Terms & Conditions

Eligibility & authority

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract. CarrierClear is a business tool for use in your trade or business. If you use CarrierClear on behalf of a company, you represent that you are authorized to bind that company to these Terms, and “you” means both you and that company.

What CarrierClear is

CarrierClear is an information and record-keeping tool that displays publicly available carrier data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and lets you generate and store carrier-vetting records. It is not legal, compliance, or insurance advice, and it is not a certification or guarantee of any carrier's fitness, insurance, or safety.

CarrierClear is an independent service. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the FMCSA or the U.S. Department of Transportation. “Data sourced from FMCSA” simply means we surface the government's public records.

The data is provided as is

We source data from FMCSA and present it as accurately as we can, but we do not guarantee its accuracy, completeness, or timeliness. The FMCSA itself states its data is not filtered or checked for accuracy, and government data can lag real-world events. Any rating, score, or risk assessment we display reflects CarrierClear's interpretation and opinion based on the available data, not a statement of fact. You are responsible for independently verifying anything you rely on. A carrier that believes a record is wrong can dispute it with the FMCSA through DataQs.

You are responsible for your decisions

You — not CarrierClear — decide which carriers to use. We never approve, block, recommend, endorse, certify, or qualify any carrier; we provide information and keep your record. A “clear,” passing, or flagged result is not a certification, guarantee, or warranty of a carrier's safety, fitness, legitimacy, or future conduct. You are solely responsible for your carrier-selection decisions and their consequences. Use of CarrierClear does not establish, satisfy, or guarantee any legal standard of care.

Not a consumer reporting agency; restricted uses

CarrierClear is NOT a consumer reporting agency (“CRA”) as defined by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. §1681 et seq. We do not assemble or evaluate consumer credit or other information for the purpose of furnishing consumer reports to third parties. The information, scores, ratings, dossiers, and reports provided through the service are NOT “consumer reports” under the FCRA or any comparable state law. Our data concerns commercial motor carriers as business entities and is drawn from public records.

You may use CarrierClear ONLY for legitimate business-to-business purposes — vetting and monitoring commercial motor carriers in connection with the brokerage, transportation, or shipment of freight. You will NOT use the service or any information from it as a factor in establishing any individual's eligibility for: (i) credit or insurance for personal, family, or household purposes; (ii) employment, promotion, reassignment, or retention (including hiring drivers, applicants, or independent contractors); (iii) housing or tenant screening; (iv) a government license or benefit; (v) review of whether a person continues to meet the terms of an account; or (vi) any other purpose covered by the FCRA or comparable state law.

You represent and certify that you will use the service solely for the permitted business purpose above and not for any prohibited use, and that you are solely responsible for your own compliance with the FCRA and all applicable laws. We may suspend or terminate access immediately if we know or reasonably believe the service is being used for any prohibited purpose.

Your inputs and attestations

When you enter information or mark something as verified (for example, that you confirmed a carrier's insurance by phone), you represent that what you enter is true. You are responsible for the accuracy of your own entries and attestations.

Account, license & intellectual property

We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the service for your internal business purposes, subject to these Terms. We and our licensors own the service, software, design, look and feel, and all related intellectual property. The underlying FMCSA data is public government information that we do not claim to own.

You keep ownership of the records, notes, and attestations you create. You grant us the limited rights necessary to host, process, and provide them back to you, and to create de-identified or aggregated data as described in our Privacy Notice.

Account security & team accounts

You are responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential and for all activity under your account. Notify us promptly of any suspected unauthorized access. If your plan includes multiple seats or team members, the account owner is responsible for its members' access and for their compliance with these Terms.

Acceptable use

No unlawful use; no using the tool to harass or defame any carrier; no infringing, malware, or security-breach activity; no attempting to access another account's data. You may not access the service by automated means (scraping, bots, crawlers), exceed or circumvent usage limits or tier caps, bulk-export or resell the data, or use the service to build or assist a competing product. We may rate-limit, throttle, suspend, or terminate accounts that violate these Terms or for non-payment.

Embeddable widget

We may offer an embeddable “check a carrier” widget that other websites can display (for example, via an iframe) and that links back to CarrierClear. If you embed the widget, you may display it on sites you control for legitimate business purposes, but you may not alter, remove, or obscure the CarrierClear branding, the link back, or any disclaimer, label, or “as is” notice that accompanies it — those travel with the data and must be shown to anyone who views the widget.

