Methodology

HaulReport is an independent directory built on public data published by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) at data.transportation.gov. This page explains exactly how our figures are produced and where their limits lie.

Verifiable facts vs. independent estimates

We separate two kinds of information on every carrier page:

• Verifiable facts — authority status, inspection counts, crash counts, registration dates. These come directly from FMCSA datasets and are reproduced, not derived.
• Independent estimates — reconstructed BASIC percentiles. This percentile is an independent estimate produced by ranking FMCSA's publicly published BASIC measure within a safety-event peer group. FMCSA does not publish percentiles for property carriers; this figure is HaulReport's reconstruction and may differ from any internal FMCSA value. Bands describe percentile ranges among peers, not safety judgments. It is provided for general informational purposes only; it is not a consumer report and may not be used for any purpose governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (including credit, insurance, employment, or tenant screening), and it is not a safety rating, a fitness determination, legal advice, or a recommendation to do business with any carrier. Always verify against official FMCSA sources before relying on it.

How the percentile estimate is reconstructed

FMCSA publishes the absolute BASIC measure for property carriers but does not publish the relative percentile. We reconstruct the percentile by ranking each carrier's published measure within a safety-event peer group, and we validate that reconstruction against passenger carriers, for whom FMCSA does publish percentiles.

Until a reconstruction passes our validation gate (≥90% of estimates within ±5 points of the published passenger percentiles), we do not publish reconstructed property percentiles as fact — pages show the verifiable facts and clearly-labeled estimates only.

What this is not

These estimates are not official FMCSA or CSA scores, not a safety rating, not a fitness determination, and not legal advice. FMCSA's own measures carry a data-sufficiency caveat; ours inherit it and add the uncertainty of reconstruction.

See also Data sources and About HaulReport.