All Plans
DOT Lead Scout's lead data is synchronized from FMCSA on a regular cadence. The headline answer: core fields refresh every night, extended fields refresh every Sunday. This article explains exactly what that means, how list refreshes work for your saved lists, and what it takes for a brand-new carrier to show up.
The Two-Tier Sync Architecture #
Tier 1 — Daily Sync
Every night at midnight Eastern. Refreshes 33 high-value, frequently-changing core fields across all ~3 million carriers. Takes about 5–10 minutes.
Tier 2 — Weekly Sync
Every Sunday at 2 AM Eastern. Refreshes an additional 66 extended fields (cargo flags, vehicle counts, rare details). Slower but rare-change fields.
Which Fields Refresh on Which Schedule #
Tier 1 (Daily) Fields
-
Operating authority status (
status_code) - Safety rating and rating date
- Phone, email, fax, cell phone
- Total drivers, power units, truck units, bus units
- Fleet size class
- MCS-150 filing date
- Address (physical and mailing)
- Legal name and DBA
- Company officer names
- MCS-IP step (compliance review status)
- HAZMAT indicator
- Carrier operation type
Tier 2 (Weekly) Fields
- Cargo classification flags (66 different cargo types)
- Owned vs. termed vehicle counts
- Interstate/intrastate driver splits
- MCS-151 mileage and year
- Docket/MC numbers
- Specific vehicle counts (school buses, motor coaches, etc.)
Your Lists Refresh On Different Schedules #
Why daily refreshes matter
On Engage+, a carrier that newly registered Monday at 9 AM appears in your saved list Tuesday morning — before competing examiners on weekly cycles even know they exist. First contact is a real advantage in this business.
List Refresh Notifications #
- Email arrives the morning after the new leads are added
- Includes a count of new carriers and a direct link to the list in your portal
- Configurable in Profile → Email & Notification Settings — you can turn it off if you prefer pull-only
How Changes Are Tracked #
- Change signals on the dashboard (Engage+) — Adding Drivers, Reactivated, MCS-150 Updated, Safety Concern, etc.
- Lead history on the lead detail panel — what changed and when
- Hot lead detection — carriers that had recent changes get higher priority in your daily digest
First-time-population is suppressed
When DOT Lead Scout fills in a field for the first time (e.g. a NULL value gets a real value), the changelog skips that entry — otherwise you'd get spammed with fake change signals on every new carrier.
How Long Until a Brand-New Carrier Shows Up? #
Carrier registers with FMCSA
Files the initial USDOT registration. Authority status starts as N (Not Authorized) while FMCSA reviews.
FMCSA processes registration
Anywhere from same-day to several weeks depending on the application. Approved carriers move to A (Active).
FMCSA publishes to data portal
The next FMCSA dataset refresh exposes the new carrier on data.transportation.gov. Usually within 24 hours of approval.
DOT Lead Scout's nightly sync
Picks up the new carrier the next time the daily sync runs (midnight Eastern). They're in your platform.
List match runs
Your saved list criteria are evaluated. If the new carrier matches, they're added to the list.
You see them
On Engage+, next morning. On Scout, the following Monday. Refresh email arrives if you've enabled it.
Total time: 24-72 hours after FMCSA approval
On Engage+ this means a carrier registering Monday afternoon could show up in your list Wednesday morning. That's genuinely fast — the FMCSA data portal itself updates roughly daily, and we sync immediately after.
When Data Might Lag #
-
FMCSA data portal outages — if the
data.transportation.govendpoint is down, our nightly sync skips and retries. Status banner appears in the portal. - Sync running long — rarely, the nightly sync extends past midnight. New carriers visible by mid-morning at the latest.
- FMCSA propagation delay — FMCSA itself sometimes takes 1–3 days to publish a registration change to the public data portal. We can't sync data that hasn't been published yet.
