What's actually free in DOT compliance.
No free platform will keep a carrier audit-ready end to end — but far more is free than most carriers realise. Here is the honest catalogue: eight tools we publish for nothing, what FMCSA itself gives away, and the costs that stay whichever software you pick.
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Eight tools we publish for nothing
These are free permanently, not free-until-you-hit-a-limit. No sign-up, no email gate. They exist because the calculations underneath them are the same for every carrier and there is no good reason to charge for arithmetic.
MCS-150 Due Date Checker
Enter your USDOT number, get your own biennial-update deadline from live FMCSA data.
DQF Checklist Generator
Build a driver qualification file checklist against 49 CFR 391 for your driver type.
DOT Audit Readiness Quiz
Score how exposed you are before an auditor does it for you.
Clearinghouse Query Calculator
How many queries you owe in the next 12 months, what they cost, and when each is due.
IFTA Calculator
Work the quarterly fuel-tax math without a spreadsheet you have to trust.
Cost Per Mile Calculator
The number that tells you whether a rate is worth taking.
Owner-Operator Pay Calculator
Model a settlement after deductions before you sign on with a carrier.
Truck Driver Pay Calculator
Per-mile, percentage and flat-rate pay, worked out honestly.
What FMCSA gives away
A surprising amount of what carriers pay third parties for is free at the source. This is the list worth checking before you buy anything.
Your MCS-150 biennial update
Filing the biennial update to your own company record directly with FMCSA costs nothing. Third-party "filing services" that charge for a simple update are not FMCSA, and you do not need one. (Other registration actions do carry fees — this is specifically the biennial update.)
SAFER Company Snapshot
A carrier's Company Snapshot — census record, safety rating and inspection summary — is free to search, and it is the same record an insurer or broker looks at. Note this is the Snapshot specifically; some other SAFER data products are sold.
DataQs challenges
Disputing an inspection or crash record on your file is free. Unchallenged bad data follows your CSA scores for two years.
The regulations themselves
49 CFR is published in full on eCFR at no cost. Paying for a "regulations library" is usually paying for the index, not the text.
What is never free, whichever software you pick
No platform absorbs these, and a vendor implying otherwise is describing a pass-through cost as a feature. They apply to us too.
Clearinghouse queries
FMCSA charges a flat $1.25 per query — the same for limited and full. There is a $24,500 annual unlimited plan for very high-volume employers, which is not you.
MVRs
Priced by the state, pulled per driver, per year. This is the line that scales with headcount.
Drug and alcohol testing
Consortium membership and per-test fees. No software changes this.
Your own time
The real cost of the free option. A spreadsheet does not alert you when a medical card expires — you do, by remembering.
The spreadsheet, and the one thing it cannot do
At one or two trucks, a spreadsheet is a defensible choice and we are not going to pretend otherwise. But the failure mode is worth knowing before you pick it, because it is the same one every time.
A spreadsheet stores information; it does not surface it. It will hold a medical-card expiry date perfectly and never once tell you that it passed. Nearly every driver qualification file violation that traces back to a spreadsheet has that shape — the date was in the file, and nobody opened the file.
If you stay on a spreadsheet, do this one thing: put every expiry date into a calendar with alerts set 60 and 30 days out. The calendar is the part doing the compliance work. Our free DQF checklist generator will tell you which dates belong there.
Fleetive has no free plan — here is the honest version
Fleetive is paid software: from $29/month, flat per company rather than per driver or per truck, with a 14-day free trial and no card required. The eight tools above stay free whether or not you ever trial it.
If you do trial it, test one thing: load two or three real drivers with their real expiry dates — including one that is already close — and see whether the alerts fire before the date passes. That is the whole job. A product that demos well and does not chase you about an expiring medical card has not solved your problem, and that goes for ours as much as anyone's.
Free DOT compliance questions
- Is there genuinely free DOT compliance software?
- There is no free platform that will keep a carrier audit-ready end to end, and you should be sceptical of anything claiming otherwise — the ongoing costs in this category are support, document storage and liability, none of which a free tier absorbs. What is genuinely free is substantial, though: FMCSA charges nothing for your MCS-150 biennial update, SAFER Company Snapshot searches, DataQs challenges or the regulations themselves, and Fleetive publishes eight free tools that need no account. Those cover the calculations and the deadlines. What they do not cover is the ongoing job of tracking every document for every driver, which is where paid software starts to earn its price.
- Can I run DOT compliance on a spreadsheet?
- Plenty of carriers do, and at one or two trucks it is a defensible choice. The failure mode is specific and worth knowing before you pick it: a spreadsheet stores information but does not surface it. It will hold the medical-card expiry date perfectly and never once tell you that it passed. Every DQF violation we see traced back to a spreadsheet is the same shape — the data was in the file, nobody looked at the file. If you stay on a spreadsheet, put the expiry dates in a calendar with alerts, because the calendar is the part doing the compliance work.
- Does Fleetive have a free plan?
- No, and we would rather say so plainly than bury it. Fleetive has a 14-day free trial with no card required, and paid plans from $29/month flat per company. The eight tools listed on this page are free permanently and separately — no account, no trial clock, no email required to use them.
- What does a free trial actually let me check?
- The thing worth testing in 14 days is not the feature list, it is whether the alerts fire. Load two or three real drivers with their real expiry dates, including one that is already close, and see whether the system tells you before it lapses. That is the entire job. A product that looks good in a demo and does not chase you about an expiring medical card has not solved your problem.
- Why is compliance software priced per truck almost everywhere?
- Because most vendors scope by power units, which means the bill grows as you grow — usually fastest at the exact moment cash is tightest. It is worth checking the pricing shape and not just the starting rate. Fleetive is flat per company rather than per driver or per truck, so hiring does not change the bill; that is a deliberate choice for carriers who add a driver and do not want to think about it.
Use the free tools. Upgrade when the spreadsheet stops scaling.
14-day free trial, no card required. Paid plans from $29/month, flat per company.