The LoadWrap Trust Score™

It’s a single 0-100 trust rating for any FMCSA-registered carrier, broker or freight forwarder. It distills four areas - operating authority, insurance or surety bond, safety, and compliance - into one comparable number, computed the same way for every company from public federal data. Think of it as a fast read on whether a freight partner is legitimate and how risky it is, before you book a load, hand over a trailer, or wire a deposit.

They come from the same engine but answer two different questions. Validated is pass/fail - the green badge a company earns only when it meets all four legal minimums: active authority, the right authority for its role, the required insurance or bond on file, and a safety rating that isn’t Unsatisfactory. The score is the graded 0-100 that also weighs risk factors like crashes, out-of-service rates, operating history and contact completeness. A company can be Validated and still sit in the 60s if it carries risk; an unvalidated company always lands low.

Failing any one of the four gates: its operating authority isn’t active, it doesn’t hold the right authority for what it actually does, the required insurance or surety bond isn’t on file, or it carries an Unsatisfactory safety rating. A single failure is enough to flip the badge to Not Validated - all four are mandatory.

For the badge they’re equal - fail any one and you’re Not Validated. The different point values (−15 to −30) only shape the 0-100 score, so two unvalidated companies aren’t treated as identical. An Unsatisfactory safety rating (−30) is the most serious because FMCSA itself judged the company unsafe and legally barred it from operating; a missing or wrong authority for its role (−15) is usually a registration or classification gap rather than an active danger on the road.

Yes, and the score applies the right test to each. A for-hire carrier needs active authority plus BI&PD insurance on file. A broker needs broker authority plus a $75,000 surety bond - no truck insurance and no safety rating, because it runs no trucks. A freight forwarder needs FF authority plus the same $75,000 bond. A carrier-broker must satisfy both sets. A private carrier - a company hauling its own goods - needs no operating authority or insurance filing at all, just an active USDOT and a non-Unsatisfactory rating.

No - that’s the industry standard brokers ask for, not federal law. The federal legal minimum for general freight is $750,000 in BI&PD (auto) liability (49 CFR 387.9), and cargo insurance isn’t federally required for general freight at all - only household-goods movers must carry it. The familiar “$1M auto + $100k cargo” is what brokers and shippers contractually require before they give you a load, which sits above the federal floor. Validation checks the federal filing; the higher numbers are a separate business requirement.

By rate, not by raw count. We divide a company’s crashes by its fleet size to get crashes per vehicle - because two crashes across 50,000 trucks is a near-zero risk, while two crashes on a 2-truck fleet is a 100% crash rate and a real red flag. The deduction scales to that rate (about 60% of the weight) and to how many of those crashes were fatal (about 40%), capped at 28 points. Zero crashes means zero deduction.

No. Shopping for a better or cheaper policy - cancelling one and filing another - is normal business and isn’t penalized. The score only cares whether a company actually had the required coverage on file while operating, never how many times it changed insurers. A clean switch leaves no gap in coverage, so it costs nothing.

Most carriers are unrated, and it’s completely normal - small or newer fleets, and light vehicles under 10,001 lbs that are exempt from federal safety ratings, simply never receive one. Only a Conditional or Unsatisfactory rating counts against the score; “unrated” is treated as neutral, not as a negative.

No. Brokers and freight forwarders don’t carry truck insurance; their financial responsibility is a $75,000 surety bond, not a BI&PD policy. The score checks for the bond, not insurance, so a bonded broker is fully validated even though its “insurance” figure reads $0.

The 0-100 maps to four plain-English ratings: Poor (0-39) failed a core requirement or shows significant risk indicators - verify carefully; Fair (40-59) notable gaps, verify the details first; Good (60-79) solid standing with minor gaps; Excellent (80-100) validated, well-documented and low-risk. The matching color appears on every company profile.

Continuously. Live authority and insurance fields are checked when a profile is viewed and typically update within about 24 hours; federal safety datasets (crashes, inspections) refresh on a slower government cycle in scheduled batches. Either way, a revoked authority, a lapsed policy or a new crash flows into the score automatically - there’s nothing to refresh by hand.

By fixing the underlying federal record: keep authority active, keep insurance or the bond on file, file the biennial MCS-150 on time, and maintain a clean safety and inspection record. Because the score is computed straight from the federal record, the moment those records improve the score follows - there is nothing to apply for and no one to ask.

Yes. On any profile, click “Why this score?” to see exactly which factors were counted - what passed and what took points off. Nothing is hidden.

Yes. If the underlying federal record is incorrect, that’s fixed at the source through the FMCSA DataQs system - once it’s corrected there, your LoadWrap profile updates automatically on the next refresh. If you believe the way your information is displayed here is wrong, email [email protected] and we’ll review it in good faith. The score itself is our transparent, formula-based rating of public federal data - you can see every factor that counted under “Why this score?”.

No. The score measures compliance and risk from federal data - it’s not an accusation or a judgment of intent. A low score means something needs attention (authority, insurance, safety factors), not that anyone is dishonest. Always verify the details before you decide.

Because size and name recognition don’t raise the score - it’s all rate-based and built from compliance data. A large fleet with more crashes, violations or a poor rating can land below a small, clean operator. The number reflects the record, not the reputation.

Everything in the FMCSA database is covered - including Canadian and Mexican carriers registered with FMCSA. If a company is in the federal record, it has a LoadWrap profile.

No. It’s an independent rating built by LoadWrap from public federal data. FMCSA assigns its own safety rating, which we use as one input; the LoadWrap Trust Score is our transparent, comparable summary across authority, insurance, safety and compliance. For critical decisions, always verify the details on the official FMCSA record too.

Today, anyone can check any company at no charge - because no carrier should be judged by data it can’t see. The score itself is built only from public federal records: it can’t be moved by a complaint, a report, or a payment, and there’s no way to pay to remove an unfavorable record. A carrier sees exactly what a broker sees. Access may evolve as the platform grows, but the way the score is built - open, federal-data-only, and impossible to buy - won’t change. The system is built to be fair to honest carriers, the side with the most to lose.

Search and scores stay free and open without an account - but registering unlocks the full workspace. As a registered user you get Favorites (save and organize the brokers and carriers you work with for faster access), the ability to follow reviews and leave your own (only registered users can post a review), the full Market Analytics and Industry Analytics (market and industry insight built from our federal data), and of course the Load Board to book loads. In short: without an account you check companies - with one, you actually work.

No. Every type is measured the same way, each by its own correct standard - a carrier by carrier rules, a broker by broker rules, a forwarder by forwarder rules - and no group gets an advantage or a handicap. The platform is deliberately neutral to all of them. The goal is a transparent place where everyone - carrier, broker and shipper alike - sees the same data and, if a problem comes up, has a way to respond; not just one side. Because it’s all built on public federal data, no one can be quietly reported or judged behind their back.

Yes. If you’re a carrier or a broker with experience - good or bad - with a company, you can leave a public review here. Every review passes admin moderation first (we filter profanity, insults and abuse) before it goes live. Importantly, reviews are kept separate from the score: they don’t change the LoadWrap Trust Score, which is still calculated only from federal data. That way honest feedback has a place, while the score itself stays clean and impossible to dispute.

No. The score is computed by formula from public federal data - there is no paid tier, no placement to buy, and no way to remove an unfavorable record. That’s the entire point: it stays trustworthy precisely because no one can buy it. The only way the number moves is by changing what the federal record actually says.