Use case · Freight forwarders
Jakub Wujec
Carrier verification for freight forwarders before you assign a load
Freight forwarders need carrier verification before subcontracting a lane: company active in the national register, transport licence valid for your route, VAT active in VIES, insurance when you have plates, and contact details that match the paperwork. Certica pulls those sources in parallel, applies the same process every time, and flags risk signals before you send pickup info. The PDF is your audit trail, not the product.
Key checks before you assign the load
- Company still active in the business register?
- Recent change of owner or board where the register shows it?
- Transport licence valid for the route you want to book?
- VAT active in VIES and local lists where we fetch them?
- Vehicle insurance active, and is the vehicle actually a truck?
- Email and domain line up with registry data?
Who this page is for
European freight forwarders who book road haulage, subcontract lanes to asset carriers, and need a repeatable check before the first pickup.
You may run Polish carriers Monday, Romanian carriers Tuesday, and a new contact from a load board on Friday. This page is for ops and compliance leads who want the same minimum standard on every booking.
The operational problem
Forwarders live on speed. When a lane is hot, dispatch trusts a licence scan from email instead of opening KREPTD or ARR on booking day.
Screenshots sit in inboxes. UFG or AIDA waits until plates arrive, then gets skipped because the truck is already rolling. When something goes wrong, nobody has a dated record of what was checked before pickup details went out.
Certica automatically collects and analyses carrier verification data, detects risk signals, and supports your decision before a load is assigned.
What needs to be checked
Same five buckets on every new carrier, no matter which country register sits behind them. Use this as your freight forwarder carrier vetting baseline before you release load details.
| 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. |
Where manual processes fail
Most carrier risk for forwarders is not exotic fraud. It is inconsistent manual work under time pressure.
- Different people check different registers depending on who is on shift.
- A subcontractor swap mid-lane with no fresh register pull.
- Insurance checked on email PDF but not on UFG, AIDA, or ČKP when plates are known.
- Last month's KRS extract reused for a carrier who changed contact details last week.
- No file showing who approved the carrier, when, and on which lane.
Example workflow
Typical Monday booking: a Polish carrier on a DE–PL lane. Same flow in the web app or through the API if your TMS is wired in.
- Ops receives NIP, email, and plates from the subcontractor.
- Enter VAT ID, country, email, and vehicle plates if you have them.
- Certica pulls the supported registers for that country in parallel.
- Certica evaluates company, licence, VAT, insurance, and contact data in one pass.
- You see risk signals and a clear verification outcome before pickup.
- Download the PDF when you need a file for approval or insurers.
Red flags and common mistakes
Subcontractor swap without a new check
The name on the CMR differs from the carrier you approved. Treat as a risk signal and pull registers again before pickup.
Licence OK but company in liquidation
KRS or CEIDG shows inactive status while email still pushes a low rate. Hard stop until someone clears it.
VAT active, insurance on another entity
VIES looks fine but UFG shows the policy on a different NIP. Common when a broker poses as an asset carrier.
Freemail on a fleet-sized story
Large vehicle count in KREPTD but contact from Gmail or a domain registered last month. Compare domain age with company age.
Friday evening urgency
Pressure to skip register checks because the lane closes at 18:00. Speed is a risk signal, not a reason to drop KREPTD.
Multicountry lane, wrong register opened
Romanian plates but someone only checked Polish VIES because the forwarder office is in PL. Match checks to the carrier country code.
How Certica helps freight forwarders
One request instead of opening KRS, KREPTD, VIES, and UFG in separate tabs. Registry extracts, verification results, and domain check land in one place before you subcontract.
Polish carrier Monday, Romanian carrier Tuesday: same flow, different registers behind the scenes. When you need proof for a client or insurer, the PDF shows what was checked and when.
- Parallel fetch from every supported register for that country.
- Clear risk signals so ops knows what needs review.
- Web app for ad hoc checks, API when your TMS triggers vetting.
- PDF with source documents when internal sign-off or a dispute needs a paper trail.
Official sources
- EU VIES VAT validation (European Commission)
- Polish National Court Register (KRS)
- Polish CEIDG sole trader register
- Polish KREPTD transport register (GITD)
- Polish court filings register (RAR)
- Romanian ANAF VAT payer register
- Romanian ONRC insolvency bulletin (BPI)
- Romanian road transport licences (ARR)
- Romanian RCA insurance database (AIDA)
- Czech ARES business register
- Bulgarian Road Transport Agency (RTA)
- Latvian open government data portal
FAQ
Do we still need our own carrier vetting checklist?
Yes. Certica runs the register checks. Your freight forwarder carrier vetting process may still need signed terms, lane-specific insurance limits, and client approval rules.
Which countries can we verify today?
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.
Does a warning mean the carrier is fraudulent?
It means pause on that point. Recent owner change, VAT name mismatch, or expired insurance may have a legit explanation. Your team still decides on the load.
Is the PDF the main deliverable?
No. The main value is the decision before pickup. The PDF is evidence and audit trail when you need to show what was checked.
Can we hook verification to our TMS?
Yes. Send VAT ID, country, email, and plates to the public API. You get back the verification outcome, data, and a PDF link. Details are in Documentation.
Related pages
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.
No card required. Results usually return in seconds to a few minutes, depending on registry availability.