Rules for Calling, Texting and Emailing New Trucking Companies

TCPA, Do Not Call, texting consent, CAN-SPAM, Florida and Oklahoma laws and FMCSA scam warnings, applied to sales outreach to new motor carriers.

Published Oct 29, 2026 · 42 min read · by Lead Mining Company

This is not legal advice. It is a working summary of the federal and state rules that apply when a business contacts new motor carriers to sell them something. It was written by a data company and checked against the primary sources listed at the end of the page. Telemarketing law changes, penalties are counted per call or per message, and your facts matter. Before you run a calling or texting program of any size, have a lawyer who practices telemarketing law review your scripts, your tools and your process.

When a carrier registers with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, its name, officer, address, phone number and email address end up in a public federal dataset. Insurance agents, factoring companies, dispatch services, ELD vendors, dealers and compliance services use that data to reach out. The FMCSA tells carriers to expect it. Its fraud alerts page says the agency publicly displays motor carrier contact information under its open data policy, so private businesses may contact them, and that the government does not endorse and generally does not require those vendors.

That leaves every salesperson working a new-carrier list with two separate questions. The first is whether you may hold and use the data. For the FMCSA Company Census File the answer is yes. It is a federal open dataset, and anyone can download it free from data.transportation.gov. The second question is how you may contact the people in it. A different body of law answers that one: the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the FCC's rules, the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule, CAN-SPAM, the FTC's impersonation rule, and state laws in Florida, Oklahoma, Washington, Texas and elsewhere. This guide covers the second question, rule by rule, and quotes the regulators where their exact words matter.

The other trucking guides on this blog link here as their reference for outreach rules: getting a list of new trucking companies, selling commercial truck insurance, finding carriers to dispatch, winning factoring clients, finding compliance clients and truck financing leads. If you sell to short-term rental owners instead, the STR calling guide covers that market.

Who is on a new-carrier list

Telemarketing rules turn on who answers the phone, so start with the file. As of October 28, 2026, 178,190 active motor carriers in the FMCSA Company Census File had a census add date between October 1, 2025 and October 28, 2026. That add date is what our files call "Registered," and it is the working definition of a new trucking company in this guide. The census file shows when a carrier was added. It does not show whether the carrier has insurance on file, when its operating authority was granted, or any inspection or crash history. Of the 178,190, 71,307 have an MC, MX or FF docket number, and a docket number is not proof that the authority is active. When this guide says "new carrier," it means newly added to the census, nothing more.

Carriers registered October 1, 2025 to October 28, 2026 (FMCSA Company Census File, as of October 28, 2026)
Field	Carriers	Share of 178,190
Has a phone number	177,751	99.75%
Has an email address	177,954	99.87%
Has both	177,517	99.62%
Has a number in the separate "Cell phone" column	29,448	16.53%
One power unit or none	122,643	68.83%
Two to five power units	46,926	26.33%
Six to 20 power units	7,079	3.97%
21 or more power units	1,542	0.87%
Authorized for hire	130,839	73.43%
Interstate operation	102,308	57.42%

Three facts in that table drive everything below.

Most new carriers are very small. 122,643 plus 46,926 is 169,569 carriers, or 95.16% of the file, running five power units or fewer. More than two-thirds run one truck or none. The "Company officer" on these records is usually the owner, and many of the phone numbers are personal cell phones.
The file does not tell you what kind of line the main number is. Only 16.53% of carriers filled in the separate cell phone field. That does not make the other numbers landlines. A one-truck owner who typed a cell number into the main "Phone" box looks the same in the file as a company with a desk phone.
Almost every row has an email address. 177,954 of 178,190 do. Email is the channel with the lightest rules, which makes it the natural first touch.

The new-carrier flow is steady. The census added 10,257 carriers in November 2025 at the low end and 16,414 in March 2026 at the high end, and 11,218 in the 30 days to October 28, 2026. That is 11,218 / 30 = about 374 a day nationwide. The same new carrier may hear from many sellers in its first weeks. Make sure your call is the one that follows the rules.

The rules by channel

Here is the whole picture in one table. Each row is explained in its own section below.

Which rules apply to each way of contacting a new carrier
Channel	Main rules	What they require	Exposure
Live sales call, dialed by hand	FCC do-not-call rules, 47 CFR 64.1200(c) and (d); state laws	Scrub the National Do Not Call Registry and state lists; keep an internal do-not-call list and a written policy; call between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. local time (8 p.m. in Florida and Oklahoma); say who you are	Private suit after more than one call in 12 months: up to $500 per violation, up to three times that if willful or knowing
Call to a cell phone using an autodialer, a prerecorded voice, an artificial voice or an AI voice	47 U.S.C. 227(b); 47 CFR 64.1200(a)	Prior express written consent for sales calls, whether or not you call it business-to-business	$500 per call, up to $1,500 if willful or knowing
Sales text message	Same federal rules as calls; Florida Telephone Solicitation Act; Washington RCW 19.190.060	Consent for automated texts; registry scrub; honor STOP and any other reasonable opt-out	$500 per message under federal and Florida law; Washington treats a violation as an unfair or deceptive act
Email	CAN-SPAM Act	Accurate headers and subject line, ad disclosure, a postal address, a working opt-out honored within 10 business days	Penalties of up to $53,088 per email
Postal mail	FTC Government and Business Impersonation Rule; general deceptive-practice law	Never look like a government notice or imply a government connection	FTC enforcement

Mail is the lowest-risk channel, email is next, live hand-dialed calls need preparation, and anything automated on a phone needs consent you almost certainly do not have for a cold list.

