Short answer
A carrier packet is the set of documents a broker collects before a carrier’s first load: a signed broker-carrier agreement, a W-9, proof of active FMCSA authority, a certificate of insurance naming you as holder, and payment details or a factoring notice of assignment. Carrier onboarding means verifying each one at the source, then monitoring for changes.
Why the packet is more than paperwork
The packet is where you set the terms before anything goes wrong. When a load gets damaged, stolen or re-brokered, the agreement, the certificate and the records you kept decide who pays.
Two federal facts shape what you collect:
- Liability insurance has a federal floor. For-hire carriers of general freight in vehicles of 10,001 pounds or more must carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage (49 CFR 387.9).
- Cargo insurance doesn’t. FMCSA requires $0 in cargo insurance from general freight carriers. Only household goods carriers have a federal cargo minimum (FMCSA insurance filing requirements). If you need cargo coverage, and you do, your agreement has to require it.
Brokers also have to keep a record of each shipment, including the carrier’s name, address and registration number, for three years (49 CFR 371.3). The packet is part of that record.
The carrier packet checklist
| Document | What it proves | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Broker-carrier agreement | The terms of the relationship | Signed by an officer. Bans re-brokering without written consent. Covers cargo liability, indemnity, payment terms and claims. |
| W-9 | Legal name and taxpayer ID | Name matches the FMCSA legal name. Signed and dated. |
| Proof of authority | Active interstate for-hire authority | Operating status and authority active in SAFER and FMCSA’s Licensing and Insurance system. |
| Certificate of insurance (COI) | Auto liability and cargo coverage | Sent by the insurance agent. You’re the certificate holder. Limits, policy dates, covered autos and cargo exclusions fit your freight. |
| Payment details or notice of assignment | Where the money goes | Bank letter or voided check matches the legal name. A factoring NOA is confirmed with the factor. |
| Contact sheet | Who dispatches and who handles claims | Main phone matches the FMCSA record. After-hours contact listed. |
| Equipment and lane profile | What the carrier can actually haul | Trailer types, fleet size and preferred lanes. Useful for matching and for spotting overpromises. |
This is a practical checklist, not legal advice. Have a transportation attorney review your broker-carrier agreement.
Verification steps, in order
Collecting documents is easy. Verifying them is the work. Run these steps in this order so a failure early saves you the rest.
- Look up the USDOT number on SAFER. Confirm legal name, address, operating status and power units.
- Check authority and insurance filings in Licensing and Insurance. Confirm active authority, a liability filing on record, and the authority history.
- Call the phone number on the FMCSA record. FMCSA advises confirming carrier phone numbers through SAFER (FMCSA fraud guidance). Ask the person who answers to confirm they’re onboarding with you.
- Request the COI from the insurance agent. Call the agent to confirm the policy is in force and the truck types are covered.
- Check the email domain against the carrier’s name and website. Look-alike domains are a common impersonation trick.
- Match the W-9 to FMCSA. The legal name and the W-9 should agree.
- Verify payment details by callback to the FMCSA-listed number, never to a number in the email that sent the bank letter.
- Approve and record it. Decide who on your team can approve a carrier, and record the status and date on the carrier record.
FMCSA records won't show cargo coverage
General freight carriers have no federal cargo insurance filing, so a clean Licensing and Insurance record tells you nothing about cargo. Confirm cargo limits, deductibles and exclusions with the insurance agent. Common exclusions to ask about: reefer breakdown, unattended vehicles, and specific commodities like electronics or alcohol.
Monitoring carriers after setup
A carrier that passed onboarding in March can have a cancelled policy in June. Onboarding is a snapshot. Monitoring is the ongoing part.
- Insurance. Watch for cancellation notices and expiring policies. Ask agents to notify you as certificate holder.
- Authority. Re-check operating status before you book a carrier you haven’t used in a while.
- Contact and banking changes. A change of phone, email or remit-to address right before a big load is a classic takeover pattern. Re-verify by callback.
- Performance. Track fall-offs, late pickups and claims. A carrier that keeps falling off is a service problem even when its paperwork is perfect.
- Annual refresh. Re-collect the W-9 and re-sign the agreement when your terms change.
Many brokers hand this to a monitoring service. Others run it by hand with a calendar and a spreadsheet. Either works if someone owns it.
Carrier packet mistakes that cost brokers money
- Onboarding under deadline. The packet arrives at 4 p.m. for a 5 p.m. pickup, and someone skips the callback. Fraudsters time it that way on purpose. Set a rule that no carrier gets approved without the callback, no matter who’s asking.
- A generic agreement. A template pulled off the internet may say nothing about re-brokering, cargo claims or detention. Write your own terms once and use them every time.
- Trusting the MC number alone. A real MC number proves a real company exists. It doesn’t prove the person emailing you works there.
- Ignoring the notice of assignment. If a carrier factors and you pay the carrier directly after receiving a valid NOA, the factor can demand payment from you again (UCC 9-406). Record the NOA on the carrier and follow it until you get a written release.
- No owner for approvals. When everyone can approve a carrier, nobody checks. Name the people who can, and record who approved each one.
- Storing packets in inboxes. A claim filed eight months later needs the agreement and COI in minutes. Keep them where the whole team can find them.
Carrier onboarding tools compared
Most mid-size brokers use at least one of these. Each describes itself differently, so here’s what each vendor says it does, in plain terms. Check each vendor for current pricing and TMS integrations.
RMIS
Truckstop acquired Registry Monitoring Insurance Services in March 2021. RMIS collects and monitors certificate of insurance information, manages compliance rule sets for each client, and automates carrier registration and compliance (Truckstop).
MyCarrierPortal (formerly MyCarrierPackets)
MyCarrierPackets became MyCarrierPortal in 2023, and Descartes acquired it in 2024. It covers carrier onboarding inside TMS workflows, insurance monitoring, and tools aimed at identity fraud and double brokering (MyCarrierPortal).
Highway
Highway calls itself a carrier identity platform. Brokers use it to source, onboard and continuously verify carriers, and it also monitors shipments from tender through delivery (Highway).
Carrier Assure
Carrier Assure provides carrier scoring and vetting data on compliance and safety, and it partners with RMIS to add risk scores to RMIS onboarding (Carrier Assure).
Questions to ask any vendor: Which TMS does it connect to today? What triggers an alert, and who gets it? How does it verify that the person onboarding is really the carrier? Can you export your carrier data if you leave?
How carrier onboarding fits in FreightVero
FreightVero doesn’t run carrier onboarding or identity checks today. It enforces the result of yours.
- Live: carrier records with CSV import, a compliance status on each carrier record, and a database checkpoint that stops a load from moving forward with a carrier until that status is approved. Carrier swaps keep the old assignment and the reason it came off.
- Planned: integrations with RMIS and MyCarrierPackets so compliance status can come from the onboarding service instead of being set by hand.
See carrier management in the FreightVero TMS for how the carrier record and checkpoint work.
Related
See the compliance checkpoint on a live load
We’ll show how an unapproved carrier blocks a load, and what the audit log records.