All of these Terms apply to the widget and to anyone who uses it through your site, including that the data is public FMCSA information provided “as is,” is not a certification of any carrier, comes with no warranty, and is subject to the same restricted-use and FCRA limitations described above. You may not scrape, cache, bulk-collect, resell, or build a competing or derivative product from the widget or its data, and you may not embed it in a way that is unlawful, deceptive, or that overloads or abuses the service. We may rate-limit, change, or revoke the widget or your access to it at any time, with or without notice.

Subscriptions, billing & automatic renewal

Paid plans are subscriptions that AUTOMATICALLY RENEW at the end of each billing period for a successive period of equal length at the then-current rate, until you cancel. Before you pay, we disclose the price and renewal terms and ask for your separate affirmative consent to the recurring charge at checkout. Plan limits apply per your tier.

We use Stripe, Inc. as our third-party payment processor. By submitting payment information you authorize Stripe to store your payment method and authorize us to charge it through Stripe (including any updated or replacement card number Stripe obtains) on a recurring basis for all fees plus applicable taxes at the start of each billing period until you cancel. Your payment is also subject to Stripe's terms and privacy policy. Card data is collected and processed directly by Stripe under PCI-DSS; we do not store or have access to your full payment card number.

You can cancel at any time from your account (Manage billing → cancel) — cancellation is at least as easy as signing up — and it takes effect at the end of the current billing period. If we increase your plan price, we will notify you in advance by email to your account address before the increase takes effect; if you do not agree, you may cancel before it does, and continued use afterward constitutes acceptance.

California residents: this is an automatic-renewal program under California's Automatic Renewal Law (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §17600 et seq.). You may cancel online as described above.

Taxes, refunds & failed payments

Taxes. All fees are exclusive of taxes (sales, use, VAT, GST, and similar). You are responsible for all such taxes on your purchases except taxes based on our net income; where required, we calculate and add them at billing. Valid exemptions require a current certificate.

Refunds. Except as expressly stated or required by law, all fees are non-refundable, including for partial periods, unused time, or downgrades. Cancellation or downgrade takes effect at the end of the current period and moves you to the Free tier rather than producing a refund. If you terminate because of a material breach by us that we fail to cure within 30 days after your written notice, we will refund prepaid fees for the unused remainder of your then-current term. Failures of best-effort features — including alerts and monitoring, the accuracy or completeness of dossier or FMCSA data, and service availability — are not a material breach.

Failed payments. If a charge fails, we (via Stripe) may retry it, and you authorize those retries. If we cannot collect, after a grace period and notice we may suspend or downgrade your paid features or move you to the Free tier. You remain responsible for all amounts owed, including those accrued before suspension, and reactivation requires payment of all outstanding amounts. To the extent permitted by law, we may charge interest on overdue amounts and recover reasonable collection costs.

Chargebacks & payment disputes

If you believe you were billed in error, contact us at the email below and give us a reasonable opportunity to resolve it before initiating a chargeback. Initiating a chargeback without first contacting us in good faith is a breach of these Terms and may be treated as non-payment; we may suspend or terminate your account until the matter is resolved and all amounts are paid. You remain responsible for the full underlying charge and, to the maximum extent permitted by law, agree to reimburse chargeback and dispute fees imposed on us plus reasonable collection costs. We may submit records of your subscription and usage to contest unfounded chargebacks.

Free tier & free trials

We may offer a Free tier with features and limits we designate and may change, limit, suspend, or discontinue at any time. The Free tier is provided “as is” and “as available,” with no service-level commitment, support guarantee, warranty, or indemnity.

If we offer a free trial that converts to a paid subscription, then unless you cancel before the trial ends, the trial automatically converts and we charge the then-current fee plus taxes at the end of the trial and each cycle thereafter until you cancel. Before any such trial begins we disclose its length, the charges that start at conversion, and how to cancel, and obtain your affirmative consent.

Cancellation, termination & your data

You may cancel or close your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access for violation of these Terms or non-payment. On termination, your right to use the service ends and any fees accrued before termination remain due. Because CarrierClear is a record-keeping tool, we retain your saved vetting records for at least 30 days after cancellation so you can request a copy; we recommend exporting any records you may need before you cancel.

You may request deletion of your account data; we will delete or de-identify it within a reasonable period, except where we must retain it to comply with law or for legitimate record-keeping (for example, billing and tax records). De-identified and aggregated data may be retained as described in our Privacy Notice.

Service availability

The service is provided “as is” and “as available.” We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free, and we make no uptime guarantee except under a separate written service-level agreement. We may perform maintenance and may modify or discontinue features, with or without notice.