Autodialers, recorded voices and AI voices on cell phones

The strictest rule in the TCPA does not care whether you think the call is business-to-business. Section 227(b)(1)(A)(iii) of the statute bars any call, other than an emergency call or one made with the called party's prior express consent, that uses an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice and goes to a number assigned to a cellular telephone service. The FCC's rule at 47 CFR 64.1200(a)(2) raises the bar for sales calls: a telemarketing call of that kind to a cell phone needs the called party's prior express written consent. A separate rule, 64.1200(a)(3), requires the same written consent for an artificial or prerecorded sales message to a residential line.

The rule follows the number, not the buyer. A carrier that runs one truck from a personal cell phone is a business, and you may be selling it a business product, but the phone is still a cellular line. Section 227(b) has no business-to-business exemption.

Prior express written consent has a specific meaning. Under 64.1200(f)(9) it is an agreement in writing, bearing the signature of the person called, that clearly authorizes the seller to deliver telemarketing calls using an autodialer or an artificial or prerecorded voice. It must include a clear and conspicuous disclosure, and it must tell the person that signing is not a condition of buying anything. An FMCSA registration is not consent. Neither is a phone number painted on a truck door, posted on a website or printed in a public dataset. No list built from public records can carry consent, ours included.

What Facebook v. Duguid changed about autodialers

For years, courts split over what counts as an "automatic telephone dialing system." The statute, at 47 U.S.C. 227(a)(1), defines it as equipment with the capacity to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator, and to dial those numbers. On April 1, 2021, in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, the Supreme Court read that definition narrowly. Its holding: "a necessary feature of an autodialer under §227(a)(1)(A) is the capacity to use a random or sequential number generator to either store or produce phone numbers to be called." The Court said the broader reading would "capture virtually all modern cell phones." Eight justices joined the opinion, and Justice Alito concurred in the judgment.

Duguid made many list-based dialers and texting platforms harder to sue under the autodialer part of the federal statute. It did not make cold calling or cold texting of new carriers safe, for four reasons:

It is about equipment only. The rule on artificial and prerecorded voices does not depend on how the number was dialed. A recorded message played into a call you dialed by hand is still a prerecorded message.
The do-not-call rules do not depend on equipment at all. The registry and internal-list rules in 64.1200(c) and (d) apply to telephone solicitations however they are placed, including a call made by a person pressing every digit.
State laws use their own definitions. Oklahoma's law covers "an automated system for the selection or dialing of telephone numbers." Florida's law used the same "or" wording until its 2023 amendment. Neither test mentions a random or sequential number generator.
Whether a given platform passes the Court's test is a question of fact. A lawsuit is an expensive place to answer it. Do not build a sales process on the argument that your dialer is not an autodialer.

AI voices count as artificial voices

On February 2, 2024, the FCC adopted a Declaratory Ruling, FCC 24-17, released February 8, that settles a question many sales teams now ask about AI voice agents. The Commission wrote: "we confirm that the TCPA's restrictions on the use of 'artificial or prerecorded voice' encompass current AI technologies that generate human voices." As a result, the ruling says, calls that use these technologies need the prior express consent of the called party unless there is an emergency purpose or an exemption. For sales calls to cell phones and residential lines, the written-consent rule above applies.

In practice, an AI agent that calls new carriers, introduces itself and pitches insurance, factoring or dispatch is making artificial-voice calls. So is a cloned copy of your best salesperson's voice. So is a voicemail drop built from text-to-speech. Our terms forbid using any of these with our data unless you separately hold the prior express written consent that federal and state law require, and they bar robocall, voice-broadcast and ringless-voicemail campaigns outright.

Calling hours, caller ID and your internal do-not-call list

A live sales call dialed by a person is the call most new-carrier sellers make. It does not need prior consent under the federal rules, but it comes with conditions.

Calling hours

Under 64.1200(c)(1), no one may make a telephone solicitation to a residential telephone subscriber before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., local time at the called party's location. Paragraph (e) applies the rule to wireless numbers. Florida and Oklahoma are stricter. Both limit commercial solicitation calls to between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. in the called person's time zone, and both cap calls at three in 24 hours on the same subject. Our terms adopt the stricter version everywhere: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the recipient's local time, and no more than three calls or texts in 24 hours on the same subject.

Time zones catch out national teams. The census file gives a physical address and a mailing address, and the phone's area code may belong to a different state if the owner moved. Set the calling window from the physical address, and when the area code points to a later or earlier zone, use the narrower window of the two. A dispatcher in Atlanta who calls a Fresno carrier at 9:30 a.m. Eastern is calling at 6:30 a.m. Pacific.

Saying who you are

Under 64.1200(d)(4), a person making a sales call must give the called party the name of the individual caller, the name of the person or entity on whose behalf the call is made, and a telephone number or address where that person or entity can be contacted. The statute, at 47 U.S.C. 227(e)(1), separately makes it unlawful to cause a caller ID service to knowingly transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information with intent to defraud, cause harm or wrongfully obtain anything of value. Florida's s. 501.616(7) and Oklahoma's 15 O.S. 775C.4(B) go further. A seller may not intentionally block its name or number, or deliberately display a different number to hide who is calling. Oklahoma also requires the number shown to be able to take calls and to connect the person who calls it back to the seller.

The internal do-not-call list and the written policy

Paragraph (d) of 64.1200 says no one may make a telemarketing call to a residential telephone subscriber unless it has set up procedures for keeping a list of people who ask not to be called. Paragraph (e) extends this to wireless numbers, including text messages. The minimum standards include:

A written policy, available on demand, for maintaining the do-not-call list (64.1200(d)(1)).
Training. Everyone who makes sales calls must be told the list exists and trained to use it.
Recording and honoring requests. When someone asks not to be called, record the request and add the number. Honor it within a reasonable time, not more than 10 business days from the request (64.1200(d)(3)).
Keeping requests for five years. A do-not-call request must be honored for 5 years from when it was made (64.1200(d)(6)).

