What questions should I ask a new carrier?

A new carrier relationship starts with a conversation, and the questions you ask in that conversation do most of the vetting work. The goal isn’t to interrogate anyone — it’s to confirm the carrier is legal, insured, equipped for your freight, and organized enough to tell you what happened to a shipment after it left your dock.

Here are the questions worth asking, grouped the way a shipper would actually work through them, and what a good answer sounds like for each.

Start with authority and compliance

The first question: “Are you registered to operate commercially, and can you show me?” In Ontario, commercial operators of trucks over a certain weight need a valid CVOR (Commercial Vehicle Operator’s Registration) — our answer on whether couriers need a CVOR in Ontario explains where the line falls. A legitimate carrier knows exactly what applies to its fleet and doesn’t hesitate to say so.

Follow-ups that separate professional operations from the rest:

• “What’s your safety record like?” Carriers with CVORs accumulate a public safety history. A carrier that speaks plainly about its record — including how it handles violations — is showing you how it will handle problems with your freight.
• “How do you manage driver hours?” Federal and provincial hours-of-service rules limit how long commercial drivers can work. A carrier that shrugs at this question is telling you scheduling pressure will win over safety.

None of this is box-ticking. As we cover in why carrier compliance matters to shippers, a carrier’s compliance posture lands on you when something goes wrong — freight on a truck that gets taken out of service is your delay.

Ask about insurance — and ask for proof

The question is not “are you insured?” — everyone says yes. Ask instead: “Can you send me a current certificate of insurance?” A certificate of insurance (COI) is a one-page summary of the carrier’s coverage that its broker can issue quickly. What to confirm on it:

1. Commercial general liability — covers injury and property damage arising from operations.
2. Automobile liability — commercial coverage on the vehicles themselves.
3. Cargo coverage — the piece that responds when freight is lost or damaged in transit.
4. Current policy dates and a named insured that matches the company you’re actually hiring.

Also ask about WSIB clearance. In Ontario, a clearance certificate confirms the carrier is registered and in good standing with the WSIB — without it, principals who hire the carrier can carry unexpected exposure. Our page on what WSIB clearance is covers why it belongs in a vendor file next to the COI.

If any of these produce delay, excuses or a certificate with expired dates, stop there.

Confirm the equipment matches your freight

Insurance and authority make a carrier legitimate; equipment makes it useful to you. Ask:

• “What vehicles do you run, and what are their payload limits?” If you ship skids, you need to know whether the fleet includes trucks that can take your typical weight, and where the carrier’s limit is before freight has to move by semi.
• “Do your trucks have tailgates (lift-gates)?” If either end of your typical lane lacks a dock, this is the difference between a delivery and a turnaround.
• “Can you handle my worst shipment, not just my average one?” Describe your heaviest, longest or most awkward freight and listen for a specific answer — vehicle, method, limits — rather than a reflexive yes.

A carrier that says “that one we’d decline” about something genuinely outside its equipment is more trustworthy, not less. You want the honest no before pickup, not the failed attempt after.

Ask how they run the work day to day

Operational questions tell you what the relationship will feel like at week six, not day one:

• “Who do I talk to when I need to book or change something?” The best answer for a frequent shipper is a person or small dispatch team that knows your account — not a ticket queue.
• “How do I find out where my shipment is?” You’re listening for a concrete mechanism: driver updates, dispatch confirmation at pickup and delivery, a contact who picks up.
• “What do I get when the delivery is done?” The answer should be proof of delivery — who signed, when, and any noted exceptions — as a routine close-out on every run, not an on-request extra.
• “What happens when something goes wrong?” Trucks break down and receivers close early. A professional carrier describes how it communicates and recovers; an amateur insists nothing ever goes wrong.

For time-critical freight, these answers matter as much as price. A same-day direct run is only as good as the dispatch behind it.

Red flags in the answers

Certain responses should end the conversation regardless of the quoted rate:

• Reluctance or delay producing an insurance certificate.
• Vague answers about whose trucks and drivers actually do the work.
• A quote dramatically below every other carrier’s — someone is cutting a cost you can’t see, and it’s usually insurance, maintenance or driver hours.
• No clear answer on proof of delivery or shipment updates.

If you want a structured process for confirming what you’ve been told, our guide to verifying a carrier’s legitimacy walks through the checks step by step.

Sonic Transport answers all of these questions for a living — we’re a Mississauga-based B2B courier and freight carrier serving the GTA, Golden Horseshoe and Southern Ontario, and the person who quotes your freight is a person who’ll know your account afterwards. Ask us the hard questions: request a quote and tell us what you ship.