COISoftware collects a certificate of insurance from every motor carrier, owner-operator and facility vendor you work with, reads each ACORD 25 with AI, checks auto liability and cargo limits against what you require, and confirms you are named as certificate holder or additional insured. Built for US freight brokers, 3PLs, warehouse operators and shippers vetting carrier and vendor COIs at high volume. Upload a COI above to see it read in seconds.
Last updated June 2026
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Carriers and facility vendors carry very different risks, so most operators require different coverage by type. These are common starting points, not legal or insurance advice.
| Partner type | Coverage commonly required | Why the operator requires it |
|---|---|---|
| Motor carriers | Commercial auto liability often $1M, motor truck cargo, sometimes MCS-90 | A crash or cargo loss in transit traces directly to the hauling carrier |
| Owner-operators | Auto liability, cargo, and non-trucking or bobtail where it applies | Independent drivers may carry thinner coverage that has to be checked load by load |
| Freight brokers and forwarders | Contingent cargo and contingent auto, plus general liability | Backstops a claim when the underlying carrier coverage falls short |
| Warehouse and racking contractors | General liability, workers compensation, sometimes umbrella | Maintenance, racking and forklift work carries injury and property risk on site |
| Equipment lessors | General liability and commercial auto, additional insured | Leased trailers, forklifts and yard equipment bring their own liability |
| Staffing agencies | Workers compensation and general liability | Temporary warehouse labor injury exposure sits with the staffing firm |
Set requirements to your own contracts, broker-carrier agreements, commodity values and state and federal law. Limits and coverages shown are common starting points, not legal or insurance advice.
A freight broker or 3PL works with hundreds or thousands of carriers, many of them used once or twice. Each carrier emails a certificate that is correct the day it is issued and out of date weeks later. Verifying coverage by hand before every load, then catching the policy that cancels mid-haul, is where the exposure builds.
Negligent selection claims hold brokers and shippers responsible when they tender freight to a carrier that did not carry adequate coverage. A certificate checked once at onboarding does not prove the carrier still has auto and cargo coverage the day of the load, which is exactly what a plaintiff attorney looks for after a crash.
Motor carriers run on commercial auto liability and motor truck cargo, often with an MCS-90 endorsement, not the general liability limits you track for a contractor. Verifying the wrong coverage on a carrier COI is a common and costly mistake, and the limits required differ by commodity and lane.
Every carrier you add sends a certificate, and every one renews on a different date. At any real freight volume that means COIs landing in inboxes daily and policies lapsing all year, with no single owner watching expiration across the whole carrier base.
A carrier can stop paying premium and lose coverage weeks before the date printed on the certificate. The COI in your file still looks valid, so you keep tendering loads to a carrier that is no longer insured until something goes wrong.
A 3PL or distribution center also collects COIs from forklift and racking maintenance, janitorial, security, staffing agencies and equipment lessors. That is a second stream of certificates with different coverage rules, sitting in a different spreadsheet from the carrier list.
A tab of carriers with manual expiration dates and inbox reminders fails fast once you are onboarding new carriers every week. Renewals slip, cargo limits go unchecked, and proving you vetted a carrier after an incident means digging through email.
The certificate a carrier or vendor emails you is a snapshot from the day it was issued, not proof of coverage on the day of the load. Confirming that every carrier bought the right auto and cargo limits, kept them current, and named you as certificate holder is repetitive, rules-based work across a large and changing partner base, which is exactly what software handles well. Certificate of insurance management software reads every certificate, checks it against your requirements by partner type, and flags anything short, expired or missing, so a logistics coordinator is not verifying PDFs by hand before every tender.
COISoftware reads every carrier and vendor certificate, checks it against your rules by partner type, confirms certificate holder and additional insured status, and gives you one view of who is actually covered across carriers and locations.
Upload a certificate from a motor carrier, owner-operator, forklift tech or staffing agency and the AI pulls the insurer, policy numbers, coverage types, limits, effective and expiration dates, and certificate holder, even from scans and phone photos.
Set the commercial auto liability and motor truck cargo limits you require, and every carrier certificate is checked for them, so a carrier short on cargo coverage or missing auto limits is flagged before you tender a load.
See at a glance whether a carrier is current and meets your limits today, not at onboarding, so dispatch is not building a negligent selection claim by booking an underinsured carrier.
Track motor carriers and facility vendors side by side, filter by partner type or location, and keep one compliance picture across your brokerage and your warehouses.
See whether you are named as certificate holder or additional insured on each policy, so the status your contract requires is verified rather than assumed from a checked box.
