You may have read that your moving company should be officially registered and should have a DOT and MC license number, but how do you check up on this? The company should be prepared to tell you, but you do not have to take this at face value. Do a little research of your own.
You can start your search at SaferSys.org. This is the website for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and you can search for the MC number. Click on ‘company snapshot’, which takes you to a search area. Here you can put in the Department of Transport (DOT) number you have been given and start your search, which is when you find out whether the DOT number given to you by your movers is accurate. If you have any doubts at this stage, you need to hire a different moving company.
If the number is accurate, you should now be seeing on screen a report containing a lot of information about your movers. Make sure that the company contact details match those that you have been given. You will also notice a section marked ‘out of service; – if the company is operating, this should say ‘no’.
You will also find details about the number of drivers and units the company has so that you can assess for yourself whether its claim about how many moves it carries out is likely to be true.
The ‘carrier operation’ section tells you whether the company handles interstate moves, which is ideal if your move is long distance, and it should also tell you what goods the company is licensed to move.
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