How this calculator works
No arithmetic worth the name — this is a rule set, published in full so you can see it is the one that runs. Two things happen: your answers are matched against a list of conditions, and the matching condition selects which of our measured base rates is shown beside it.
severity = 2 if any of:
found = none (number returns no record)
found = mismatch (name or address differs from the estimate)
hhg = none AND scope = interstate
hhg = pending AND scope = interstate
hhg = revoked (inactive / withdrawn / revocation pending)
cargo = no (required, nothing on file)
severity = 1 if any of:
found = notyet
entity in {broker, both, unclear}
hhg = unknown
hhg = none AND scope = intrastate (correct, but move your check)
cargo = unknown
months > 0 AND months < 6
read = STOP before any deposit if severity = 2
Questions to answer in writing if severity = 1
Nothing contradicts the estimate if severity = 0
insp = 0 -> neutral, and the most common state (76% of movers)
insp 1..4 -> below the meaningfulness floor for a BASIC percentile
insp >= 5 -> BASIC measures start to carry information
rate = the measured base rate for whichever condition tripped first,
computed over the 29 Aug 2026 federal pass, 64,714 moversNothing is weighted or scored, on purpose. A single mismatched legal name is not offset by five clean fields, so a points total would only obscure it. The tool names conditions and shows you how common each one is; the judgment stays yours.
Every base rate is a count from our own harvest of FMCSA’s registers on August 29, 2026, divided by the relevant denominator. Where the denominator changes — 64,714 movers overall, 42,944 with a docket, 61,383 with a safety file — the output says which.
What each input means
| Input | What it is actually asking |
|---|---|
| Does this move cross a state line? | It decides which regulator you are checking against. Federal operating authority is only required for interstate transport, so on an in-state move an empty FMCSA authority record is the correct answer and the check moves to your state. You know this from your own two addresses; nothing needs looking up. |
| What came back in SAFER | Search the USDOT number at safer.fmcsa.dot.gov. Compare the Legal Name and the Physical Address on the snapshot with the legal name and address printed on your written estimate — not the trading name on the van. A mismatch is the answer, not a technicality. |
| Entity type | On the SAFER snapshot, the Entity Type field. Carrier, broker, or both. If you cannot find it, protectyourmove.gov states it in consumer language. This is the field that decides who takes custody of your belongings and who you would claim against. |
| Household-goods operating authority status | Further down the snapshot under Operating Authority Status, and in the Licensing & Insurance record behind it. You are looking for the grant named "Motor Carrier of Household Goods" and its status. Do not use the "USDOT Status: ACTIVE" line at the top of the page — that is a different field and it is the single most common misreading in this whole topic. |
| Cargo insurance on file | In the Licensing & Insurance record, the cargo filing (BMC-32 or BMC-34) against the authority. "Required and not on file" is a distinct state from "not required", and the record distinguishes them. |
| Months since the authority was granted | The authority grant date on the Licensing & Insurance record, counted to today. Leave it at 0 if you cannot find it — the tool treats 0 as unknown and says nothing about age rather than guessing. |
| Roadside inspections | The inspection totals on the SAFER snapshot, or in the SMS record it links to. Enter the total. If the record shows none, enter 0 — the tool will tell you that this is neutral rather than reassuring, which is the honest reading. |
Worked examples
Including one where the naive answer misleads, which is the example most calculators leave out.
The record that looks fine, and mostly is
Interstate move. The SAFER search returns a record whose legal name and address match the estimate. Entity type is carrier. The authority shown is Motor Carrier of Household Goods, Active. A cargo filing is on record.
The authority is 40 months old and there are 8 inspections. The tool returns: "Nothing in the record contradicts the estimate — which is not the same as verified."
Beside it: HyreMover calculation: only 5,293 of 64,714 movers in the pass (8.2%) held active federal household-goods authority — and that low share is mostly correct, because 28,236 are registered as intrastate-only and never needed it.
