Knowledge · 9 min read

Jakub Wujec

Carrier vetting process for freight forwarders

A solid carrier vetting process runs intake, register and licence checks, VAT and insurance verification, contact review, approval, and documentation before pickup details leave your desk. Same steps for every new carrier, with a named approver when a risk signal appears. Speed comes from a fixed order, not from skipping registers.

Key checks before you assign the load

Intake: VAT ID, country, legal name, email, plates when available.
Register pass: company active, address, ownership or board changes.
Operational pass: licence, VAT, insurance, domain.
Decision: approve, conditional approve, or stop before pickup info.
Document sources, approver, and date in the TMS or load file.
Re-vet after long gaps or when ownership changes.

Carrier vetting process step by step

Company existence alone is not carrier verification. A company can exist and still need deeper checks before you assign a load.

Build the carrier vetting workflow so ops, compliance, and sales use the same sequence. Friday night shortcuts are where fraud and double brokering slip through.

1. Intake: collect VAT ID, country, contact email, vehicle plates, and lane.
2. Register review: pull KRS, CEIDG, ANAF, ARES, or the local equivalent.
3. Licence review: KREPTD, ARR, JISCD, RPSD, or country transport register.
4. Tax check: VIES plus local VAT whitelist where applicable.
5. Insurance: UFG, AIDA, ČKP, or other plate-based source when required.
6. Contact check: domain age, website, email versus register address.
7. Approval: named person signs off or escalates open risk signals.
8. File: attach extracts and note what was checked on booking day.

Core checks before you assign a load
Check	Why it matters	Possible risk signal
Company register	Confirms the legal entity exists and can contract for haulage today.	Dissolved, in liquidation, or recent owner or board change without explanation.
Transport licence	Proves the operator may haul goods on the lane and vehicle type you booked.	Missing licence, suspended status, or scope that does not cover your route.
VAT (VIES and local lists)	Shows the tax ID is active and matches the name on the invoice.	Inactive VIES status, name mismatch, or VAT on a dead company.
Cargo or vehicle insurance	Cover must exist when the truck rolls, on the entity you contract with.	Expired policy, wrong policy holder, or no record when plates are checked.
Email and domain	Contact details should fit the register address and company age.	Brand-new domain, freemail on a large fleet, or email that does not match KRS or CEIDG.

Roles in the vetting workflow

Small teams combine roles. Larger forwarders split intake, verification, and approval. The carrier vetting process fails when nobody owns the final yes.

Intake owner: collects data and opens the check.
Verifier: runs registers or triggers Certica.
Approver: accepts residual risk when a warning is cleared.
Archive: stores PDFs and register printouts on the load.

What to document before assigning the load

Audits and insurers ask what you knew before the truck rolled. The vetting file should answer that without reconstructing memory.

Register extract or screenshot with date stamp.
Transport licence status from the official register, not only a PDF from email.
VIES or local VAT printout tied to the invoice name.
Insurance confirmation with policy holder and expiry date.
Who approved the carrier, when, and on which lane.
Any follow-up call notes if a risk signal was cleared manually.

Red flags and common mistakes

No named approver on exceptions

When someone overrides a warning, record who and why. Otherwise the process looks like rubber stamping.

Vetting only at onboarding, never again

Re-check after insolvency filings, licence suspensions, or long idle periods.

Sales bypassing verification on urgent lanes

Urgent load is not a register waiver. Same carrier vetting workflow every time.

Spreadsheet of links instead of a fixed sequence

Links rot and steps get skipped. Order matters: register, licence, VAT, insurance, contact.

How Certica fits the carrier vetting process

Certica automatically collects and analyses carrier verification data, detects risk signals, and supports your decision before a load is assigned.

Plug Certica into intake: one request after VAT ID and country are known. Approvers see the same structured verification outcome.

API hooks let your TMS open a vetting case automatically when a new carrier code is created.

Production countries: PL, RO, SK, LT, LV, BG, CZ, EE, FR.
Parallel register fetch cuts manual vetting time.
PDF audit trail for compliance sign-off.

Official sources

FAQ

How is carrier vetting different from a one-off check?

Vetting is the repeatable workflow: intake, checks, approval, documentation, and periodic re-checks. A single check is one step inside that workflow.

When should we re-vet an existing carrier?

After register filings show ownership change, licence suspension, or when they were idle for months. Also when contact details change suddenly.

Can verification teams use Certica only for exceptions?

Yes, but running every new carrier through the same automated pass reduces drift. Exceptions then stand out clearly.

Which sources does Certica fetch?

Today we cover Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, and France. Each country has different registers. See Documentation for the current list per country.

Certica

Run the same checks automatically

Certica collects registry, VAT, licence, insurance, and domain data in one run, applies risk rules, and saves a PDF audit trail before you assign the load.

Check 20 carriers for free

No card required. Results usually return in seconds to a few minutes, depending on registry availability.