Carrier profile · USDOT 2155076 · MC-749207 · Updated Jun 13, 2026

GAINES EXPRESS LLC

10 power unitsavg 6.6 yrRegional · 4 statesHICKORY, NC86/100
CARRIER ACTIVEMC-749207 ACTIVERATED SATISFACTORYHAZMAT
Verified linksgainesexpress.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 60.0%24-mo cumulative
050%nat'l 22.26%
Driver OOS 5.6%24-mo cumulative
030%nat'l 6.67%

Every inspection in the window pooled — 10 vehicle and 18 driver inspections over 24 months.

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

75.0% · 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 11.9 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

14 inspections in the charted months · busiest month Sep '24 · 4

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.

Well-monitored
Under-inspected
Expected
Well-monitored
Heavily inspected
≈0.9 / unit·yr
thin signalabundant signal
Within the expected band for a 10-unit fleet — FMCSA has inspected this carrier often enough that the out-of-service and violation signals above are statistically trustworthy.
Registered power units
10
Inspections · 24 mo
18
Annualized
≈9 / yr
Coverage
≈0.9 inspections / unit · yr

BASIC categories· CSA SMS · Aug 2026

34%
Unsafe Driving
Vektor peer est.
94%
Hours-of-Service
Vektor peer est.
44%
Driver Fitness
Vektor peer est.
Controlled Substances
0violations
clean · per-BASIC
70%
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 Driving24 · 0 OOS
  • 393.75 Tires (defective / underinflated / worn)Vehicle Maintenance15 · 13 OOS
  • 395.3 Driving beyond hours-of-service limitsHOS Compliance10 · 0 OOS
  • 395.22 ELD — provider/registration/malfunctionHOS Compliance7 · 0 OOS
  • 393.47 Brake actuators / linings / componentsVehicle Maintenance7 · 0 OOS
  • 395.8 Record of duty status (log / ELD) not current or missingHOS Compliance5 · 3 OOS
  • 392.16 Failure to use seat beltUnsafe Driving5 · 0 OOS
  • 396.3 Inspection / repair / maintenance not performedVehicle Maintenance5 · 4 OOS
  • 393.9 Inoperative required lampsVehicle Maintenance4 · 0 OOS
  • 393.53 Automatic brake adjusters / indicatorsVehicle Maintenance4 · 0 OOS

ELD & hours-of-service

26 hours-of-service / ELD violations on record · most recent Apr 24, 2026. FMCSA does not publish the ELD device brand; these are the carrier's logging-compliance signals.

8ELD device issues
0No log / no ELD
5False logs
10Drove over hours

2 ELD violations in the last 24 months. Falsified-log violations are a serious integrity flag.

Crash history· 48 total · 0 in 24 mo

48
Total crashes
0
In last 24 mo
1
Fatal
19
Injury
YearCrashesFatalInjuryTow
20243033
20232012
20222002
20215134
20206025
20195025
20185025
20176026
20163013
20157026
20143013
20121001
DateStateFatalitiesInjuriesTow-away
May 15, 2024NC01Yes
Feb 28, 2024WV01Yes
Jan 5, 2024KY01Yes
Aug 1, 2023NC02Yes
Jan 2, 2023FL00Yes
May 24, 2022NC00Yes
May 18, 2022GA00Yes
Nov 18, 2021WV00Yes
Oct 19, 2021FL02Yes
Aug 26, 2021VA00Yes
Jul 5, 2021NJ02No
Jun 28, 2021FL11Yes
Nov 13, 2020NC01No
Oct 12, 2020VA00Yes
Aug 20, 2020VA00Yes
Jun 5, 2020VA00Yes
Mar 27, 2020VA00Yes
Jan 24, 2020NY01Yes
Sep 17, 2019NJ01Yes
Sep 3, 2019TN01Yes
Aug 26, 2019MD00Yes
Aug 26, 2019MD00Yes
Jan 31, 2019PA00Yes
Nov 23, 2018NY02Yes
Oct 26, 2018VA00Yes