Are mobile home movers safe? A 2026 look at the federal safety record.

279 injuries and 20 fatalities across all reportable mobile home mover crashes in the FMCSA window.

• Driver OOS rate

  Out-of-Service rate: share of inspections where the driver was ordered off the road.

  MHM vs all carriers: Better than benchmark

• Crashes / million miles

  Reportable crashes normalised by vehicle miles travelled.

  MHM vs all carriers: Better than benchmark

• Unsafe Driving (BASIC)

  Average percentile on the Unsafe Driving BASIC; higher is worse. FMCSA intervention threshold is 65.

  MHM vs all carriers: In line with benchmark

• HOS Compliance (BASIC)

  Hours-of-Service Compliance percentile. Intervention threshold 65.

  MHM vs all carriers: Better than benchmark

• Vehicle Maintenance (BASIC)

  Physical condition of the vehicle — brakes, lights, tires. Intervention threshold 80.

  MHM vs all carriers: Worse than benchmark

• Driver Fitness (BASIC)

  Driver credentialing and medical. Intervention threshold 80.

  MHM vs all carriers: Worse than benchmark

• Controlled Substances (BASIC)

  Drug and alcohol violations. Intervention threshold 80.

  MHM vs all carriers: Better than benchmark

• Unsafe Driving

  99.7%

  of MHM carriers score in the safest quartile (0–25 percentile) on this BASIC.

  Industry average percentile

  0.9 / 100

  Above the 65th-percentile flag line

  0.0%

  In the riskiest quartile (75–100)

  0.0%

• Controlled Substances

  100.0%

  of MHM carriers score in the safest quartile (0–25 percentile) on this BASIC.

  Industry average percentile

  0.0 / 100

  Above the 80th-percentile flag line

  0.0%

  In the riskiest quartile (75–100)

  0.0%

• HOS Compliance

  100.0%

  of MHM carriers score in the safest quartile (0–25 percentile) on this BASIC.

  Industry average percentile

  0.2 / 100

  Above the 65th-percentile flag line

  0.0%

  In the riskiest quartile (75–100)

  0.0%

• Vehicle Maintenance

  98.2%

  of MHM carriers score in the safest quartile (0–25 percentile) on this BASIC.

  Industry average percentile

  3.6 / 100

  Above the 80th-percentile flag line

  0.0%

  In the riskiest quartile (75–100)

  0.0%

• Driver Fitness

  100.0%

  of MHM carriers score in the safest quartile (0–25 percentile) on this BASIC.

  Industry average percentile

  0.4 / 100

  Above the 80th-percentile flag line

  0.0%

  In the riskiest quartile (75–100)

  0.0%

Industry-wide, mobile home movers sit below every FMCSA intervention threshold in this snapshot — the typical carrier ranks in the bottom few percentiles on every BASIC. Crossing a threshold does not automatically trigger enforcement; FMCSA prioritises investigations by severity and capacity.

1. 1

   Ask for the carrier’s USDOT number

   Every interstate mobile home mover must have a U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) number. No USDOT number, no legitimate interstate move. Get it in writing on the quote — not over the phone.

2. 2

   Look the company up on FMCSA SAFER

   Run the USDOT number through FMCSA SAFER. You want an active operating status, accurate address and fleet size, and a visible record of inspections. A brand-new or dormant record is a reason to keep shopping.

3. 3

   Check the Driver Out-of-Service rate

   The mobile home mover industry averages a 9.8% Driver Out-of-Service rate, so use that as your baseline — anything materially above it is a yellow flag.

4. 4

   Verify insurance on file

   FMCSA requires active liability and cargo insurance for a carrier to operate. SAFER shows the filing status. If insurance is lapsed, the carrier is not legally authorised to move your home — walk away.

5. 5

   Read the crash history

   Open the carrier’s crash record on SAFER. One or two crashes over 24 months across a mid-sized fleet is not automatically disqualifying — context matters. Zero recent crashes on a carrier with a multi-hundred fleet is a good sign. Repeated fatal or injury crashes is a hard stop.

Methodology: composite score is a weighted blend of BASIC percentiles, Driver Out-of-Service rate, crashes per million miles, and safety rating. Only carriers with enough inspection history to compute every input are included — new carriers and those with zero inspections are excluded. Higher score means safer carrier.

51 carriers with move size data out of 10,916 total MHM carriers (0.5% coverage).

• Are mobile home movers regulated?+

  Yes. Any interstate mobile home mover operates under Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) jurisdiction and must hold a USDOT number. Intrastate moves add state-level rules that vary by state. The FMCSA SAFER system is the public record for every regulated carrier.

• What is a good safety rating for a mobile home mover?+

  FMCSA issues three ratings after a compliance review: Satisfactory, Conditional, and Unsatisfactory. Fewer than 2% of active carriers are audited each year, so most carry no rating at all rather than a failing one — absence of a rating is common and not a red flag on its own. More useful day-to-day signals are the Driver Out-of-Service (OOS) rate, which measures how often drivers are pulled off the road at inspection, and the carrier’s crashes per million vehicle miles.

• How do I check if a mobile home mover is licensed?+

  Ask for the carrier’s USDOT number, then look it up on FMCSA’s free SAFER tool at safer.fmcsa.dot.gov. A legitimate mobile home mover will show an active operating status, carrier details, and a record of roadside inspections and any reportable crashes. No USDOT number or an inactive status is a hard stop.

• What is a DOT number and why does it matter for a mobile home move?+

  A USDOT number is the unique federal identifier FMCSA assigns to any carrier operating commercial vehicles across state lines. It is the key to the public safety record — inspections, violations, crashes, insurance, and compliance status. Any mobile home mover quoting an interstate job without a USDOT number is operating outside federal oversight and should be avoided.

• What is an Out-of-Service (OOS) rate and what counts as high?+

  When an FMCSA roadside inspector finds a violation serious enough to keep the driver or vehicle off the road until it is fixed, the inspection is recorded as Out-of-Service. The OOS rate is the share of a carrier’s inspections that end this way. The national driver OOS rate for all carriers sits around the low single digits. Mobile home movers generally run higher, and a double-digit driver OOS rate is worth a second conversation with the carrier.

• What is a BASIC and how do I read the percentile?+

  BASIC stands for Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category — FMCSA’s five public safety metrics: Unsafe Driving, Hours of Service (HOS) Compliance, Vehicle Maintenance, Driver Fitness, and Controlled Substances & Alcohol. Each carrier is ranked on a 0–100 percentile against its peers; higher means worse. FMCSA flags a carrier for intervention once it crosses 65 on Unsafe Driving and HOS Compliance, or 80 on the other three BASICs.

• How often is this data updated?+

  This page is rebuilt daily from the FMCSA Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) snapshot. Individual carrier records on FMCSA SAFER refresh on a weekly cadence as new inspections and crashes are filed. The aggregate 24-month window rolls forward with each refresh.

• Where does this safety data come from?+

  All figures are derived from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) public Safety Measurement System and MCMIS snapshots. Mobile home mover carriers are isolated using FMCSA cargo-carried classifications and cross-referenced against the active household goods mover registry. No data is estimated — every number on this page traces back to a federal record.