A related rule covers consent you do hold. Under 64.1200(a)(10), a person may revoke prior express consent, including written consent, "by using any reasonable method to clearly express a desire not to receive further calls or text messages," and the revocation must be honored within a reasonable time not to exceed ten business days. Treat any plain request, such as "stop," "take me off your list" or "don't call me again," as a revocation, whether it comes on a call, by text or in an email reply.

A written policy does not need to be long. A one-page version for a small agency or dispatch service can cover:

Who owns the do-not-call list and where it lives (one list for every channel and every rep).
How a request is captured on a call, in a text reply, in an email reply and by mail.
The deadline: same day in practice, never later than 10 business days.
How long entries stay on the list: at least five years, and in practice permanently.
How the list is applied: before every call session and every list import, including fresh files from any data vendor.
Registry scrub schedule: registry data never more than 31 days old.
Training: every new rep reads the policy before the first call, and the date is logged.
Where call, text, email and scrub records are kept, and for how long.

The National Do Not Call Registry and owner-operators

Two federal agencies enforce rules tied to the same registry, and they treat business calls differently. Knowing both is the key to calling small carriers lawfully.

The FCC rule protects residential subscribers, and that includes cell phones

Under 64.1200(c)(2), no one may make a telephone solicitation to "a residential telephone subscriber who has registered his or her telephone number on the national do-not-call registry." Paragraph (e) applies the rule to wireless numbers to the extent the FCC described in its 2003 order. In that order, FCC 03-153, the Commission explained how it treats cell phones on the registry:

"we will presume wireless subscribers who ask to be put on the national do-not-call list to be 'residential subscribers.' Such a presumption, however, may require a complaining wireless subscriber to provide further proof of the validity of that presumption should we need to take enforcement action." (FCC 03-153, paragraph 36)

Two years later, in its Second Order on Reconsideration (FCC 05-28), the FCC declined to add an express exemption for business numbers. It explained that the registry already applies to calls to residential subscribers and does not bar calls to businesses. Then it addressed the gray area:

"To the extent that some business numbers have been inadvertently registered on the national registry, calls made to such numbers will not be considered violations of our rules. We also decline to exempt from the do-not-call rules those calls made to 'home-based businesses'; rather, we will review such calls as they are brought to our attention to determine whether or not the call was made to a residential subscriber." (FCC 05-28, paragraph 14)

In the next paragraph the FCC named one of the professions that sells to new carriers: "a real estate agent, insurance agent, or newspaper is precluded from calling consumers registered on the national do-not-call list, unless the calls would fall within one of the specific exemptions provided in the statute and rules."

Put those three statements next to the census file. A one-truck carrier run from the owner's personal cell phone is a business, but the phone is presumed residential if the owner registered it, and the FCC decides home-based cases on their facts. A number that is clearly a company line and landed on the registry by mistake is not protected. The file cannot tell you which is which. The only safe process is to scrub every number you plan to call, including the 83.47% of rows without a separate cell number.

The FTC rule exempts most business calls

The FTC enforces the registry through the Telemarketing Sales Rule, and that rule has a business-to-business exemption, covered in its own section below. The FTC's guidance for telemarketers says, "Most phone calls to a business made with the intent to solicit sales from that business are exempt." Do not stop reading there. The FTC's exemption is an exemption from the FTC's rule. It does not touch the FCC's rule above, which has no general business exemption and which private plaintiffs can enforce in court.

Two agencies, one registry
	FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule	FCC rules under the TCPA
Who is protected	Consumers; most calls to businesses are exempt	Residential telephone subscribers; registered cell phones presumed residential
Business-to-business calls	Exempt under 16 CFR 310.6(b)(7), with limits	No general exemption; home-based businesses reviewed case by case
Registry data age	Sync with the registry at least every 31 days	Safe harbor needs registry data no more than 31 days old
Who enforces	The FTC	The FCC, state attorneys general and private plaintiffs
Money at stake	Civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation	Up to $500 per violation in a private suit, up to three times that if willful or knowing

How to get registry access and what it costs

Registry access is sold to the seller, not to the list. The FTC's guidance says each seller must have its own subscription and Subscription Account Number (SAN), even when a telemarketer or call center makes the calls, and that a telemarketer must make sure its seller-clients have paid for access before calling for them. Data for up to five area codes is free. Beginning October 1, 2026, the annual fee is $85 per area code after the first five, up to a maximum of $23,425 for the whole country. If you are required to use the registry, you must sync your lists with it at least every 31 days.

Some sample costs, using those published fees:

A local agency calling in five area codes or fewer pays nothing for registry data.
A regional factoring company calling in 20 area codes pays (20 − 5) × $85 = $1,275 a year.
A national dispatch service buying every area code pays the $23,425 cap.

The FCC's safe harbor for a call made by mistake to a registered number has several conditions. One of them, in 64.1200(c)(2)(i)(D), is that you use a version of the registry obtained from its administrator no more than 31 days before the call. A file you scrubbed in August does not protect calls in October.

Some states also keep their own lists. Florida's statute, s. 501.059, bars unsolicited telephonic sales calls to numbers on the state's "no sales solicitation calls" list, using the then-current quarterly listing published by the state.

The private right of action

Section 227(c)(5) of the statute lets a person who received "more than one telephone call within any 12-month period by or on behalf of the same entity" in violation of the do-not-call rules sue for actual losses or up to $500 per violation. A court may raise the award to three times that if the violation was willful or knowing. There is a defense: the seller can show it "established and implemented, with due care, reasonable practices and procedures" to prevent such calls. That defense is the reason for the written policy, the training log, the 31-day scrub and the records. They are your evidence.

Texting new carriers

Texting is easy to get wrong. A text feels less intrusive than a call, and the tools make it easy to send hundreds at once. The rules treat it at least as seriously as a call.

