Car Shipper Vetting
Car Shippers are responsible for transporting vehicles from one location to another. They must be able to handle all types of vehicles and ensure they arrive safely. Car Shipper Vetting is an important process that ensures the safety of your vehicle while it is being transported. Learn more about car shipper vetting requirements and what we look out for when hiring a car shipper.
Experience / Reviews
All car shippers must have at least a minimum of 1 year in business. We only work with carriers who have experience under their belt. This is to ensure a certain level of service and integrity that comes with seasoned professionals.
We verify the car shipper’s industry rating. They must have a minimum of 30 positive ratings from fellow car shipping brokers, car dealerships, and car auction companies. This will show us that the car shipper has a proven track record of quality service. These ratings are very important when making our decision to work with a specific car shipper. Before we dispatch any car shipper to a vehicle, we check the car shipper’s reviews for their overall rating and what type of negative reviews the car shipper may have received in the past year. The car shipper must have a rating score of 98% or better for us to assign them the load.
Licensing
Every car shipper must be registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to transport Motor Vehicles: there are many different types of cargo and not every car shipper is equipped to transport motor vehicles. Different types of cargo require specific trailers. Motor vehicles are transported by specific car-hauling trailers. Some have double decks and others are wedge trailers.
We verify with the FMCSA if the car shipper has an active Department of Transportation (DOT) license and Motor Carrier (MC) number. If the car shipper only has a DOT number, then he can only transport goods within a single state line, known as “Intrastate”. If the car shipper has both DOT and MC numbers, then he is allowed to transport across state lines “Interstate”.
Insurance
Certificate of Insurance (COI) monitoring: This is to confirm the car shipper’s insurance is active and has not expired. In addition, when verifying the insurance, we also confirm the insurance meets our minimum coverage amount.
Active insurance policy minimum requirement
Open Trailer – Cargo Insurance Minimum Requirement: $100,000.00+
Open Trailer – Liability Insurance Minimum Requirement: $1,000,000.00+
Enclosed Trailer – Cargo Insurance Minimum Requirement: $250,000.00+
Enclosed Trailer – Liability Insurance Minimum Requirement: $1,000,000.00+
Using a credit rating agency, we verify each car shipper’s insurance company to confirm it is an A-rated insurance provider. The rating provides insight into a company’s financial standing and ensures it’s prepared to pay out a claim. A crucial detail for determining a rating is how much money a car shipper has in its financial reserve. Having a substantial amount of money on hand to pay out claims greatly impacts a company’s rating. As a result, A-rated companies are less likely to face financial difficulties that could affect their ability to meet the needs of their customers, while F-rated companies may face liquidity issues or go bankrupt in the event of a major payout.
An A-rating demonstrates its ability to meet its customers’ ongoing needs. As a result, they’re less likely to encounter financial difficulties that could prevent insureds from receiving payouts in the event of a loss.
Some characteristics of A-rated companies are:
- Having the size to withstand larger catastrophic event (CAT) losses.
- Having been in business for more than ten years.
- Financial stability.
- The ability to write business in multiple states.
- Being more capitalized.
- Being profitable.
- Having more reinsurance behind them.
- Writing more lines of business.
- Being more likely to have slow & steady growth.
Compliance
Car shipper performance, compliance, and safety monitoring:
Car shipper compliance means holding car shippers to an industry standard that ensures they deliver on time, free of damage, and without physical or financial harm to others in the supply chain.
Must have a satisfactory car shipper safety rating score. If the car shipper has a conditional safety rating score, then they must supply a corrective action plan explaining what they are doing to correct their issues.
Satisfactory: Satisfactory data shows no evidence of considerable non-compliance with safety obligations.
Conditional: Conditional data shows that the car shipper was out of compliance with one or more safety obligations.
Unsatisfactory: Unsatisfactory data shows evidence of considerable noncompliance with safety obligations.
The following are key factors we check before assigning a car shipper to a job.
- Unsafe driving – Roadside safety violations that might cause a car shipper to rank poorly in the basic percentile score include speeding, reckless driving, improper lane change, and inattention.
- HOS compliance – Hours of Service (HOS) regulations help establish road safety by regulating the number of hours car shippers can drive. Generally, HOS rules control the maximum sum of hours that can be driven, and regulate break times, off times, and duty rotations.
- Vehicle maintenance – Address the preconditions within the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR). It specifically and accurately sustains a commercial motor vehicle and prevents spilled cargo, shifting loads, and overfilling.
- Controlled substance – This is a DOT-wide regulation. It explains how to properly conduct drug testing and return employees to regular duties after violating a DOT drug and alcohol regulation. DOT requires laboratory drug testing for the following five classes: 1.) Marijuana 2.) Cocaine 3.) Opiates 4.) Opium 5.) Codeine derivatives
- Driver fitness – Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) is Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) compliance program to improve truck and bus safety and reduce CMV-related crashes, injuries, and fatalities. For more details about CSA, visit http://csa.fmcsa.dot.gov U.S. Department of Transportation. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
- Hazmat – The Compliance Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC) is one of several categories that the FMCSA uses to establish how a car shipper ranks parallel to other car shippers with a similar number of safety matters (i.e., crashes, violations, or inspections).
