How VettedHaul works

Methodology v1.0 published 2026-05-21. This page is the authoritative description of how VettedHaul approaches carrier vetting at the v1.0state. Material changes bump the version in this section and add a Changelog entry below. Auditors can verify the version stamp against the live page; defense counsel can establish which methodology version was in force on the booking date.

A defensible freight broker carrier vetting record covers four independent verification points (FMCSA safety rating, CSA scores, insurance currency, operating authority) captured at the moment of booking from public sources, locked with a system timestamp, retained past every applicable statute of limitations, and producible on demand as a subpoena-ready evidence pack. The methodology applies to every load, every carrier, every time, without operational judgment about which records are "worth" capturing.

Every per-load vetting record captures these four fields, sourced independently of the carrier's self-attestation:

1. FMCSA safety rating. Captured from FMCSA SAFER. One of: Satisfactory, Conditional, Unsatisfactory, Not Rated.
2. CSA scores. Captured from FMCSA SMS. All seven BASIC categories, percentile scores, and alert status.
3. Insurance currency. A current certificate of insurance from the carrier's named agent. Policy numbers, effective dates, primary auto liability limit, cargo limit, additional-insured endorsements where required.
4. Operating authority. Captured from FMCSA Licensing & Insurance. Authority type (property, household goods), status (active, pending, revoked, suspended), and any restrictions.

Load-type-specific addenda apply where relevant: hazmat carriers add six additional checks (hazmat authority, Hazmat Compliance BASIC, driver endorsement, insurance limits per hazmat class, security plan, equipment certification). Refrigerated carriers add five (equipment specs, reefer-breakdown coverage, temperature recording capability, food-safety compliance, cargo coverage matched to load value). Owner-operators add identity verification checks. The four core checks apply to every load regardless.

A vetting record that survives a deposition has four properties. These are the design constraints VettedHaul implements.

1. Capture at the moment of decision. Not reconstructed in discovery. The snapshot taken on the day of booking is fundamentally different from a record pulled six months later. Capture happens at booking, with the broker present, and the timestamp comes from the system, not from a user-entered date field.
2. Lock against later modification. The captured record is immutable after capture. A spreadsheet row that can be edited at any time is not a defensible record. An audit log of every access (who, when, source) is preserved alongside the record itself. Defense counsel uses the access log to establish chain of custody.
3. Retain past the longest plausible plaintiff timeline. State personal-injury statutes of limitations range from 1 year (Tennessee) to 6 years (Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota). Discovery-rule tolling and minor-plaintiff tolling can extend effective exposure well beyond face periods. Default retention is seven years past last load with that carrier; ten years for high-risk load categories; indefinite for any load involved in a reported incident.
4. Produce on demand. The export is a subpoena-ready PDF plus a machine-readable JSON evidence pack, formatted for litigation intake. Defense counsel hands the pack to opposing counsel the day a demand letter arrives.

VettedHaul launched 2026-05-19. At publication of this methodology, the product is in waitlist mode. The following table documents which elements of the methodology are implemented today vs planned. Honest classification, no aspirational framing as shipped reality.

When the planned items ship, the table updates and the version bumps. The aspirational framing in marketing copy across this site already distinguishes between "the methodology" (the four-check standard, real today) and "what VettedHaul will do for you" (capture-at-booking automation, planned). Marketing copy that conflates the two is a Veto 6 fail; we police that explicitly.

What can go wrong in this methodology, and how each failure is addressed:

• FMCSA data lag. SMS data refreshes monthly. A vetting record captured today reflects the carrier's state as of the most recent SMS refresh. The timestamp on the captured record makes this explicit; a year from now, defense counsel can show the jury exactly what was knowable at booking.
• Carrier-provided insurance certificate fraud. The certificate is captured from the carrier's named insurance agent, verified against the issuing carrier's agent directory. A fraudulent COI is itself evidence the broker exercised reasonable care; the carrier's misrepresentation is the carrier's liability, not the broker's.
• FMCSA system outage at capture time. If FMCSA SAFER or SMS is unavailable, the capture fails. The broker either waits and retries, or declines the load. There is no graceful-degradation mode that silently records a partial vetting; partial records would fail the Veto 1 artifact-vs-outcome test.
• Re-vetting cadence drift. Continuous monitoring is the safeguard. Carriers are re-checked weekly; alert-state changes log the broker's response in the same audit trail.

Every artifact in a VettedHaul vetting record references an independent verifier:

• FMCSA safety rating snapshots are re-verifiable against the carrier's SAFER record
• CSA score snapshots reference the FMCSA SMS data refresh date
• Insurance certificates carry agent contact information
• Operating authority status references the FMCSA Licensing & Insurance system entry

Plaintiff's counsel can re-run any of these checks. The vetting record stands or falls on the same independent data the broker captured at booking.

• 2026-05-21 — v1.0. Initial publication. Documents the four-check standard, the four properties of a defensible record, and the mechanical-vs- aspirational classification at v1.0. Companion to the Integrity Statement; together they constitute the public methodology + integrity disclosure required by The Integrity Framework v1.0 silver tier.

Operational contact: support@vettedhaul.com

Framework escalation (shared portfolio): integrity@startvest.ai