Out-of-Service Order
A federal or state directive that immediately shuts down a carrier's entire operation, or sidelines a specific vehicle or driver, until violations are corrected. Distinct from the out-of-service rate, which is an inspection statistic. Operating under an OOS order is a serious federal violation and one of the strongest disqualifiers in carrier vetting.
Learn moreWhat is Out-of-Service Order?
An out-of-service order is an enforcement action that prohibits operation until specified conditions are met. It exists at two levels. At the carrier level, FMCSA can order an entire company out of service for an imminent hazard to safety, an Unsatisfactory safety rating, failure to pay civil penalties, or failing the new entrant safety audit — the carrier must cease all commercial operations immediately. At the vehicle or driver level, roadside inspectors apply the CVSA North American Out-of-Service Criteria: a truck with defective brakes or a driver over hours-of-service limits is placed out of service on the spot and cannot move until the defect is fixed or the required rest is taken. The carrier-level order is the existential event — knowingly operating under one exposes the carrier, and potentially the broker who tendered the load, to severe penalties and near-total liability in a crash. This is distinct from the out-of-service rate, which is the percentage of a carrier's inspections that resulted in vehicle or driver OOS violations. CarrierOk surfaces both: OOS alert flags on the carrier profile and the underlying inspection-level OOS counts, refreshed up to throughout the day.
Why does out-of-service order matter?
Insurance Underwriters
A carrier-level OOS order in the history is a hard decline for most programs — it means FMCSA judged the operation an imminent hazard or the carrier failed its safety audit, and post-order 'fresh start' entities deserve chameleon screening.
Freight Brokers
Tendering a load to a carrier under an active OOS order can make you a defendant — courts have found brokers negligent for hiring carriers that were federally ordered off the road. Check OOS status at every tender, not just onboarding.
Developers & Platforms
Use oos_alert_driver and oos_alert_vehicle as hard-stop flags in automated onboarding, and treat them separately from OOS-rate percentages — an alert flag is an enforcement condition, not a statistic.
Key values & thresholds
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Carrier-Level Trigger | Imminent hazard, Unsat rating, unpaid fines, failed audit |
| Roadside Standard | CVSA North American OOS Criteria |
| Effect | Immediate cessation until corrected |
| Distinct From | OOS rate (inspection statistic) |
Out-of-Service Order in the CarrierOk API
This data is available via the /v2/profile endpoint. The following fields are returned in the carrier profile:
/v2/profileoos_alert_driveroos_alert_vehicleinspections_driver_out_of_serviceinspections_vehicle_out_of_servicesafety_rating_descFrequently asked questions
What is the difference between an out-of-service order and an out-of-service rate?
An out-of-service order is an enforcement action — a directive that a carrier, vehicle, or driver must stop operating immediately. An out-of-service rate is a statistic: the percentage of a carrier's roadside inspections that produced OOS violations, typically compared against national averages. A carrier can have a mediocre OOS rate and no order, or a clean-looking rate right up until FMCSA shuts it down for an imminent hazard. Vetting logic should treat the order as a hard stop and the rate as a graded risk signal.
What happens if a carrier operates under an out-of-service order?
Knowingly operating a commercial vehicle in violation of an OOS order is a serious federal offense carrying substantial civil penalties per violation, potential driver disqualification, and — for egregious carrier-level violations — criminal referral. In a crash, an active OOS order makes liability nearly indefensible for the carrier, and brokers who tendered the load have been pulled into negligent-hiring claims. FMCSA also targets operators who reincarnate under a new DOT number to evade an order, which is the core chameleon carrier pattern.
Can a carrier come back from an out-of-service order?
Yes, if the order's conditions are cured. A carrier ordered out for an Unsatisfactory rating can submit a corrective action plan and request a rating upgrade; one shut down for unpaid fines can pay them; a failed new entrant audit can sometimes be remediated. But the event stays in the record, and many entities instead abandon the DOT number and re-register fresh. That is why vetting should screen apparent new entrants against prior-identity signals — shared addresses, phones, officers — rather than taking a clean new profile at face value.
Related terms
Chameleon Carrier
A motor carrier shut down for safety violations that re-registers under a new DOT number to evade its enforcement history. Chameleon carriers carry forward identical operational risk with a clean record. CarrierOk detects chameleon patterns by analyzing shared addresses, phones, principals, and EINs across every registrant in the dataset.
New Entrant
A motor carrier registered with FMCSA for less than 18 months, subject to a New Entrant Safety Audit. New entrants have limited inspection history, making traditional risk scoring unreliable. CarrierOk flags new entrants in risk_signals and provides a New Registrants feed for discovering newly authorized carriers.
OOS Rate (Out-of-Service Rate)
The percentage of a carrier's roadside inspections that result in an out-of-service order, meaning the driver or vehicle is prohibited from operating until the violation is corrected. National average vehicle OOS rate is approximately 21%. CarrierOk provides both driver and vehicle OOS rates and flags carriers exceeding national averages.
Safety Rating
A rating assigned by FMCSA after a compliance review: Satisfactory, Conditional, or Unsatisfactory. An Unsatisfactory rating can trigger an out-of-service order. However, most carriers have never been reviewed and carry no rating — absence of a rating does not indicate safety. CarrierOk includes safety rating status in carrier profiles.
CVSA (Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance)
The nonprofit alliance of US, Canadian, and Mexican enforcement agencies that sets North American roadside inspection standards, including the eight inspection levels and out-of-service criteria. CVSA-standard inspection results feed directly into the SMS data CarrierOk indexes for every registered carrier.
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