Texts are covered by the same federal rules

The FCC's rules name text messages directly. Paragraph (e) of 64.1200 applies the do-not-call rules to "telephone solicitations or telemarketing calls or text messages to wireless telephone numbers." The revocation rule in (a)(10) speaks of "further calls or text messages." A marketing text to a registered cell phone needs the same scrub as a call. A marketing text sent with an autodialer needs prior express written consent. The courts treat the two together: the Eleventh Circuit opinion described below speaks of "telemarketing and advertising robocalls and robotexts."

After Duguid, a texting platform that sends to a stored list may fall outside the federal autodialer definition. That does not help with the registry, with internal opt-outs, or with state laws that define automated systems more broadly. It also does not help with Florida, where a text message is itself a "telephonic sales call."

In 2023 the FCC adopted a rule, Part III.D of its 2023 order, that would have changed what written consent means for sales calls and texts. As the Eleventh Circuit described it, a consumer could not consent to a telemarketing or advertising robocall unless he consented to calls from "only one entity at a time" and only to calls whose subject matter was "logically and topically associated with the interaction that prompted the consent." The court described the lead-generation industry as the one most affected.

On January 24, 2025, in Insurance Marketing Coalition Ltd. v. FCC, No. 24-10277, the Eleventh Circuit held that the FCC "exceeded its statutory authority under the TCPA because the 2023 Order's new consent restrictions impermissibly conflict with the ordinary statutory meaning of 'prior express consent.'" The court vacated Part III.D and remanded. The current text of 64.1200(f)(9) contains no one-seller or "logically and topically" language.

What this means for you: if you buy consent-based leads, for example from a web form where an owner-operator asked for insurance quotes, the federal definition is back to the older text. The consent still has to clearly authorize the seller to contact the person, and Florida and Oklahoma apply their own definitions. A census record has no consent of any kind, so the vacatur changes nothing for cold outreach from a registration list.

State texting rules

Florida treats "a telephone call, text message, or voicemail transmission" made to sell consumer goods or services as a telephonic sales call. Since 2023, a person who gets unwanted sales texts must first reply "STOP," and may sue only if the texts continue more than 15 days after that notice. Florida's statute also says a "signature" for consent includes checking a box or "responding affirmatively to receiving text messages."
Washington's RCW 19.190.060 says no person conducting business in the state may initiate or assist in sending an electronic commercial text message to a telephone number assigned to a Washington resident for cellular telephone or pager service. A violation is treated as an unfair or deceptive act under the state's Consumer Protection Act. The section itself, as published by the Legislature, contains no consent exception, and our terms require clear advance consent before any marketing text to a Washington number. As of October 28, 2026, 3,208 new carriers in our file were based in Washington, and 568 of them listed a separate cell number.
Texas brought text messages into its telephone solicitation registration law. The Secretary of State's registration FAQ says S.B. 140 of the 89th Legislature (2025) amended Chapter 302, and that a business sending texts with the consumer's prior consent does not have to file the registration statement.

A texting rule you can follow

For a cold list of new carriers, the workable rule is simple: no sales text until the carrier has asked for texts in writing. Get that consent by email reply, by a form on your website or on a call, and store it with the date, the number, the exact wording the person agreed to and how they agreed. Have counsel approve the consent wording, because the federal, Florida and Oklahoma definitions differ. Your first text should name your business, confirm why you are texting and say how to stop. Honor "stop," "unsubscribe," "no more texts" and any other plain request within the ten-business-day limit, and in practice the same day.

The Telemarketing Sales Rule and its business-to-business exemption

The FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule, 16 CFR Part 310, is the rule behind the registry's consumer protections, the FTC's calling restrictions and its bans on telemarketing fraud. Its exemption list, at 16 CFR 310.6(b)(7), covers "telephone calls between a telemarketer and any business to induce the purchase of goods or services or a charitable contribution by the business." Most calls to new carriers to sell insurance, factoring, dispatch, ELDs, trucks or compliance services fit that description.

The exemption has limits that matter here:

Misrepresentations are not exempt. The current text says the exemption does not apply to the requirements of 16 CFR 310.3(a)(2) and (a)(4). Section 310.3(a)(2) bans misrepresenting material information, including total costs, material restrictions, the central characteristics of what you sell, and "a seller's or telemarketer's affiliation with, or endorsement or sponsorship by, any person or government entity." Section 310.3(a)(4) bans "a false or misleading statement to induce any person to pay for goods or services." A business-to-business call that implies a link to the FMCSA, or misstates what a policy costs, is covered by the rule.
Some products are not exempt. Calls to induce the retail sale of nondurable office or cleaning supplies stay under the rule.
It is only the FTC's rule. The exemption does not touch the TCPA, the FCC's rules or any state law. A call can be exempt from the TSR and still violate the FCC's registry rule if it reaches an owner's registered personal cell.

The FTC's guidance says violators may be fined up to $53,088 per violation, and that each call may be a separate violation.

There is one more practical reason not to lean on the exemption. Whether a particular call is "to a business" depends on who answers. A census row for a carrier that registered last week may be a business on paper and a household in practice: one person, one phone, one truck, and a kitchen table for an office. That is exactly the situation the FCC's home-based business language addresses.

State laws that go further

Federal law sets the floor. Several states add consent rules, tighter calling hours, call limits, registration and their own private lawsuits. Every state below has new carriers in the census file. The counts are carriers registered October 1, 2025 to October 28, 2026, as of October 28, 2026.

