Carrierintel vs CarrierOk, SearchMule, Carrier411 and Highway (2026): FMCSA carrier data without the subscription
Vet any carrier for $0, see which violations still count, open free nationwide reports, and turn FMCSA data into a sales pipeline. Five tools side by side, from their public pages checked 2026-10-26.
Short answer
Vet any carrier for $0.
Unlimited searches*, no account, no credit card, across ~812k public carrier pages, with inspections polled from FMCSA every hour. Carrier411 charges $99/mo; CarrierOk starts at $149/mo.
Every violation, explained.
Code, description and CSA points for each one, and whether it still counts: violations dismissed in court or excluded from SMS are marked "Not counted in SMS · 0 CSA pts". We did not find this on the public pages of CarrierOk, SearchMule or Highway.
Free nationwide reports, rebuilt every night:
ELD Tampering by state, Phantom Fleets, Top Violations of the last 30 days, English Proficiency. No account, no paywall, no usage limit.
Chameleon-carrier signals on every carrier page:
shared addresses, phones, emails and officers across DOTs; the declared fleet against the trucks seen at roadside.
You sell to carriers?
The Carrierintel workspace turns FMCSA data into a sales pipeline: lead recommendations rebuilt every night, a targets board, a client book and alerts on the carriers you work with. See how it works ↓
At a glance
| Feature | Carrierintel | CarrierOk | SearchMule | Carrier411 | Highway |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price to look up a carrier | Free, unlimited searches*, no signup | from $149/mo | Free | $99/mo | Demo / quote |
| Public page per carrier | Yes, ~812k | No (sitemap) | No (sitemap) | — | — |
| Inspection and violation history | Yes, per violation: code, description, CSA points | Yes | Yes | Yes | — |
| Marks violations dismissed in court or not counted in SMS | Yes: "Not counted in SMS · 0 CSA pts" | — | — | — | — |
| Shared address / phone / officer / VIN links | Yes | Yes | Yes | Fraud risk analysis | Identity checks |
| Free public FMCSA reports | 4 reports, rebuilt nightly | — | — | — | Quarterly fraud index |
| Lead recommendations for companies that sell to carriers | Yes, rebuilt nightly | Prospect lists | — | — | — |
| Sales pipeline and client book | Yes | — | — | — | — |
| Alerts on the carriers you work with | Yes, for your clients and targets | Yes | — | Yes | Yes |
| Onboarding, COI, identity verification | No | — | — | — | Yes |
"—" = not stated on their public pages. *No daily or monthly cap; fair-use rate limit of 10 searches per minute.
Where Carrierintel is strong
Free nationwide reports
Aggregated analysis of FMCSA data that you can open without an account. No paywall and no usage limit. Every report is rebuilt every night.
For companies that sell to carriers
ELD and dashcam vendors, insurance agents, factoring companies: the Carrierintel workspace turns FMCSA data into a sales pipeline.
Leads that find you.
Every night the workspace picks carriers that match your signals: fleet growth, new FMCSA registrations, insurance cancelled and not re-filed, a Safety Score range, or citations of the type you sell against: ELD and HOS (9 groups, from ELD tampering to false logs), maintenance, brakes, lights, tires and more. Narrow by state and fleet size, and look back from 7 days to a year.
A pipeline built for carrier sales.
Recommended → Lead → Contacted → Demo booked → Won. Drag and drop; an assignee, a priority, your services, notes and documents on every card. Deal value is calculated for you from your price list, the carrier's fleet size and your volume discounts. A won deal converts to a client.
Your client book, with FMCSA data inside.
Products and MRR per client, status from Onboarding to At risk, documents and a change history. Each client shows its fleet, drivers, out-of-service rate, insurance and latest inspections.
Alerts on your clients and targets.
Fleet growth, insurance problems, new citations by type, a BASIC above the national average. You choose the events; they arrive in your workspace after each nightly sync.
Your products, your prices.
Subscriptions or hardware, a price per unit, volume tiers.
Built for a team.
Owner, Admin and Member roles, email invitations, Google sign-in and two-factor authentication.
Signals by what you sell
Signals to start with for each kind of seller. Every chip is a setting of your lead recommendations: mix them as you like, and narrow by state and fleet size. An insurance issue here means a policy cancelled and not re-filed.
ELD vendors
Dashcam and telematics
Insurance agents
Factoring companies
Maintenance, parts and tire shops
Drug and alcohol testing services
Where others are a better fit
How we checked
Published by the Carrierintel team. We compare our own product here, so read it as our view. Competitor features and prices come from their public pages, checked on 2026-10-26 and 2026-10-27. Tell us if something changed and we will fix it. Carrierintel facts describe the product on the same date. Data source for all FMCSA facts: FMCSA public datasets on data.transportation.gov and the FMCSA Motus system.
FAQ
Is Carrierintel free, and what do the others cost?
Looking up a carrier on Carrierintel is free: unlimited searches, no account, no daily or monthly cap, with a fair-use rate limit of 10 searches per minute. On their public pages, checked 2026-10-26, CarrierOk starts at $149/mo, Carrier411 is $99/mo, SearchMule is free and Highway is demo / quote.
How many carrier pages are public?
Carrierintel has ~812k public carrier pages. In the comparison table, CarrierOk and SearchMule show no public page per carrier in their sitemaps.
How fresh is the data?
Inspections, violations and crashes are polled every hour, insurance daily and SMS monthly, as FMCSA publishes it. FMCSA releases inspections once a day, so new records reach us within about a day.
Does Carrierintel show BASIC percentiles?
Not for property carriers. FMCSA hides those percentiles by law (FAST Act) and we do not make up our own. We show FMCSA's monthly measures plus our nightly estimates for four BASICs, labelled "Estimated".
I sell to carriers. What does Carrierintel give me?
The Carrierintel workspace: lead recommendations rebuilt every night from FMCSA signals (fleet growth, new registrations, insurance issues, a Safety Score range, citations by type), a targets board from Lead to Won, a client book with FMCSA data on each client, and alerts in the workspace on your clients and targets.
Are the public reports free?
Yes. ELD Tampering, Phantom Fleets, Top Violations and English Proficiency open without an account, with no paywall and no usage limit, and are rebuilt every night.
Which tool do I need to onboard carriers and collect COIs?
Highway, RMIS or MyCarrierPortal. They handle broker-side carrier onboarding: carrier packets, signed agreements, insurance certificates confirmed with the agent and ID checks. Carrierintel does not offer that; it is where you vet the carrier first: authority history, insurance filings, officers, inspections and shared-identity links, free.