Whether you work with an auto transport broker or a carrier, you’ll want to be sure they are properly licensed.
The best way to verify a broker’s or carrier’s license is to ask them for their USDOT and Docket numbers. Then you can look them up on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) website and review their profile to ensure they are properly licensed.
J&S Transportation’s USDOT and Docket Numbers
Our USDOT and Docket numbers, along with our official legal name, are provided here:
Legal Name: J & S Transportation, LLC
USDOT Number: 911585
Docket Number: MC00394293
Once you have the information above, you can look the company up on the FMCSA website. When you go to their website, you’ll see a search screen like this:
You’ll notice in the screenshot above, our Docket Number is entered. After you enter the Docket number (or the USDOT number) and click on the “Search” button, you’ll see a screen similar to this:
If you click on the HTML button, you’ll be taken to the company’s profile where you can verify they have an active license and insurance:
We Verify USDOT and Docket Numbers for You (and So Much More)
We are both a broker and a carrier. We always strive to ship your vehicle on our own trucks but if that’s not possible we have to put our broker hat on to get your transport completed.
When that happens, we turn to our partner carriers first. These are carriers in our own private network that we know and trust and actively work with. They have already been vetted and we know they are properly licensed and insured.
If we’re unable to use one of our partner carriers, then we have to turn to carriers we haven’t work with before (or maybe haven’t worked with in a long time). As a broker, we have access to tools that allow us to quickly look up a carrier’s USDOT and Docket numbers so we can run a search on them to ensure they are properly licensed.
And while doing a search on a carrier on the FMCSA website will tell us if a carrier is licensed and insured, that’s not good enough for us. With over 20 years of experience as a broker and a carrier, we know having a license and being insured is just meeting the bare minimum to transport vehicles. We need to know more before trusting a carrier with your vehicle!
We have a resource available to us that allows us to check a carrier’s rating within the industry. This resource is a very active and current database of ratings that carriers and brokers have given each other. Carriers and brokers live and die by these “industry ratings.” If a carrier has a bad rating, they aren’t going to be in business very long because no broker will use them.
If a carrier has a positive rating, then we closely inspect their insurance. We want to know who their insurance provider is and what exactly their insurance policy covers. To steal a tagline from Farmer’s Insurance, “we know a thing or two, because we’ve seen a thing or two.” We’ve been in this business long enough to know what to look for when inspecting a carrier’s insurance.
For example, there are some insurance companies to avoid because they are horrible at processing damage claims or fight tooth and nail to pay a claim. There are also insurance coverage amounts to look for to ensure a vehicle will be adequately covered in the event there is damage. You don’t want to put a $75,000 vehicle on a carrier’s trailer that is only going to have $30,000 coverage on it regardless if the carrier is properly licensed and has great industry ratings!
You Can Trust J&S Transportation to Safely Transport Your Vehicle
Whether we work with you as a broker or a carrier, you can trust us. You can verify that we are properly licensed and insured by doing a search on us as outlined earlier in this article. You can also see what our past customers think of us by reading our reviews on Google and the BBB.
Finally, you can look at our longevity and experience. We’ve been in business for over 20 years and have successfully shipped over 1,000,000 vehicles and counting! You can’t be in business that long unless you’re doing something right!
We’d love to work with you on your vehicle transport so get started today by getting an instant quote now, or give us a call at (800) 656-7638!