Alerts and monitoring are best-effort

Email and in-app alerts and carrier monitoring are provided on a best-effort basis and are NOT guaranteed. Monitoring runs on a periodic (not real-time) basis. Alerts may be delayed, undelivered, incomplete, or fail entirely due to factors including email deliverability, third-party services, and the timing or accuracy of underlying data sources (including FMCSA). We do not guarantee that any alert will be generated, sent, received, or timely. You must not rely solely on alerts and remain responsible for independently monitoring and verifying anything material to your decisions.

Sanctions (OFAC) screening — informational tool only

Any sanctions-screening feature performs an automated name comparison against publicly available U.S. Treasury OFAC data, including the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. It is provided for informational and decision-support purposes only. It is NOT legal, regulatory, or sanctions-compliance advice; NOT a compliance, eligibility, or “cleared” determination; and NOT a substitute for your own sanctions-compliance program or qualified counsel.

The screening relies solely on public data that may be incomplete, inaccurate, or out of date and that changes frequently. Screening uses a periodically updated copy of the OFAC SDN list and may not reflect the most recent designations. Name matching can return false positives and false negatives (due to aliases, transliterations, alternate or misspelled names, missing data, or matching thresholds). A “possible match” or “no match” is not confirmation that any party is or is not sanctioned, and the absence of a match does not mean a name is clear. The feature is provided “as is,” with no representation or warranty of accuracy, completeness, or currency.

Compliance with OFAC sanctions and all applicable laws is your sole responsibility and cannot be satisfied by this feature. You are responsible for independently reviewing, investigating, escalating, and clearing any potential match before acting, and you agree not to rely on this feature as the sole basis for any compliance, onboarding, or business decision.

Phone and address screening — informational signals only

On paid tiers we may display supplemental risk signals about a carrier's contact information — for example, whether a phone number on file appears to be a landline, mobile, or VoIP/virtual line, and whether a physical address appears to be commercial, residential, or a mail-drop. These signals are generated by third-party data providers (currently Twilio for phone-line analysis and Smarty for address validation) using the carrier's publicly available FMCSA contact data.

These signals are provided for informational and decision-support purposes only. They are not advice, not a verification of the carrier's identity, legitimacy, or fitness, and not a statement of fact. The underlying provider data may be incomplete, inaccurate, or out of date, and any signal may be unavailable for a given carrier. A signal (such as “VoIP line” or “residential address”) is not proof of fraud, and the absence of a signal is not proof of legitimacy. You are responsible for independently verifying anything you rely on and agree not to treat these signals as the sole basis for any business decision.

Sanctions & export compliance

You represent that you are not located in, organized under the laws of, or a national of any country or region subject to U.S. embargo, and that you are not identified on any U.S. government restricted-party list (including the OFAC SDN list). You will not use or export the service in violation of U.S. export-control or sanctions laws.

Disclaimer of warranties

The service is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent allowed by law, our total liability for any claim arising from the service — including the carrier dossier, risk ratings, alerts and monitoring, the sanctions-screening feature, and the phone- and address-screening signals — is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim (or $100 if you used only the free tier). We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold us harmless from claims, damages, and costs arising out of your use of the service, your carrier-selection decisions, your inputs or attestations, or your violation of these Terms.

Feedback

If you send us feedback, ideas, or suggestions about the service, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use them without restriction or obligation to you. Feedback does not include the records, notes, or attestations you create in the service, which remain yours as described above.

Governing law & venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Subject to the “Dispute resolution” section below, you agree to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in California for any dispute not subject to arbitration.

Dispute resolution & class-action waiver

Please read this section carefully — it affects how disputes are resolved. Except for small-claims matters and claims for injunctive relief to protect intellectual property, any dispute arising out of or relating to the service or these Terms will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered under the rules of a recognized arbitration provider, rather than in court, under the Federal Arbitration Act.

You and CarrierClear each waive the right to a jury trial and agree that claims may be brought only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, or representative proceeding. If this class-action waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim (and only that claim) will proceed in court.

You may opt out of arbitration by emailing us within 30 days of first accepting these Terms.

Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms or the service. We will post the updated Terms with a new “last updated” date and, for material changes, give reasonable notice. Continued use after changes take effect means you accept them.

Notices

We may give you legal notice by email to your account address or by posting within the service; such notice is deemed received when sent to your account email or posted, as applicable. You give us notice at the contact email below.

General

Force majeure: we are not liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control (for example, FMCSA, hosting, email, or payment-processor outages, internet or utility failures, or cyberattack). Severability: if any provision is held invalid, the rest remain in effect. Survival: the sections on payment obligations, intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, and governing law survive termination. Entire agreement: these Terms and the Privacy Notice are the entire agreement between you and us and supersede prior representations. Assignment: you may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them, including to a successor or to an entity we form (for example, on incorporation).

Contact

Questions about these Terms: info@getcarrierclear.com.