How our freight guides are researched, checked and corrected

Who writes and reviews

Guides, tools and templates are written and reviewed by Maurice Holt, whose name and the date of the last review appear on every one. Pages explain what our desk sees on real loads; when a rule is involved, the rule's own text decides, not our opinion.

Sources we use

We work from primary sources and link to them on the page:

• Federal law and regulations: the U.S. Code (for example, the Carmack Amendment at 49 U.S.C. 14706) and the eCFR (for example, 49 CFR Part 370 on claims and the FMCSA rules in Parts 382 to 395).
• Agency material from FMCSA, FHWA, PHMSA, USDA, IRS, EIA and BLS.
• Published research, such as the U.S. DOT Office of Inspector General report on detention and ATRI studies.
• Public material from NMFTA about freight classification, described in our own words. We don't reproduce NMFC item tables.
• Companies' own public pages, when we describe what a company offers or charges, with the date we checked.

Every rule, threshold and figure we state is stored once, with its source, link and the date we checked it, and the page pulls it from there. If we can't verify a number, we leave it out rather than guess.

How we label things

• Examples. Any illustrative load, rate, time, carrier or document carries an Example label. Hypothetical carriers are named Carrier A, B or C. They are not customers and not results.
• Freight class. Density is arithmetic and we show the math. Class is always called an estimate, because the carrier's tariff decides.
• Templates and claims. Letters, policies and claim guides say plainly that they are not legal advice.
• Accessorial amounts. Detention rates, lumper fees and similar figures come from your rate con, your contract, or a named public source with its year. We don't present an industry average we can't source.
• Partners. Any page with a partner link says so next to the first link, and our disclosure page lists every partner.

What we won't publish

Invented reviews, invented statistics, logos of companies we don't work with, or promises of loads, rates or paid claims. We don't accept payment to cover a company or to change what a guide says.

Dates and updates

Each guide and tool shows the month it was last updated. We review pages when a rule they rely on changes, such as a new FMCSA testing rate or a classification change, and when readers point out a problem.

Corrections

If you find an error, send the page address and what's wrong through our contact page. We check it against the source, fix the page if we got it wrong, and update its date. For more on who we are and how the desk works, see about us.