AUTOMATED CARRIER ONBOARDING
Onboard carriers in minutes, not hours. With verification built in.
FreightForge automates the entire carrier onboarding workflow — FMCSA lookup, document collection, fraud screening, and profile creation — so your team spends time building relationships, not chasing paperwork.
- Auto-populated from FMCSA
- 3-layer fraud screening
- 64-field carrier profiles
BEFORE FREIGHTFORGE
AFTER FREIGHTFORGE
THE COST OF MANUAL ONBOARDING
Every day your team spends chasing carrier paperwork is a day not spent building freight relationships.
Manual carrier onboarding isn't just slow — it's a compounding liability. Here's what it's actually costing you.
Average manual onboarding cycle
Phone calls, email chains, missed documents, re-requests. A process that should take minutes takes hours and slows your ability to cover freight.
Manual lookup ≠ fraud detection
Checking a USDOT number on FMCSA tells you the authority exists. It doesn't tell you if someone stole it, if the registrant is overseas, or if the carrier is a ghost operation.
Carrier data stuck in spreadsheets
Carrier information collected during onboarding lives in email threads and spreadsheets, not in a searchable, filterable system your whole team can use.
Onboarded carriers go cold
You spend time onboarding a carrier, they run one load, and you never reach them again. There's no system to re-engage carriers on lanes where you need capacity.
THE ONBOARDING WORKFLOW
Seven steps. Fully automated. Carrier-driven.
The carrier does the work. FreightForge handles the verification, fraud screening, and profile creation automatically — your team only touches exceptions.
User requests a contract
~30 secondsUser enters USDOT number, lane information and carrier email address. Prior to submission, the carrier's profile is auto-populated from the FMCSA providing the user with detailed information about the carrier.
Carrier receives email with link to registration and contract
~2 minutesCarrier completes registration, submits and then dates and signs contract
Fraud screening runs silently
~instantWhile the carrier completes the form, all three verification layers run in the background — FMCSA cross-validation, IP geolocation against business address, and GPS distance scoring. The carrier never sees the screening. Your team sees the result.
Carrier review and approval
~2 minutesUser receives notification of carrier's submission into their workflow inbox. User reviews submission - approves, rejects or reverts back to carrier for additional and correct information.
Profile auto-populated from FMCSA
~instantAdditonal carrier information not captured from registration form - safety rating, out-of-service, equipment types, operating authority, and 60+ additional fields are pulled directly from FMCSA and SAFER. This information is automatically populated into the carrier profile.
Lane and equipment data collected
~2 minutesThe carrier submits their preferred lanes - origin zones, destination zones, equipment types, and frequency. This data powers lane-based search in the directory and enables backhaul matching for carriers. It's the data that makes the directory useful, not just a list of names.
Profile live in the directory
immediate upon approvalOnce submitted and approved, the carrier profile is live in the FreightForge directory - searchable by lane, equipment, zone, and risk score. Users with matching freight lanes can discover and save the carrier to their network.
Onboarding without the operational overhead.
We run carrier onboarding for you.
Not a platform you configure. Not a tool you manage. A service that handles carrier intake, verification, and approval on your behalf — so your team gets vetted carriers without building the process to vet them.
Smart Forms
Multi-step onboarding form with conditional logic, document uploads, and FMCSA data pre-fill.
Workflow
Workflow automation routes submissions through approval steps, sends notifications, and triggers downstream actions on status change.
FMCSA Socrata API
Real-time carrier data pulled from government databases on USDOTentry. 64 fields auto-populated with no manual lookup required.
Custom tables
Carrier data written to custom database tables for performance at scale across 30,000+ carrier records.
CRM automation
Carriers are tagged and segmented on submission, enabling drip sequences, re-engagement campaigns, and lane-based outreach.
API Gateway + webhooks
Completed carrier profiles are available via API for TMS and 3PL partners. Webhook delivery on profile creation, update, or status change.
CARRIER PROFILE DEPTH
64 fields. Every carrier. Automatically.
Most onboarding systems collect the minimum. FreightForge builds a complete carrier intelligence profile - data that powers search, fraud scoring, re-engagement, and API syndication.
Carrier profile fields
64 total:Green = FMCSA auto-pull
Blue = system-generated
IDENTITY + AUTHORITY
INSURANCE + COMPLIANCE
OPERATIONS + EQUIPMENT
LANE DATA
RISK + VERIFICATION
This data doesn't just sit in a directory.
Every field feeds into something: lane search powers carrier-broker matching, risk scores surface in directory filters, equipment types drive search facets, and the full profile is available via API for TMS integration.
Scheduled data refresh
Carrier profiles aren't static. FreightForge re-validates FMCSA data on a scheduled refresh cycle - authority status, insurance, and safety ratings are re-checked automatically and flagged if anything changes after onboarding.
Custom fields for your workflow
The 64-field schema is the base. Brokers, 3PLs and Spot market shippers using FreightForge as a white-label onboarding layer can extend the profile with custom fields specific to their business - internal carrier ratings, preferred lane notes, contract terms.
WHO IT'S BUILT FOR
Onboarding that works for every side of the freight relationship.
Freight brokers & Spot Market Shippers
Replace your manual vetting spreadsheet with an automated onboarding flow. Every carrier you onboard is fraud-screened and directory-searchable by your whole team from day one.
Carrier onboarding for brokers →3PL providers
Manage carrier panel onboarding at scale. Bulk import, automated refresh, and compliance monitoring across thousands of carriers without proportionally scaling your compliance team.
3PL carrier management →TMS providers
Embed FreightForge carrier onboarding into your TMS as a white-label workflow. Your customers get verified carrier profiles. You get a competitive differentiator without building it yourself.
TMS integration →COMMON QUESTIONS
What brokers, spot market shipers and 3PLs ask before getting started.
Can carriers complete the registration and contract execution on their phone?
Yes. The onboarding form is fully mobile-responsive. Most owner-operators register from their phone, often while on the road and the flow is designed for that context, including mobile GPS capture for location verification.
What happens if the FMCSA API returns incomplete data?
If the FMCSA API returns partial data or is temporarily unavailable, the system falls back to SAFER web scraping to retrieve the carrier record.
Can we customize the onboarding form for our workflow?
Yes. The forms-based onboarding flow can be extended with custom fields, conditional logic, document upload requirements, and custom approval steps via the built-in workflow without touching the core FreightForge architecture.
How does re-onboarding work for carriers already in our system?
The system detects duplicate USDOT numbers on entry and routes returning carriers to a profile update flow rather than a new registration. Existing data is preserved and the carrier confirms any changed fields.
See automated carrier onboarding running on your workflow.
We'll walk through the full onboarding flow, show you the fraud screening layer in action, and map it to your specific broker or 3PL use case.
WHAT'S COVERED IN THE DEMO