Carrier profile · USDOT 48104 · MC-162035 · Updated Jul 13, 2026

Merchants Transport of Hickory LLC

274 power unitsavg 4.1 yrMulti-region · 9 statesHICKORY, NC88/100
CARRIER ACTIVEMC-162035 ACTIVERATED SATISFACTORY
Verified linksmdi.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 4.3%24-mo cumulative
050%nat'l 22.26%
Driver OOS 0.1%24-mo cumulative
030%nat'l 6.67%

Every inspection in the window pooled — 347 vehicle and 724 driver inspections over 24 months.

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

6.7% · latest 6-mo window▼ Falling

Share of vehicle-level roadside inspections in each trailing six-month window that resulted in a vehicle out-of-service order. Trending down 8.9 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

715 inspections in the charted months · busiest month Oct '25 · 53

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
≈1.3 / unit·yr
thin signalabundant signal
Within the expected band for a 274-unit fleet — FMCSA has inspected this carrier often enough that the out-of-service and violation signals above are statistically trustworthy.
Registered power units
274
Inspections · 24 mo
724
Annualized
≈362 / yr
Coverage
≈1.3 inspections / unit · yr

BASIC categories· CSA SMS · Aug 2026

43%
Unsafe Driving
Vektor peer est.
21%
Hours-of-Service
Vektor peer est.
Driver Fitness
0violations
clean · per-BASIC
Controlled Substances
0violations
clean · per-BASIC
7%
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.

ELD & hours-of-service

No hours-of-service or ELD violations on record across 1,171 inspections — a clean logging history.

Crash history· 285 total · 19 in 24 mo

285
Total crashes
19
In last 24 mo
9
Fatal
124
Injury
YearCrashesFatalInjuryTow
20267026
20257027
2024130313
2023143514
20226016
20219038
20204014
2019120711
20189029
20178068
20167127
20159028
2014140814
20138028
20129149
2011151614
2010150513
2009130613
2008101710
2007161916
20069049
20058048
20049049
20036036
20027017
20015025
20005144
19994034
19985035
19973023
19963013
19956035
19949067
19931011
DateStateFatalitiesInjuriesTow-away
May 11, 2026GA00Yes
May 8, 2026NC01Yes
Apr 10, 2026GA01No
Feb 28, 2026NC00Yes
Feb 3, 2026NC00Yes
Jan 22, 2026WV00Yes
Jan 3, 2026NC00Yes
Oct 26, 2025FL00Yes
Jul 9, 2025WV01Yes
Jun 25, 2025TN00Yes
Mar 19, 2025NC00Yes
Mar 13, 2025SC00Yes
Feb 20, 2025NC01Yes
Feb 15, 2025WV00Yes
Dec 28, 2024VA00Yes
Dec 9, 2024NC00Yes
Dec 7, 2024SC00Yes
Nov 29, 2024PA00Yes
Sep 4, 2024GA01Yes
Jul 1, 2024GA00Yes
May 7, 2024NC00Yes
May 3, 2024MD00Yes
Apr 11, 2024GA00Yes
Apr 3, 2024WV01Yes
Mar 13, 2024SC00Yes