5 years insurance history in FMCSA" to identify prior carriers and obtain the necessary loss runs,,.

• Filings: We check if the entity requires federal filings (BMC-91X) or has a history of unlisted vehicles running under their authority

https://safer.fmcsa.dot.gov/CompanySnapshot.aspx
https://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS/

Broker Snapshot

BrokerSnapshot is a private, third-party platform that pulls data from the FMCSA and then enhances it with extra tools for brokers and insurance professionals.

Advanced Searching: Unlike the FMCSA, BrokerSnapshot allows you to use AI-powered searches to find specific types of carriers (e.g., "Carriers with 5–10 trucks in Texas").

Verification Tools: It includes features the FMCSA does not have, such as Secretary of State (SOS) records, Phone/Email validation, and Tracking services.

Fraud Prevention: It helps identify red flags, such as carriers using "virtual addresses" (like a UPS Store), which is a common check for freight brokers trying to avoid double-brokering or identity theft.

https://brokersnapshot.com/

In this video, I Jake walks us through how to access and interpret inspection reports using Broker Snapshot and Safer for vehicles with DOT numbers. He highlights the importance of pre-vehicle inspections, as many drivers are neglecting this, leading to various maintenance violations. He also discusses the implications of these violations on insurance and the need for accurate reporting of vehicle and driver information. Please ensure that any discrepancies in vehicle counts or driver qualifications are addressed, and encourage your clients to maintain proper documentation. This will help us better evaluate their risk and improve safety compliance.

Click to Watch

Step 3 - Right Carrier

The next piece of the puzzle is finding an insurance carrier that actually wants your business. And here’s a key insight: not all carriers are looking for the same thing.

With the data collected from the different sources, let's check what markets we can approach using Streetsmart Trucking Notebook

So you’ve got the driver, you’ve got the safety score, you know which market you’re aiming for. The final play is all about execution. It’s about taking all this great information and packaging it into a perfect submission that makes an underwriter’s job easy and frankly, makes them want to give you a quote.

Let's talk about submissions.

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