The flags line adds that 8 inspections is enough for the published BASIC measures to start carrying information, so go and read the out-of-service rates rather than the overall impression. Then the survey and the written estimate still have to happen.
The Pending authority
Same record, same matching name, same carrier entity — but the household-goods authority reads Pending.
The tool flips to "STOP before any deposit — 1 condition the federal record itself flags", and the flag reads: the household-goods authority is PENDING, not active. Pending means the application is in the system, not that the authority is in force. Do not read it as a yes.
The base rate beside it: 28,128 of 42,944 docketed movers had no active authority behind the docket, and 376 had a revocation pending.
Note what has NOT changed — the USDOT Status line at the top of the SAFER page still says ACTIVE in both versions of this example. That line is why people book the second one.
The broker case, which is not a scam and still needs work
Everything matches, the authority is active, but the entity is a broker.
Result: "Questions to answer in writing first — 1 item unresolved", with a flag: a broker arranges the move but takes no custody and is not liable for loss or damage.
Ask in writing which carrier will perform the move, and check that carrier too. The base rate: 499 of 64,714 movers held broker authority only.
Small share, outsized risk, because it is the configuration where the company on the estimate is not the company that arrives.
The in-state move, where an empty record is the right answer
The move stays inside one state. The name matches, the entity is a carrier, and there is no federal household-goods authority at all.
The tool returns "Questions to answer in writing first — 2 items unresolved", and the first flag says the absence is correct and expected: federal authority is only needed to cross a state line, and 28,236 of the movers in our pass are coded intrastate non-hazmat.
The next step changes accordingly — name your state’s regulator and ask it what it requires, because FMCSA cannot answer this question and neither can we.
What changes the result
What moves the answer, ranked by how much harm it heads off.
1. The name-and-address match. Nothing else on the page matters if the record belongs to a different company. It is first because it is the flag that survives the check most people actually perform — a screenshot of an ACTIVE status for the wrong entity looks exactly like diligence.
2. The operating-authority grant and its status. The difference between an ACTIVE registration and an in-force household-goods authority is the whole subject of this page. 65% of docketed movers in our pass sit in that gap.
3. Carrier versus broker. Changes nothing about legality and everything about who has your sofa. It is the only input that can turn one check into two.
4. The cargo filing. Meaningful when required and missing (7,272 movers in our pass), and near-meaningless as reassurance, because a filing is not a sum adequate for your shipment.
5. Authority age. Deliberately weak on its own. It only escalates in company with other conditions, because penalizing every new mover would be both unfair and useless.
What is deliberately absent, and why.
No complaint count. Not weighted, not shown, not estimated. No free federal complaint dataset exists, so any weight we assigned would be invented. You search NCCDB; we say nothing.
No crash weighting. We hold the crash data — 2,941 of 61,383 movers had a reportable crash in the SMS window — and deliberately do not let it move the answer.
It is a road-safety record, and reading it as a proxy for how a company handles furniture would be a category error dressed as rigour.
No fleet size. Available in the census and excluded, because it predicts nothing a consumer needs. A two-truck operation is not worse than a forty-truck one.
No score, no grade, no rating. A points total would let five clean fields cancel a mismatched legal name. They do not cancel it.
Local considerations
Interstate. FMCSA is the regulator, 49 CFR Part 375 is the rule set, SAFER and protectyourmove.gov are the lookups, and NCCDB is where complaints go.
Intrastate. Appendix A governs interstate moves. A move inside one state is regulated by that state — a public utilities commission, a transportation department, a consumer-protection office, or in some states nothing trade-specific at all.
And crossing a state line is not always enough: a move that stays inside a defined commercial zone which happens to span a state boundary is exempt from FMCSA commercial jurisdiction.
Our position on the fifty-state question. HyreMover has not built a fifty-state table of intrastate moving regulation and will not publish one it has not verified.
What we can say is which question to ask: name the regulator, then ask that regulator what it requires. That is a five-minute search and it is the only reliable answer.
