Search by company name
FMCSA carrier search by company name
For when you have the name off a rate confirmation and not a number. Search public FMCSA records, see every registration that matches, and work out which one is actually your carrier. Free, no account required.
The thing nobody tells you
A company name is not an identifier
The USDOT number identifies one registrant. A name does not — FMCSA registers individuals as well as fleets, one brand can hold several registrations, and the public name search matches letters inside longer words. These are real results from this tool, checked on 2026-09-19:
- J B Hunt
- Returns three separate registrations under one brand — J B Hunt Transport Inc, J B Hunt Logistics Inc and J B Hunt Gas & Oil Drilling LLC — plus others. Only one of them is the truckload carrier hauling your freight.
- Schneider
- Returns mostly individual owner-operators who share the surname. The national carrier is in there; so are a yard-work business and a cattle feeder, because FMCSA registers people as well as fleets.
- Saia
- Returns records whose names merely contain those four letters — Isaias, Isaiah — because the public search matches inside words. A name search that is not ranked puts those first.
- Landstar Ranger
- Returns the national carrier, two similarly named LLCs with one truck or none, and an owner-operator whose trade name says leased to Landstar Ranger. All are real records; only one is the carrier with 10,468 power units.
This is why the order of the results matters more than the list itself. CarrierSentry ranks them: an exact name first, then a whole-word match at the start of the name, then whole words anywhere in it, and last a match that falls inside a longer word — which is the Isaias case above. A trade name counts slightly less than the registered legal name, and carriers of equal relevance are ordered by fleet size, because somebody typing Schneider almost certainly means the one with eleven thousand trucks. Nothing is hidden: the ordering changes, the set of matches does not, so a genuinely small carrier still appears.
Before you book
How to confirm it is the right carrier
- Match the physical address and phone on the FMCSA record against the carrier packet, not just the name.
- Check whether the name you were given is the registered legal name or a DBA — both appear on the record.
- Confirm the entity is a carrier, not a broker, if you expect them to haul the load themselves.
- Note the USDOT number and use that from then on. It is unique; the name is not.
- Verify the record in FMCSA/SAFER and complete your usual insurance and identity checks before tendering.
Already have the number? Look the carrier up by MC or USDOT number — that page also covers what the MC, FF and MX prefixes mean.