In the trucking world, your safety record is your ticket to staying insured, keeping customers, and growing your business. Insurance brokers, underwriters, freight brokers, and direct shippers rely on Central Analysis Bureau (CAB Reports) and FMCSA data to determine whether your fleet is a safe bet or a liability risk. And if your safety metrics fall short, your business will feel it through higher premiums, lost loads, and potentially even revoked operating authority.

For fleets, this makes compliance, data accuracy, and safety culture lifelines and priorities to operational success. This is where technology like Motive’s integrated operations platform changes the game.

Understanding the two primary data sources that define your risk

To understand how the outside world views you, start with the two primary tools used to assess your business:

  • CAB Reports are generated by the Central Analysis Bureau and used by insurance brokers and underwriters to evaluate your fleet’s risk profile and determine if they will write a policy for you, at what cost, and under what terms.
  • THE FMCSA SAFER System is a public portal that brokers, shippers, and enforcement officials use to check your DOT authority, insurance filings, safety ratings, and compliance trends before awarding freight.

How insurance brokers use CAB Reports to market your fleet

When it comes time for your annual insurance renewal, your broker doesn’t just call an underwriter and ask for a quote. They “market” your business, just like a realtor markets a property or a job recruiter markets a candidate. They build a complete package, including your operational structure, driver and vehicle data, loss history, FMCSA data, and CAB Report.

Your CAB Report is a central component of that package. It helps carriers determine whether to insure you at all. It contains detailed information from FMCSA databases, including crash records, BASIC scores, out-of-service rates, inspection history, and trends. It paints a picture of your historical behavior and safety performance and whether you’re worth the risk.

If your CAB data is full of violations, poor maintenance records, or repeated issues, your broker has a more challenging time making you appealing to carriers. That means fewer options, higher premiums, or outright denial. Conversely, if you’re running clean, and can prove it, you’re more insurable, desirable, and often, more affordable to cover.

The impact of FMCSA scores on freight contracts

While underwriters study CAB Reports, freight brokers and shippers turn to FMCSA’s SAFER database. It tells them whether you have authority to operate, whether your insurance is current, and how you stack up against competitors in terms of compliance.

This information determines whether you get a load, whether you can sign a direct contract, and whether your company remains in good standing with freight partners. Shippers increasingly require minimum safety ratings, and brokers often won’t even consider a carrier with an alert or unsatisfactory BASIC score.

A single crash, maintenance violation, or hours-of-service infraction can damage that trust, but consistent violations can wreck it.

How Motive helps you build a better risk profile

Motive’s platform allows fleets to proactively manage their risk profile by tracking performance, identifying trends, and automating many of the processes that contribute to compliance and safety. Here’s how Motive directly helps you improve your standing with both insurers and freight partners:

  • Instead of manual inspections and disconnected spreadsheets, Motive automates Digital Driver Vehicle Inspection Reports (DVIRs), ensuring pre- and post-trip inspections are completed and stored. This helps prevent violations before they happen and provides documentation to challenge incorrect citations in FMCSA’s DataQ system.
  • Motive provides real-time Hours of Service tracking, vehicle tracking, and IFTA fuel tax reporting. With customized alerts, driver coaching tools, and performance summaries, you can reduce violations before they occur, and show underwriters that you’re serious about compliance.
  • Motive’s AI Dashcams go beyond simple video by detecting risky behaviors like tailgating, distracted driving, or speeding, enabling fleets to coach drivers. That visibility provides fleet managers with tools to intervene early, reducing crash risk and improving their overall insurance profile.
  • Motive also helps your broker build a more substantial marketing case, making it easier for them to position your business as a low-risk, high visibility, well-managed, high-value operation.

When your data looks good, so does your business

Whether you’re being “marketed” to an insurance carrier for policy renewal or vetted by a shipper for a direct contract, your data does the talking. The cleaner your CAB Report and FMCSA scores, the better your chances of getting favorable insurance terms, attracting higher-paying loads, and growing your business.

Motive helps you operate cleaner, safer, and smarter every day. With real-time insight into your fleet’s safety, maintenance, and compliance posture, you’re not just checking boxes. You’re building a business that others want to work with. 

To learn more about fleet insurance and how Motive helps fleets improve insurability, attract freight, and reduce exposure across every mile.