A free guide for food and beverage shippers, by Todd Cunningham, Founder, Cyan Logistics
Quick answer: Vetting a reefer carrier means confirming, before you tender, that the company is who it says it is, is legally allowed to haul your freight, is insured for it, and runs equipment that can hold your temperature. For food, it also means the carrier can do its part under FDA’s sanitary transportation rule: pre-cool to your spec, keep the trailer clean, and show you the temperatures when you ask. And it means checking that the driver and truck that show up belong to the carrier you checked.
Most bad reefer loads don’t start at the dock. They start at the tender, when a load goes on a truck nobody really checked. This guide covers what to check, where to check it, and what should make you stop.
We verify the dispatcher and driver by phone, not just with data. Our team talks with the carrier’s dispatcher and the driver. Data checks cover the paperwork. A phone call tells you whether the dispatcher knows their own trucks and the driver knows the load.
| What to verify | Where to check it | What a red flag looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Does your broker actually speak with the dispatcher and the driver, or just email a rate confirmation? | Ask your broker directly | “We send the rate con and they sign it,” no named contact at the carrier |
| Does your broker verify the driver’s own phone number, not just the dispatcher’s? | Ask how they verify the driver and the driver’s phone number | A phone registered to someone other than the driver, a number with no history |
| Is the carrier’s business actually registered and active with its home state, under the same name and people as its operating authority? | The home state’s Secretary of State business search (usually free) | Dissolved or not found, formed after the authority, name or officers don’t match |
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It means confirming before you tender that the carrier has active operating authority, an acceptable safety record and real insurance, and that it’s actually the company it claims to be. Authority alone isn’t enough. For food, vetting also means the carrier can pre-cool to your spec, keep the trailer sanitary and show temperature records under FDA’s sanitary transportation rule, and that the driver and truck that show up belong to that carrier.
Federal rules require at least $750,000 in public liability coverage for for-hire interstate carriers hauling non-hazardous property in vehicles of 10,001 lbs or more. There’s no federal cargo-insurance minimum or reefer breakdown requirement for general freight carriers, so ask for the cargo limit, confirm reefer breakdown is covered, check the exclusions, and get a certificate of insurance that names you. Cyan’s standard follows the federal minimum: we confirm active cargo coverage is on file and flag carriers without reefer breakdown coverage.
Double brokering is when a carrier, or someone posing as one, takes your load and hands it to another carrier you never vetted. Watch for a truck with a different name or USDOT number on the door, a driver who doesn’t know the carrier on your paperwork, a carrier that also holds broker authority, and refusal to share tracking.
We verify the dispatcher and the driver by phone because data checks can’t hear anything. On a live call, you find out whether a dispatcher knows their own trucks and whether the driver knows the load, the pickup and the reefer setting. A real conversation is where double brokering and impersonation tend to show up.
Carrier vetting checks the company; driver verification checks the person. Cyan runs driver identity verification on every high-value load and every new carrier it onboards, confirming with the driver’s consent that the person is a legitimate CDL driver. Cyan also looks up the phone number the driver is actually using, not just the number the dispatcher provides, checks who the number is registered to against the driver name it was given, and checks that it’s a real mobile line with a history on past loads. A location-verified photo of the truck showing its MC number confirms the truck is real, carries the MC number it claims, and is where the driver says it is.
The state registry shows whether the business behind an operating authority actually exists and is in good standing. A newly formed entity, a dissolved or missing registration, a legal name that doesn’t match the operating authority, officers that don’t line up, or a mail-drop address can all be signs of fraud. Most states let anyone search their business registry for free.
When the carrier agrees in writing to be responsible for sanitary conditions, it must provide equipment that meets the shipper’s specs, pre-cool as the shipper specified, show on request that it held the operating temperature, follow written cleaning and inspection procedures, and train its personnel with records kept. Shippers must give the carrier the operating temperature, including pre-cooling, in writing.
Cyan Logistics is an authorized agent of D&L Transport, MC#512099. Cincinnati, OH.