One consequence worth stating: the majority of household moves stay inside one state, so the majority of readers of any article about USDOT numbers are reading about rules that do not govern their move. That mismatch is worth catching before you spend an evening checking the wrong register.
When not to use this
Do not use this as proof anyone is licensed. It read back what you typed. It queried nothing, verified nothing, and its output is not a credential — do not send it to a landlord, an employer, an insurer or a lender as due diligence.
Do not use it as a complaint history. We hold none and claim none. Search NCCDB.
Do not use it instead of the paperwork. A carrier with immaculate authority can still hand you a phone estimate and a demand for cash.
The physical survey, the written estimate with its type stated, the 110 percent ceiling at delivery and the 9-month claim window are where the consumer protection in an interstate move actually lives.
Do not use it for anything but household goods. Freight, junk removal, container drop-off and vehicle transport are different categories with different rules and, in some cases, different authority grants.
Do not treat our base rates as a verdict on any company. They describe a population of 64,714 movers at a moment in time. They say nothing about the one in front of you.
HyreMover does not rank movers, publishes no mover profiles, takes no referral fee, and does not move household goods.
Related on this site
- USDOT lookup: the packet you complete before searching The step before this page. Number, name, survey, written estimate, no large cash deposit.
- Local vs long-distance Settles which regulator you are checking against.
- Moving checklist Puts these four lookups where they belong in the timeline.
Questions this calculator answers
- How do I check if a moving company is licensed?
- Search its USDOT number at safer.fmcsa.dot.gov. Match the legal name and address to your estimate, then read Operating Authority Status. For an interstate move you want "Motor Carrier of Household Goods", Active. The "USDOT Status: ACTIVE" line only means the registration exists. Cross-check at protectyourmove.gov.
- What is the difference between a USDOT number and an MC number?
- The USDOT number is the file a company is registered under. The MC number is the docket its operating authority was granted under. A docket number stays on the van after the authority lapses. In our August 29, 2026 pass, 28,128 of 42,944 docketed household-goods movers had no active authority.
- What does it mean if my mover has no federal operating authority?
- It depends on whether your move crosses a state line. Federal authority is only required for interstate moves. 28,236 of the 64,714 movers in our pass are registered intrastate only, so an empty record is correct for them. If your move is interstate and there is no active household-goods authority, stop.
- Is a broker the same as a moving company?
- No. A carrier runs the truck, takes custody, issues the bill of lading and handles your claims. A broker arranges the move and assigns it to a carrier; it never holds your goods. If a broker booked you, ask in writing which carrier will do the move, and check that carrier too.
- The authority says Pending. Is that good enough?
- No. Pending means an application is in the system, not that authority is in force. In the live register at our August 29, 2026 harvest, 225 of 1,196 household-goods carrier authorities were Pending, roughly one in five. It is common and easy to misread as a yes.
- The mover has a property authority. Does that cover my house move?
- No. "Motor Carrier of Property (Except Household Goods)" and "Motor Carrier of Household Goods" are separate grants. A company can hold the first without the second. It is the most common substitute when the right grant is missing, so read the grant type, do not skim it.
- What does a recently issued authority tell me?
- Very little on its own; every legitimate mover was new once. It matters in combination: a new authority, a business name with no history, and a large cash deposit is a pattern to take seriously. Search the owner’s name and the physical address, which persist when a company re-registers.
- Where do I look up complaints against a moving company?
- The National Consumer Complaint Database at nccdb.fmcsa.dot.gov, free to search and to file. A hit is meaningful, but an empty result proves little, because most people never file. There is no public complaint dataset, so we publish no complaint rate. Ask any site that quotes one where it came from.
- Does a zero on the inspection record mean the mover is safe?
- No, and it does not mean unsafe either. Of 61,383 movers we checked, 46,957 (76 percent) had never been roadside inspected, and only 5,525 had the five or more inspections at which a safety percentile means much. An empty record is no evidence either way.
