Before you send the rate con, check what changed.

The carrier's FMCSA record: legal name, DBA, USDOT and dockets, address and phone, operating status and out-of-service date, the common, contract and broker authorities with their history, the insurance filings with insurer, coverage, effective and cancellation dates, power units, drivers, MCS-150 date, safety rating and inspection numbers. Every value carries the source it came from and the date that source is current to.

No. Cover shows facts with their sources and dates, calls out what a broker would want called out (an out-of-service order, a cancelled policy, no active authority), and answers the compare step with match, mismatch or unknown. It does not rate carriers, keep a blacklist or take reports. The decision stays with you.

Against the one on the FMCSA record. Many carriers list an email on the MCS-150 they file with FMCSA, and Cover reads it from the census record. The same address is a match. A different domain is a mismatch, and Cover names the domain on file: a free mailbox where the record has a company domain, or a near copy of the real domain, is the classic shape of a takeover. Another address on the same company domain stays unknown, because carriers run several mailboxes on one domain. When the record has no email, the answer is unknown, with the things worth a second question, such as a free mailbox or a domain that shares no word with the legal name. Even a match is not a person: a taken-over mailbox writes from the real address, so confirm the booking by voice on the phone from the record.

Yes. Forward it as an attachment to [email protected] and the answer comes back by email: whether the domain in From really sent it (the check your own mail provider ran when the email arrived), where replies go if that is somewhere else, the carrier the email names with its email, phone and MC set against the FMCSA record, and how new the sender's domain is. Forward as an attachment, not a plain forward: a plain forward drops the headers that say who sent it, so the answer covers less and shows the steps for your email program. Phone apps cannot forward as an attachment. Cover keeps no copy of the email; with a free account at the address you forward from, the check is saved to your workspace.

You would not, if you are never using them again. A watch is for the carriers you call first, and its job is to stop you re-checking the same companies before every load. Three things also carry past the rate confirmation: your freight is on that truck for days, so an authority revoked or a policy cancelled in transit is a problem happening now; damage and shortage claims surface days or weeks after delivery, and a cargo policy that lapsed the morning after pickup is one you cannot claim against; and broker contracts commonly require carrier qualification to be kept current, which a dated monitoring record is the evidence of.

A saved check is one moment, kept: what FMCSA said on the day you looked, what matched and what did not, with a share link and a note. It never changes afterwards. A watch is a standing subscription to one carrier: Cover re-reads the record daily and emails you when it changes. Checks are unlimited on both plans; watches are a list you curate, and removing one frees the slot immediately. You check a carrier first, then decide whether it is worth watching.

Checks are free and unlimited — on the public page with no account, and saved to a workspace once you sign in. What the plans count is watched carriers, because a watch re-reads the FMCSA record every day: 3 free, or 50 on the $29 per workspace per month plan, which also adds your whole team. No contract, and you can export your data at any time on either plan.