FMCSA assigns a safety rating after a compliance review (an on-site or off-site audit of safety management):
- Satisfactory: adequate safety management controls
- Conditional: controls aren't fully adequate, which could lead to violations
- Unsatisfactory: inadequate controls; the carrier is deemed unfit and is ordered out of service
- Unrated: no rating has been assigned. This is true of most carriers and is not a negative signal by itself
An unsatisfactory rating leads to an out-of-service order ("Unsatisfactory = Unfit") unless the carrier improves its rating.
Check a carrier now. Paste any USDOT or MC number into the free CarrierTell lookup, or add the Chrome extension to get a risk badge next to every number on load boards, in email and in carrier packets automatically.
Add CarrierTell to Chrome, free
Add CarrierTell to Chrome, free