- Does cargo insurance on file mean my things are covered?
- No. It means an insurer filed proof of cover with FMCSA, not that the amount fits your shipment. What you are paid depends on the valuation you choose on the bill of lading: released value pays 60 cents per pound per article; full value protection costs more. Neither is insurance.
- Why does this tool not just look the company up for me?
- Because a stale answer would be worse than none. The tool runs in your browser with no network access, and the legacy register behind our figures was frozen on May 14, 2026. A company it shows as active may since have been revoked. The live answer at FMCSA is free.
- What do I do if my shipment is already being held for extra payment?
- Call FMCSA at (888) 368-7238. The booklet says to do so if a mover refuses to deliver unless you pay more than it may charge. On a non-binding estimate, it may not require more than 110 percent of the estimate at delivery. Then file at nccdb.fmcsa.dot.gov.
Sources and methodology
Figures dated August 29, 2026. Last reviewed .
- SAFER company snapshot (FMCSA, retrieved 2026-09-05. The free lookup this page sends you to. Legal name, physical address, entity type, operating authority status, inspection and crash summary.)
- Protect Your Move (FMCSA, retrieved 2026-09-05. FMCSA’s household-goods-specific consumer search and program. The scam pattern (no survey plus a large cash deposit) is named here.)
- National Consumer Complaint Database (FMCSA, retrieved 2026-09-05. Search and file interstate household-goods complaints. Login-walled intake with no public bulk dataset — which is why this page quotes no complaint rate.)
- Carrier — All With History (Licensing & Insurance), dataset 6eyk-hxee (FMCSA via data.transportation.gov, retrieved 2026-08-29. Legacy authority and insurance register, last refreshed 2026-05-14 and no longer updated, per FMCSA. Supports the docket-level authority and insurance counts at that vintage.)
- Motus Carrier — All With History, dataset inys-ebih (FMCSA via data.transportation.gov, retrieved 2026-08-29. Live successor register, data vintage 2026-08-28. Carries op_auth_type as readable text and op_auth_status. Supports the Active/Pending/Inactive/Withdrawn distribution and the household-goods grant counts.)
- SMS PassProperty BASIC measures, datasets 4y6x-dmck and h9zy-gjn8 (FMCSA via data.transportation.gov, retrieved 2026-08-29. Data vintage 2026-08-13. Supports the inspection-count distribution and the five-inspection meaningfulness floor.)
- SMS Input — Crash, dataset 4wxs-vbns (FMCSA via data.transportation.gov, retrieved 2026-08-29. Data vintage 2026-08-13. Supports the reportable-crash count. A road-safety record, not a moving-claims record.)
- FMCSA federal-layer summary for the moving vertical (HyreMover research desk, over FMCSA sources above, retrieved 2026-08-29. Our own enrichment pass across 64,714 household-goods movers. Every population share on this page is calculated from it and labeled HyreMover calculation.)
- 49 CFR Part 375 — Transportation of Household Goods in Interstate Commerce (eCFR via Cornell LII, retrieved 2026-09-05. The survey requirement, the estimate types, the 110 percent ceiling and the claim window referenced throughout.)
- Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move (Appendix A to 49 CFR Part 375) (eCFR via Cornell LII, retrieved 2026-09-05. The codified FMCSA booklet: the carrier-or-broker and held-shipment instructions. fmcsa.dot.gov returned HTTP 403 to automated retrieval on September 5, 2026, so we read it here.)
Related
- USDOT lookup: the packet, before you search The step before this one. Have you got the number, the name, a survey and a written estimate at all?
- Local vs long-distance Decides whether FMCSA is your regulator or your state is. Answer that first.
- Moving cost calculator A cheap total from a carrier whose authority is not in force is not cheap.
- Moving checklist Four weeks out is when these lookups belong.
- Volume estimator The survey is the other half of the protection. Do not let a phone guess replace it.