State rules to know, with new-carrier counts
State	New carriers	With a separate cell number	Rules that matter
Florida	14,906	2,680 (17.98%)	Written consent for automated sales calls and texts; STOP notice for texts; 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; three calls in 24 hours; state do-not-call list; seller licensing
Oklahoma	2,076	365 (17.58%)	Written consent for automated "selection or dialing"; caller ID rules; 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; three calls in 24 hours
Washington	3,208	568 (17.71%)	Commercial texts to Washington cell numbers barred by RCW 19.190.060
Texas	20,972	3,828 (18.25%)	Telephone solicitation registration with the Secretary of State unless exempt; texts now included

Florida Telephone Solicitation Act and its 2023 amendment

Florida's mini-TCPA is s. 501.059 of the Florida Statutes. The core rule, in subsection (8)(a), says a person may not make or knowingly allow to be made an unsolicited telephonic sales call that involves "an automated system for the selection and dialing of telephone numbers or the playing of a recorded message when a connection is completed to a number called" without the called party's prior express written consent. A "telephonic sales call" includes "a telephone call, text message, or voicemail transmission." A called party may sue for actual damages or $500, whichever is greater, and a court may award up to three times that for a willful or knowing violation. There is a rebuttable presumption that a sales call to any Florida area code is made to a Florida resident or to someone in Florida at the time of the call.

The 2023 amendment, Chapter 2023-150, Laws of Florida, approved by the Governor on May 25, 2023, made four changes:

It changed "selection or dialing" to "selection and dialing," so the system must both select and dial numbers automatically.
It limited subsection (8)(a) to "unsolicited" telephonic sales calls.
It said a consent "signature" includes an act that shows express consent, such as checking a box or replying yes to receiving text messages.
It added the text-message notice rule. Before suing over sales texts, the called party must reply "STOP." The seller then has 15 days to stop, and a suit is allowed only if texts continue after that.

The amendment applies to suits filed on or after its effective date and to putative class actions not certified by then.

One definitional point matters for business sellers. The act defines "consumer" as an actual or prospective purchaser, lessee or recipient of "consumer goods or services," meaning property normally used for personal, family or household purposes and related services. Some business sellers argue that commercial truck insurance, factoring or an ELD subscription falls outside the act. That argument depends on the product and the facts, and owner-operators blur the line between household and business. Build your process to comply anyway.

Florida's separate telemarketing law, in the same chapter of the statutes, adds two rules in s. 501.616(6). A commercial telephone seller or salesperson may not make a commercial telephone solicitation call "before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m. local time in the called person's time zone," or make "more than three commercial telephone solicitation phone calls from any number to a person over a 24-hour period on the same subject matter or issue, regardless of the phone number used to make the call." That law's exemption list in s. 501.604 begins: "The provisions of this part, except ss. 501.608 and 501.616(6) and (7), do not apply to." In plain terms, even sellers who are otherwise exempt from that law, such as licensed insurance agents, are still bound by the hours, the three-call limit and the caller ID rules.

The same law requires licensing. Under s. 501.605, "Before doing business in this state, a commercial telephone seller" must "obtain a license from the department." The application needs a $1,500 licensing fee and a bond, letter of credit or certificate of deposit. The exemptions in s. 501.604 include any licensed insurance broker, agent, customer representative or solicitor, isolated transactions, sales completed at a later face-to-face meeting, and a narrow set of business-to-business sales, such as sales to a business that buys the goods to resell them. Whether your company needs a Florida license is a question for counsel. Do not assume a business-to-business exemption applies because your buyers are trucking companies.

Oklahoma Telephone Solicitation Act of 2022

Oklahoma's law, enacted as House Bill 3168 and codified at 15 O.S. 775C.1 to 775C.6, took effect November 1, 2022. It follows Florida's original model in several places:

Consent for automated calls. A person may not make or knowingly allow a commercial telephonic sales call that involves "an automated system for the selection or dialing of telephone numbers or the playing of a recorded message when a connection is completed to a number called" without the called party's prior express written consent. The enacted text says "or," not "and," so a system that only dials automatically may be enough.
Caller ID. The seller must transmit its originating number, and the name when its carrier makes that available. The number shown must take calls and connect to the seller. Altering the caller's voice to disguise identity in order to defraud or obtain personal information is unlawful.
Hours and frequency. No commercial telephone solicitation calls before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m. in the called person's time zone, and no more than three such calls in 24 hours on the same subject from any number.
Area codes. There is a rebuttable presumption that a call to any Oklahoma area code reaches an Oklahoma resident or someone in the state.
Exemptions. The act lists 26. They include any licensed insurance broker, agent, customer representative or solicitor "when soliciting within the scope of his or her license," and business-to-business sales only where the seller has operated at least three years under the same name with at least half its dollar volume from repeat sales to existing businesses, or where the buyer will resell the goods, use them as promotional items, or use them in recycling or manufacturing.
Damages. An aggrieved called party may sue for actual damages or $500, whichever is greater, and a court may raise the award to three times that for a willful or knowing violation.

As of October 28, 2026, 2,076 new carriers in our file were based in Oklahoma. At 133 registrations in the last 30 days, that is about four a day. That volume does not call for a dialer of any kind.

Texas registration and other states

Texas requires sellers covered by Chapter 302 of its Business and Commerce Code to file a telephone solicitation registration statement with the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State's FAQ lists a $200 filing fee and a $10,000 security deposit in favor of the state. A certificate lasts one year and can be renewed. The FAQ also says the Secretary of State does not decide who must register: "It is the seller's responsibility to determine whether the seller should register." Chapter 302 has exemptions. The FAQ also cites a 2025 federal lawsuit, Ecommerce Marketers Alliance v. Texas, and the state's stated position in it. With 20,972 new carriers, Texas has more new carriers than any other state in the file, so a Texas-heavy program should settle the registration question before the first call.

Other states have their own telemarketing statutes, registration rules and do-not-call lists. If one state is a large part of your plan, look up that state's law and have counsel confirm it. Our terms require you to hold every telemarketing registration, license or bond that applies to you.

Email and the CAN-SPAM Act

Email is the easiest channel to run lawfully, which is why it should be the first touch for most new-carrier programs. The CAN-SPAM Act does not require prior consent for commercial email. It sets rules for how the email is sent, and the FTC's compliance guide is clear that the rules apply to business mail: "The law makes no exception for business-to-business email."

