FMCSA Motor Carrier Census (SAFER / FMCSA data): what it returns, and whether it works in Clay

FMCSA Motor Carrier Census (SAFER / FMCSA data) is not available in Clay. It is best for Lead lists, Buying signals. Pricing: Free. Access: Free, public domain. Bulk CSV and Socrata API on data.transportation.gov; SAFER web snapshots; QCMobile API free with a WebKey obtained through a Login.gov account; census file refreshed monthly. No licence fee..

Data domains: Government, Company, Firmographics, Contact, Transport.

What does FMCSA Motor Carrier Census (SAFER / FMCSA data) return?

Official fields: Census File columns dot_number; legal_name; dba_name; status_code; carrier_operation; hm_ind; business_org_desc; phy_street; phy_city; phy_state; phy_zip; phy_country; phy_cnty; carrier_mailing_street; carrier_mailing_city; carrier_mailing_state; carrier_mailing_zip; phone; fax; cell_phone; company_officer_1; company_officer_2; power_units; truck_units; bus_units; fleetsize; total_drivers; total_cdl; total_intrastate_drivers; avg_drivers_leased_per_month; mcs150_date; mcs150_mileage; mcs150_mileage_year; add_date; docket1prefix; docket1 (MC number); docket2; docket3; dun_bradstreet_no; recordable_crash_rate; interstate_beyond_100_miles; interstate_within_100_miles; intrastate_beyond_100_miles; intrastate_within_100_miles; review_id; classdef; prior_revoke_flag. QCMobile elements confirmed on the official element page: dotNumber; legalName; dbaName; allowToOperate (Y or N); outOfService; fields such as totalPowerUnits, totalDrivers and safetyRating appear in API responses but the element page could not be opened here.

What can you derive from it?

1. Fleet growth: change in power_units or total_drivers between census snapshots. 2. New entrants: add_date and new MC authority as a buying window for insurance, ELDs, fuel cards, factoring and compliance. 3. Risk: out-of-service orders, authority revocation and recordable_crash_rate. 4. Segmentation: carriers by lane type (interstate beyond 100 miles), cargo type and state. 5. Decision makers: company_officer_1 and company_officer_2 with registered phone.

How would a GTM team use it?

1. TAM build: carriers with 20 to 200 power units in a state, excluding inactive status codes, with officer names. 2. Revenue trigger: new authority granted in the last 30 days triggers insurance and telematics outreach. 3. PE screen: fleet growth plus low crash rate for logistics roll-ups. 4. Diligence: verify a target carrier's fleet size, drivers and safety record. 5. Buyer map: shippers' private fleets (carrier_operation and private-only flags) for fleet-services clients.

What are the caveats?

Not a native Clay integration as of 2026-10-17 (checked against Clay's integrations catalog). Can be called through Clay's HTTP API column where an API exists. MCS-150 data is self-reported and can be years old (check mcs150_date); fleet counts are declared, not observed. Phone and email are registration contacts and officer names are public business records; keep outreach B2B. Census includes inactive and pending carriers. Crash and inspection data describe safety, not revenue. No Clay provider covers FMCSA.