When a carrier or vendor certificate is about to expire, COISoftware chases for a renewed COI automatically, so a lapsed policy in your carrier base is caught before it becomes a problem.
COISoftware reads the ACORD 25 and the broader certificate of liability insurance, then ties every carrier and vendor certificate into full certificate of insurance management software and ongoing vendor insurance compliance tracking. When a certificate looks off, the same checks behind certificate of insurance verification flag it for review. Warehouse and plant maintenance contractors are tracked the same way as subcontractor COI tracking for contractors.
Vetting a large carrier base follows the same four steps as tracking a handful of vendors.
Enter the coverages and limits your contracts require, and vary them by partner so a motor carrier, an owner-operator and a warehouse contractor each get the right rule. Include the certificate holder and additional insured wording you require.
Tip: Require commercial auto liability and motor truck cargo from carriers, and match the cargo limit to your commodity values and lanes.
Request a COI from each carrier or vendor or upload the certificates you receive. The AI reads every one automatically, so onboarding carriers at freight volume does not turn into hours of manual data entry.
Each certificate is checked against the requirement for that partner type. Short auto or cargo limits, expired policies and a missing certificate holder are flagged before a load is booked.
Automated reminders chase any expiring certificate, so coverage stays current across every carrier and facility without a coordinator tracking dates by hand.
Anyone responsible for proving that every carrier and vendor carries the coverage your contracts and federal rules require.
A brokerage tendering loads to hundreds of carriers needs to know, before every booking, that the carrier still carries the auto and cargo limits its agreement requires. COISoftware turns each carrier requirement into a live status, so a dispatcher sees a clear pass or flag instead of opening a stale certificate and hoping it is still good.
A third-party logistics provider tracks carrier COIs on the freight side and facility vendor COIs on the warehouse side, from forklift maintenance to staffing to security. The same dashboard handles both streams, and warehouse maintenance crews are tracked the same way as subcontractor COI tracking for contractors.
A shipper moving its own freight carries the same negligent selection exposure as a broker and often vets carriers and inbound vendors itself. To collect, verify and monitor every certificate in one place, pair this with vendor insurance compliance software, and if you are comparing platforms, our best COI tracking software roundup walks through the options honestly.
Most brokers require commercial auto liability of at least $1 million and motor truck cargo coverage sized to the freight value, often $100,000 or more, from every carrier they tender to. Many also require general liability and check for an MCS-90 endorsement where federal rules apply. Each carrier should name the broker as certificate holder, and limits should match the commodity and lane.
Brokers verify carrier insurance by collecting a certificate of insurance, checking the auto and cargo limits against their requirements, confirming the policy is current, and ideally re-checking before each load because coverage can cancel mid-term. Doing this by hand at volume is slow, so most brokers move to COI tracking software that reads each certificate and flags any that are short or expired.
A certificate of insurance in trucking is a one-page document, usually an ACORD 25, that summarizes a carrier active policies, including commercial auto liability and motor truck cargo, with limits, effective and expiration dates, and the certificate holder. It is proof a carrier had coverage when it was issued, which is why brokers re-verify it rather than trusting a certificate on file.
A common baseline is $100,000 in motor truck cargo coverage, but the right limit depends on the value of the freight being hauled. High-value commodities like electronics or pharmaceuticals often require $250,000 or more, while standard freight may be fine at $100,000. Brokers should set the cargo requirement to the commodity value on the lane and confirm it on each carrier certificate.
An MCS-90 is a federal endorsement that guarantees a motor carrier will pay for bodily injury and property damage to the public up to the required minimum, even if the underlying policy would not cover the loss. It is a public protection filing required by the FMCSA for many for-hire carriers, not a substitute for cargo coverage, so brokers verify both when vetting a carrier.
Because a policy can cancel between bookings, a certificate that was valid last week may not be valid today. Tendering freight to a carrier that has lost coverage exposes the broker to a negligent selection claim if a crash or cargo loss occurs. Re-verifying before each load, which software automates, is how brokers keep that exposure down.
Pricing depends on how many carriers and vendors you track and whether you want self-serve software or a managed service. COISoftware lists transparent monthly pricing and offers a free tier, so a small brokerage or a national 3PL can start reading and verifying certificates without a sales call. You can test it on your own carrier certificates before paying anything.
Collect, verify and track every carrier and vendor COI in one place.
Track facility and maintenance contractor coverage the same way.
Verify a carrier COI is real, current and meets your limits.
