Guide

What an out-of-service order means

Last updated 2026-08-04

Of everything that can appear on a carrier’s federal record, an out-of-service order is the one that matters most — and it’s also the one people most often scroll past, because the phrase sounds administrative. It isn’t.

An out-of-service order is a legal prohibition on operating. A carrier under one is not permitted to run its vehicles or accept freight — including your household goods — until the order is lifted. This isn’t a demerit or a warning. It is the federal government telling a company to stop.

What triggers one

The common causes, roughly in order of how often they appear:

New entrant safety audit failure. Every new carrier goes through a probationary period with an audit at the end. Failing it — or simply never responding to the auditor — revokes the new-entrant registration. This is by far the most common reason, and it usually describes a company that quietly stopped operating rather than one that did something dramatic.
Unfit safety rating. A compliance review producing an Unsatisfactory rating becomes an out-of-service order if it isn’t corrected within the statutory window.
Failure to pay civil penalties. Unpaid fines past 90 days.
Imminent hazard. Rare and severe: FMCSA has determined that allowing the carrier to keep operating poses a substantial likelihood of serious harm. These are issued immediately.
Refusing or obstructing an audit.

Active versus rescinded — the distinction that matters

Most out-of-service orders in the federal file are historical. A carrier gets an order, fixes the underlying problem, and the order is rescinded. A rescinded order tells you something about a company’s past, but it does not prevent them from operating today.

This site only counts an order as in force when the federal file marks it active and records no rescind date. Anything else isn’t reported as an active order. Across the 18,400 carriers in this registry, just 285 have an order in force — which is exactly why one is worth stopping for.

What to do if a mover you’re considering has one

Confirm it at the source. Our copy of the record is a periodic snapshot. Check the SAFER Company Snapshot for that USDOT number — it’s the live system.
Ask the company directly. There is a legitimate version of this conversation: an order was issued, the issue was resolved, and the rescission hasn’t propagated yet. There is also a version where you get evasion. Both are informative.
Don’t accept "that’s just paperwork". If the order is genuinely active, the company cannot lawfully perform your move, and your goods would be on a truck that isn’t supposed to be on the road — with insurance implications to match.

A note on what this doesn’t tell you

The absence of an out-of-service order is not a positive signal. The vast majority of carriers have never had one, including carriers that are careless with people’s belongings, because out-of-service orders track safety and regulatory compliance rather than service quality. Use it as a hard stop, not as a green light.