The main requirements, from the FTC's guide:

Accurate header information. The From, To, Reply-To and routing information must be accurate and identify the business that sent the message.
A subject line that matches the message. "The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message."
Ad identification. "You must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement."
Your location. "Your message must include your valid physical postal address." That can be a street address, a post office box registered with the Postal Service, or a private mailbox registered under Postal Service rules.
A way to opt out. Tell recipients how to stop getting your email, with a reply address or a web link that works. The opt-out must work "for at least 30 days after you send your message."
Prompt opt-out handling. "You must honor a recipient's opt-out request within 10 business days." You may not charge a fee for opting out or ask for any personal information beyond an email address.
No selling opt-outs. Once someone opts out, you may not sell or transfer the address, except to a company you hired to help you comply.
Responsibility for vendors. You cannot contract away your legal responsibility, and both the company whose product is promoted and the company that sends the message may be held responsible.

The guide says each separate email in violation of the law is subject to penalties of up to $53,088.

Keep subject lines plain. A plain subject line names the product and the carrier: "Insurance quote for Rivera Hauling LLC" or "Factoring for new carriers in Georgia." Subject lines that cause trouble suggest urgency or authority the sender does not have: "Action required: USDOT 4xxxxxx," "Compliance notice," "Final notice." Those also cross into the impersonation problems below.

A sample first email for an insurance agency, which you should adapt and have reviewed:

Subject: Truck insurance quote for [Legal name]

Hi [Officer first name],

I'm [your name], a licensed commercial truck insurance agent with [agency legal name] in [city]. We're a private agency, not part of the FMCSA or any government office. I saw that [Legal name] registered with the FMCSA in [month], and I'd like to offer you a quote.

If you'd like a quote, reply with your power units, cargo and radius, and I'll send options within a day. If not, no problem.

[Name], [phone], [agency legal name]
[street address or registered PO box]
This is an advertisement. To stop getting email from us, reply "remove" or use this link: [opt-out link].

Two practical notes. First, CAN-SPAM allowing cold email does not mean your email provider allows it. Read your provider's terms before you import a list. Second, the census file's emails were typed by carriers at registration. Expect typos and abandoned addresses, and remove hard bounces after the first send.

Never make outreach look like it comes from the FMCSA

The FMCSA keeps a running list of scams that impersonate it, and its fraud alerts page reads like a catalog: fake audit requests, fake "compliance notices," lookalike SAFER pages, a bogus Motus portal, and sender domains such as fmcsacompliancee.info and saferwebmonitoringcenter.info. The page says the FMCSA "will not contact regulated entities through telemarketers or 'robo-call' automated solicitations," does not request a credit card number or charge a fee for its downloadable forms, and does not require Social Security numbers or USDOT PINs on its official forms. Carriers are told to report suspicious contacts to the FTC, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, their state attorney general and the FMCSA Contact Center.

Two federal rules turn that warning into law for legitimate sellers. The FTC's Government and Business Impersonation Rule, 16 CFR Part 461, in effect since 2024, says it is an unfair or deceptive act to "materially and falsely pose as, directly or by implication, a government entity or officer thereof," or to "materially misrepresent, directly or by implication, affiliation with, including endorsement or sponsorship by, a government entity or officer thereof." And as noted above, the Telemarketing Sales Rule's ban on misrepresenting "affiliation with, or endorsement or sponsorship by, any person or government entity" applies even to business-to-business calls.

Your outreach does not need to claim to be the FMCSA to have a problem. Implication is enough. Keep every touch clearly private:

Never use "FMCSA," "DOT," "USDOT," "SAFER" or "federal" in a sender name, email domain, website domain, caller ID name or business name you use for outreach.
Never put a USDOT or MC number in a subject line or on the outside of an envelope. Inside a letter, mention it only as the carrier's own identifier, never as a case or file number.
Never use eagles, seals, flags or form numbers that look like MCS-150 or BOC-3 filings on letters, emails or landing pages.
Never use "notice," "action required," "compliance deadline" or "final warning" language unless you can point to the regulation, and even then say you are a private company.
Never ask for a USDOT PIN, a Social Security number or a login. The FMCSA says its official forms do not require them, and asking makes you look like the scams it warns about.
Never say a product is "required by the FMCSA" unless a regulation requires it, and cite the regulation when you do.
Say "we are a private company, not a government agency" early on calls, in emails and on letters. It costs one sentence, and it answers the first question a carrier who has read the FMCSA's warnings will have.

The same applies to how you describe your list. Lead Mining Company's trucking data comes from the FMCSA's public census file, but we are not the FMCSA or the DOT and have no connection to either. When you tell a carrier how you found them, say it plainly: "Your company's registration is public, and we use public registration data to find new carriers."

Statutory damages and how exposure adds up

Telemarketing cases are expensive because damages are set by statute per call or per message, not by proving harm. Here are the numbers from the sources read for this guide.

Statutory damages and penalties by law
Law	Amount	Who can collect
TCPA, autodialer or artificial or prerecorded voice, 47 U.S.C. 227(b)(3)	Actual loss or $500 per violation, whichever is greater; up to three times that if willful or knowing	The person called, in court; state attorneys general under 227(g)
TCPA do-not-call rules, 47 U.S.C. 227(c)(5)	Actual loss or up to $500 per violation; up to three times that if willful or knowing; defense for reasonable practices and procedures	A person who got more than one violating call in 12 months from the same entity
Florida, s. 501.059(10)	Actual damages or $500, whichever is greater; up to three times that if willful or knowing; STOP notice first for texts	The called party
Oklahoma, 15 O.S. 775C.6	Actual damages or $500, whichever is greater; up to three times that if willful or knowing	The aggrieved called party
FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule	Civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation; each call may be a separate violation	The FTC
CAN-SPAM Act	Penalties of up to $53,088 per email	The FTC

Three worked examples show how quickly these add up. They are estimates for illustration, not predictions of any case. Courts decide how violations are counted.

