Carrier profile · USDOT 3758659 · MC-1337163 · Updated Jun 21, 2026

ESTER CARGO INC

245 power unitsavg 5.2 yrNational · 45 statesNAPERVILLE, IL74/100
CARRIER ACTIVEMC-1337163 ACTIVEHAZMAT
Verified linksestercargo.comFMCSA 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 35.2%24-mo cumulative
050%nat'l 22.26%
Driver OOS 3.9%24-mo cumulative
030%nat'l 6.67%

Every inspection in the window pooled — 91 vehicle and 233 driver inspections over 24 months.

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

45.0% · 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 5.3 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

226 inspections in the charted months · busiest month Dec '25 · 17

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.

Expected band
Under-inspected
Expected
Well-monitored
Heavily inspected
≈0.5 / unit·yr
thin signalabundant signal
Roadside-inspection volume is about what you'd expect for a 245-unit fleet — enough signal to read the safety record, though not a heavy sample.
Registered power units
245
Inspections · 24 mo
233
Annualized
≈117 / yr
Coverage
≈0.5 inspections / unit · yr

BASIC categories· CSA SMS · Aug 2026

98%
Unsafe Driving
Vektor peer est.
61%
Hours-of-Service
Vektor peer est.
28%
Driver Fitness
Vektor peer est.
12%
Controlled Substances
Vektor peer est.
81%
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 Driving148 · 0 OOS
  • 393.75 Tires (defective / underinflated / worn)Vehicle Maintenance59 · 40 OOS
  • 393.9 Inoperative required lampsVehicle Maintenance26 · 7 OOS
  • 393.45 Brake tubing / hose defectsVehicle Maintenance22 · 4 OOS
  • 395.24 ELD — record edits / dataHOS Compliance12 · 0 OOS
  • 393.95 Emergency equipment (extinguisher, triangles)Vehicle Maintenance12 · 0 OOS
  • 395.30 ELD — use / data transferHOS Compliance12 · 0 OOS
  • 395.8 Record of duty status (log / ELD) not current or missingHOS Compliance8 · 2 OOS
  • 393.47 Brake actuators / linings / componentsVehicle Maintenance8 · 2 OOS
  • 396.17 Periodic (annual) inspectionVehicle Maintenance7 · 0 OOS

ELD & hours-of-service

38 hours-of-service / ELD violations on record · most recent May 6, 2026. FMCSA does not publish the ELD device brand; these are the carrier's logging-compliance signals.

28ELD device issues
1No log / no ELD
5False logs
1Drove over hours

Trending worse — 64% of ELD violations are in the last 24 months. Falsified-log violations are a serious integrity flag.

Crash history· 39 total · 28 in 24 mo

39
Total crashes
28
In last 24 mo
2
Fatal
13
Injury
YearCrashesFatalInjuryTow
20268036
2025131513
2024131413
20234004
20221011
DateStateFatalitiesInjuriesTow-away
Jun 23, 2026VA00Yes
May 11, 2026MA00Yes
Apr 28, 2026MN01Yes
Mar 22, 2026TX00Yes
Feb 9, 2026FL01No
Jan 31, 2026SC00Yes
Jan 24, 2026KS01No
Jan 6, 2026GA00Yes
Dec 14, 2025IN00Yes
Nov 13, 2025OH01Yes
Nov 4, 2025TN00Yes
Jul 17, 2025GA10Yes
Jun 27, 2025TN00Yes
Jun 18, 2025TN00Yes
Jun 11, 2025AL01Yes
May 28, 2025PA00Yes
Apr 27, 2025VA01Yes
Feb 11, 2025KY00Yes
Jan 31, 2025WV00Yes
Jan 24, 2025TN01Yes
Jan 11, 2025UT01Yes
Nov 8, 2024GA00Yes
Oct 26, 2024OR01Yes
Oct 12, 2024WV02Yes
Oct 10, 2024IL00Yes