Carrier profile · USDOT 1546562 · MC-574860 · Updated Jun 13, 2026

EMPIRE FREIGHT SYSTEM INC

15 power unitsavg 8.9 yrNational · 18 statesPALMDALE, CA100/100
CARRIER ACTIVEMC-574860 ACTIVERATED SATISFACTORY
Verified linksFMCSA SAFER

Safety

Roadside out-of-service rates versus the national benchmark, inspection and crash trends, decoded violation themes, and ELD / hours-of-service integrity — the full safety picture behind the verdict.

Out-of-service rate· 24-mo cumulative · vs national

Vehicle OOS 21.1%24-mo cumulative
050%nat'l 22.26%
Driver OOS 1.4%24-mo cumulative
030%nat'l 6.67%

Every inspection in the window pooled — 52 vehicle and 74 driver inspections over 24 months.

Vehicle OOS rate· vehicle OOS · vehicle-level inspections · 6-month trailing

16.7% · latest 6-mo window▲ Rising

Share of vehicle-level roadside inspections in each trailing six-month window that resulted in a vehicle out-of-service order. Trending up 8.3 pts across the window. The national vehicle benchmark uses the same metric and is shown on the chart.

Roadside inspection history· 24 charted calendar months · vehicle / driver level · any-OOS overlay

69 inspections in the charted months · busiest month Mar '26 · 7

Vehicle-levelDriver-levelAny OOS

Monthly FMCSA roadside inspections across the 24 charted calendar months. Bars show level-qualified vehicle and driver populations; one inspection can qualify for both. The line shows inspections with any out-of-service result.

Inspection coverage· expected vs observed · the fraud signal

Inspection coverage

How heavily FMCSA inspects this fleet for its size — it tells you how much to trust the safety signals above. Thin coverage on a young authority is a fraud signal nobody else surfaces.

Heavily inspected
Under-inspected
Expected
Well-monitored
Heavily inspected
≈2.6 / unit·yr
thin signalabundant signal
Among the more heavily-inspected carriers for its size — abundant roadside signal. Coverage isn't the question here; the out-of-service and crash record is.
Registered power units
15
Inspections · 24 mo
77
Annualized
≈39 / yr
Coverage
≈2.6 inspections / unit · yr

BASIC categories· CSA SMS · Aug 2026

82%
Unsafe Driving
Vektor peer est.
50%
Hours-of-Service
Vektor peer est.
30%
Driver Fitness
Vektor peer est.
Controlled Substances
0violations
clean · per-BASIC
67%
Vehicle Maintenance
Vektor peer est.

Percentile = standing among same-exposure peers (higher = worse). FMCSA publishes percentiles for only some carriers (shown official); elsewhere we show a Vektor peer-percentile estimate, or the absolute SMS measure when there are too few inspections to rank.

Violation themes· decoded · grouped by BASIC

What this carrier actually gets cited for — FMCSA violation codes decoded into plain English, ranked by frequency.

  • 392.2 State/local traffic law violation (speeding, etc.)Unsafe Driving44 · 0 OOS
  • 393.9 Inoperative required lampsVehicle Maintenance18 · 1 OOS
  • 393.75 Tires (defective / underinflated / worn)Vehicle Maintenance17 · 13 OOS
  • 393.47 Brake actuators / linings / componentsVehicle Maintenance13 · 2 OOS
  • 396.17 Periodic (annual) inspectionVehicle Maintenance10 · 0 OOS
  • 395.24 ELD — record edits / dataHOS Compliance9 · 0 OOS
  • 393.55 Antilock brake system (ABS)Vehicle Maintenance8 · 0 OOS
  • 396.3 Inspection / repair / maintenance not performedVehicle Maintenance8 · 4 OOS
  • 393.45 Brake tubing / hose defectsVehicle Maintenance8 · 1 OOS
  • 395.8 Record of duty status (log / ELD) not current or missingHOS Compliance7 · 0 OOS

ELD & hours-of-service

27 hours-of-service / ELD violations on record · most recent May 1, 2026. FMCSA does not publish the ELD device brand; these are the carrier's logging-compliance signals.

15ELD device issues
0No log / no ELD
7False logs
2Drove over hours

Trending worse — 73% of ELD violations are in the last 24 months. Falsified-log violations are a serious integrity flag.

Crash history· 13 total · 1 in 24 mo

13
Total crashes
1
In last 24 mo
0
Fatal
2
Injury
YearCrashesFatalInjuryTow
20251001
20241001
20231001
20223003
20214024
20201001
20191001
20181001
DateStateFatalitiesInjuriesTow-away
Mar 20, 2025CA00Yes
Apr 2, 2024OH00Yes
Jul 2, 2023AZ00Yes
Dec 17, 2022CA00Yes
May 16, 2022AZ00Yes
Mar 26, 2022AZ00Yes
Jul 30, 2021CA02Yes
Jul 9, 2021CA00Yes
Jun 19, 2021LA02Yes
May 27, 2021CA00Yes
Jul 4, 2020MO00Yes
Apr 14, 2019IL00Yes
Dec 18, 2018NM00Yes