An AI voice agent calls 1,000 new carriers' cell numbers without written consent. At $500 per call, that is 1,000 × $500 = $500,000 in statutory damages. If a court finds the violations willful or knowing, the ceiling is three times that: $1,500,000.
A rep hand-dials 50 owner-operators whose personal cells are on the registry, twice each in a month. Each of the 50 got more than one call in 12 months, so each could sue. If each call counts as a violation, that is 50 × 2 × $500 = $50,000, and up to $150,000 if trebled.
A dealer texts 300 Florida carriers with an automated platform and keeps texting 20 who replied STOP. Florida's notice rule gives the dealer 15 days to stop. Texts sent to those 20 after that window could be exposed at $500 each under s. 501.059, before any federal claim.

Compare those numbers with the price of doing it right: registry data that is free for five area codes, a one-page policy, a person who dials by hand, and an email tool with a working unsubscribe link.

The census file gives you two phone fields. "Phone" is filled for 177,751 of 178,190 carriers (99.75%). "Cell phone" is filled for 29,448 (16.53%). It is tempting to read that as "about one in six numbers is a cell phone, so the rest are safe to dial." That reading is wrong, and a plan built on it will call the wrong numbers.

What the numbers actually tell you:

The cell column marks numbers you know are wireless. Those 29,448 numbers are cellular lines by the carrier's own account. Never autodial them, never send them a prerecorded or AI voice, and never text them without written consent.
The main phone column is unknown. The file does not record line type. With 68.83% of carriers running one power unit or none, assume many main numbers are personal cell phones as well, and treat every number as possibly wireless and possibly residential.
The share is similar in every large state. In Texas the cell column is filled for 18.25% of carriers, in Florida 17.98%, in California 16.76% and in Georgia 15.85%. Across states it runs from 10.68% in the District of Columbia to 21.00% in West Virginia. No state's file is mostly landlines by this measure.

That leads to five planning rules:

Scrub everything you might call, not just the cell column. The registry presumption and the home-based business rule turn on who the subscriber is, which the file cannot show.
Run a line-type lookup if you want to sort numbers. A carrier lookup service can tell you whether a number is wireless or a landline. It cannot tell you whether the subscriber is a household or a business, so it does not replace the scrub.
Lead with email and mail. 177,954 carriers (99.87%) have an email address, and the file carries physical and mailing addresses. Those channels need no consent.
Dial by hand. New-carrier volume does not need a dialer. Florida added 961 carriers in the 30 days to October 28, 2026, which is 961 / 30 = about 32 a day. Texas added 1,305, about 44 a day. Nationwide it was 11,218, about 374 a day. A small team covering one or two states can call that volume by hand.
Text only after opt-in. If the cell share in your 30-day pull matches the 12-month share, 11,218 × 16.53% = about 1,854 of last month's new carriers listed a separate cell number. That is an estimate. Every one of those numbers, and many of the rest, is off limits for sales texts until the owner asks for them.

A compliant outreach sequence for new carriers

Here is a sequence that fits the rules above for a seller working new registrations each week. Adjust timing to your product. Insurance and authority-related services are time sensitive. ELD and dealer sales can run longer. Day 0 is the day the carrier appears in your file.

A four-week sequence using email, hand-dialed calls and mail
Day	Step	Rules to apply
0	Import new rows; remove anyone on your internal do-not-call or unsubscribe lists; scrub phones against the registry and any state list; flag Florida, Oklahoma, Washington and Texas rows	Registry data no more than 31 days old; suppression list applied to every import
1	Email 1: who you are, why you are writing, one clear offer	CAN-SPAM: accurate From and subject, ad disclosure, postal address, opt-out
3	Call 1, hand-dialed, only to numbers that cleared the scrub; leave a live voicemail if no answer	8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the carrier's time zone; identify yourself and your company; no recorded or AI voice
5	Letter to the mailing address on plain company letterhead	No government look; return address of your business
9	Email 2: something useful, such as a checklist for the carrier's first 90 days	Same CAN-SPAM rules; skip anyone who opted out
12	Call 2, only if there was no opt-out and no answer to email	Same hours; one attempt a day at most
20	Email 3: short close, offer to stop	Honor every opt-out within 10 business days, in practice the same day
Any day	Text, only after the carrier asked for texts in writing	Store the consent record; first text names your business and how to stop

Call opener

"Hi, is this [officer name]? This is [your name] with [company legal name]. We're a private [insurance agency / factoring company / dispatch service], not part of the FMCSA or DOT. I'm calling because [carrier legal name] registered as a new carrier recently, and we work with new carriers on [one-line offer]. Do you have two minutes, or is there a better time?"

If they say no: "Understood. Would you like me to put you on our do-not-call list?" If yes, say "Done," and log it before you dial the next number.

Voicemail, left live by the caller

"Hi, this is [your name] with [company legal name], a private [type of business] in [city]. I'm calling [carrier legal name] about [one-line offer] for new carriers. You can reach me at [callback number]. If you'd rather we didn't call again, call or text that number and I'll take you off our list."

A message spoken live by a person into voicemail is not a prerecorded message. A message recorded once and dropped into many voicemails is, and so is a ringless voicemail. Keep the live version.

Letter

Use your company letterhead, your business return address and a plain envelope with your company name on it. Put the offer in the first paragraph, say you are a private company, include your phone, email and website, and give a way to opt out of future mail. Nothing on the envelope should look like a government form, a deadline or a fine.

