The Founding Register is open to enclosed carriers.
View the criteria →Enclosed automotive transport
A community of carriers and brokers who operate by the book, and can prove it. Authority, insurance, equipment and drivers are confirmed with the institutions that issued them — and confirmed again at the curb, on every load.
Membership is by application · What is verified
Membership is not a subscription. It is a file that Echelon Transport Network built by contacting the institutions behind every claim a carrier or broker made.
A verified carrier holds operating authority confirmed against the federal register, cargo coverage confirmed with the insurer that issued the policy, equipment registered by VIN and matched to that policy, and drivers identified against state records. Their coverage history is confirmed alongside it — how long the policy has been held, and whether it has ever lapsed.
A verified broker holds a property broker licence and contingent cargo coverage confirmed the same way, standing behind the carrier's policy.
Every file expires. Confirmations carry a date and are re-confirmed on a cycle. Accepting a load requires affirming coverage is still in force.
Anyone can say they carry two million dollars in cargo coverage. On this network, it was confirmed with the insurer, and it carries the date it was confirmed.
Cargo coverage has no public record. The federal government eliminated the filing requirement for most for-hire carriers in March 2011. Authority is public. Safety is public. Auto liability is public. Cargo coverage is on none of them.
A certificate is a claim, not evidence. A convincing fake takes minutes to produce from a blank ACORD form, and insurers report a rising volume of them in circulation — fabricated policy numbers, inflated limits, and insurers that do not exist.
Nothing is re-checked. A policy cancelled in April leaves a certificate that still reads as current through January.
Operating authority can be bought. Criminal groups acquire established carriers to obtain a DOT number with a clean history. The record is real. The people behind it are new.
A load can be passed to a carrier nobody checked. In a double-brokered load, the carrier that accepted the job hands it to a different carrier without telling the broker or the client. The vehicle is moved by a company nobody vetted, and often by a company not named on any policy that would cover it. The Transportation Intermediaries Association puts the annual cost to the industry in the hundreds of millions.
Confirming who arrives is left to whoever thought to ask. Nothing requires a broker to send the client the driver's name, the truck and trailer VINs, and the DOT number before pickup. Some brokers do it. Many do not, and most clients do not know it is something to ask for. So a truck arrives, a person gets out, and both parties proceed on the assumption that they are who they should be.
On this network it is not left to anyone's diligence. The broker enters the driver and equipment when the load is posted. Before arrival, the client receives who is coming and what they are driving. At the curb, the handoff runs through Echelon Custody Verification — the person releasing the vehicle photographs the truck, the trailer and the driver's licence, and the vehicle is not released unless every one of them matches the registered file.
The broker is not relied upon to remember. The client is not relied upon to know what to ask.
Each of these is a fact somebody asserted and nobody confirmed.
How custody verification works
Sources: FMCSA · Verisk CargoNet · Transportation Intermediaries Association · industry insurance reporting.
The broker enters the load in full. It is sealed on entry.
The board sends it only to carriers whose confirmed coverage covers the total value on the trailer.
Accepting requires the carrier to affirm coverage remains in force. The affirmation is timestamped.
The pickup address releases to that carrier alone. A registered driver is assigned to registered equipment.
Custody is verified by the person releasing the vehicle. The inspection opens on a match, and the vehicle identifies itself to the driver.
Custody is verified by the driver against the recipient the broker named. Condition is captured to the same eight-media standard as at pickup, so the two ends compare like for like.
Every check, every release, every custody event, with the date it occurred.
Every load carries a declared value covering every vehicle on the trailer. That total is measured against the carrier's confirmed cargo limit, and loads above it are not sent to the account.
A cargo policy pays one limit per incident, not one limit per vehicle. Six vehicles at $150,000 on one trailer is a $900,000 claim against a single limit.
The board displays the specification — city and state, dimensions, clearance, weight, handling notes, equipment required, tier band and rate. Not the year, make or model. Not the VIN. Not the declared value.
Identity releases to the assigned driver, at the vehicle, after verification clears.
Enclosed operators with confirmed cargo coverage from $250,000. Verified once, confirmed on a cycle.
For carriersLicensed property brokers carrying contingent cargo coverage. They post, they assign, and they keep the client.
For brokersEnrolled through their carrier, identified once, holding a record that belongs to them.
For driversOwners, collections, dealers, auctions and advisors. Not members. They work through a broker.
The Echelon Standard
They state what is required, what is confirmed, and what ends an account. They are published in advance and applied identically at every tier.
Every application is reviewed by a person. Applying creates a pending file for the verification desk. Nothing activates until it clears, and submission does not mean approval.