Compliance checklist for new-carrier outreach

Before the first campaign

Written do-not-call policy adopted and available on demand.
Every rep trained on the policy, with the date logged.
National Do Not Call Registry subscription in your own company's name, with your own SAN.
State lists identified for the states you call, starting with Florida.
Florida, Texas and any other state registration or licensing questions answered by counsel.
Dialing method confirmed as manual. No predictive dialer, no voice broadcast, no ringless voicemail, no AI voice agent on cold numbers.
Caller ID shows a working number that reaches your business, and the name shown is your real business name.
Email tool set up with your postal address, ad disclosure and a one-step opt-out that works for at least 30 days after each send.
Scripts, emails and letters reviewed for any government look or wording.
Consent language for texts approved by counsel, with a place to store consent records.

Before every list import

Remove every number and email on your internal do-not-call and unsubscribe lists, across all channels.
Scrub phone numbers against registry data no more than 31 days old, and against applicable state lists.
Tag each row with its time zone from the physical address.
Flag rows in states with stricter rules.
Keep a copy of the scrub result with the date.

Every calling day

Call only between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. in the carrier's time zone.
No more than three calls in 24 hours to one carrier on the same subject, and in practice one.
Give your name, your company's legal name and a callback number on every call.
Log every do-not-call request the same day.
Keep call, text, email, scrub and consent records. Our terms require five years.

Mistakes that turn a lead list into a lawsuit

Treating "business-to-business" as a blanket exemption. It exempts you from most of the FTC's rule. It does not exempt you from the TCPA's autodialer and voice rules, from the FCC's registry rule for home-based businesses, or from state laws.
Scrubbing only the cell column. The 16.53% with a separate cell number are not the only wireless numbers in the file.
Buying a "texting campaign" from a vendor. If the vendor sends sales texts to your list without consent, you are the seller the texts were sent for, and our terms make you responsible for vendors who contact people for you.
Re-importing a fresh file over an old one. A carrier who said "stop" in March appears again in a new download in April. Apply the suppression list to every import.
Calling on the registry data you pulled last quarter. The safe harbor needs data no more than 31 days old.
Calling at 7:30 a.m. because it is 9:30 where you sit. Use the carrier's time zone.
Testing an AI voice agent "just on a few numbers." Each call is a violation on its own.
Using official-sounding language. "Your USDOT filing requires action" is the kind of line the FMCSA warns carriers about, and the FTC's impersonation rule reaches implied affiliation.
Assuming the data vendor scrubbed the list. Registry access is licensed to the seller doing the calling. Our files are not scrubbed, and our terms say so.
Keeping no records. The defense in 227(c)(5) depends on showing reasonable practices and procedures. Without records, you have nothing to show.

Getting the data and what it does not include

The FMCSA Company Census File is free. Open the dataset page on data.transportation.gov, filter on the add date and status, and export to CSV. No login is needed. The full file holds millions of USDOT records, most of them old or inactive, so the work is in the filtering: active carriers only, a recent add date, the right states, and cleanup of names, phones and addresses. Our guide to getting a list of new trucking companies from FMCSA data walks through it step by step.

If you would rather not rebuild that filter every week, our new trucking companies data does it for you. It covers active carriers added to the census since October 1, 2025, refreshed every six hours, with USDOT number, MC docket, legal and DBA names, company officer, phone, cell phone, email, physical and mailing addresses, registered date, operation, for-hire status, power units, drivers, hazmat and cargo. It costs $99 a month for every state, up to 25,000 rows a month, or $149 once for carriers registered in the last 90 days, downloadable for seven days. See pricing for both.

What the data does not include matters as much for this guide:

It is not scrubbed against the National Do Not Call Registry or any state list. That scrub has to be done under your own registry account.
It carries no consent to call, text or email anyone.
It does not record whether the main phone is a cell phone.
It does not show insurance status, authority grant dates, inspections or crash history.

Pages for specific buyers show how each one uses the file: insurance agents, factoring companies, dispatch services, ELD and fleet software and truck and trailer dealers. If you want the suppression list, registry scrub and time-zone tagging built into your own CRM, our custom lead-generation software builds start at $1,500. Every purchase is subject to our terms, which set out your compliance duties in plain language.

Questions and answers

Does the TCPA apply to business-to-business calls to trucking companies?

Yes, in two important ways. The ban on autodialed, prerecorded, artificial or AI-voice calls to cell phones without consent applies to any cell number, business or not, and sales calls of that kind need prior express written consent. The FCC's Do Not Call rule protects residential subscribers, presumes registered cell phones are residential, and reviews calls to home-based businesses case by case. Many owner-operators use personal cells, so scrub every number and dial by hand. The FTC's business-to-business exemption covers only the FTC's own rule.

Can I call a new carrier whose number is on the National Do Not Call Registry?

Not for a sales call unless an exemption applies, such as the carrier's prior express invitation or an established business relationship. The FCC says calls to business numbers registered by mistake are not violations, but it reviews calls to home-based businesses on their facts, and the census file cannot tell you which is which. Scrub against registry data no more than 31 days old and skip registered numbers. A person who gets more than one violating call in 12 months can sue for up to $500 per violation, tripled if willful.

Can I text trucking companies from an FMCSA list?

Not cold. FCC rules apply the Do Not Call rules to text messages, automated sales texts need prior express written consent, and Florida treats a text as a telephonic sales call with $500 damages per message. Washington bars commercial texts to Washington cell numbers under RCW 19.190.060. A census record carries no consent. Text only after the carrier asks for texts in writing, keep the consent record, and honor STOP and any other reasonable opt-out within 10 business days.

Can I use an AI voice agent or ringless voicemail to reach new carriers?

Not without prior express written consent. In February 2024 the FCC confirmed that the TCPA's restrictions on artificial or prerecorded voices cover AI technologies that generate human voices. A recorded message dropped into voicemail is also a prerecorded message. Statutory damages are $500 per call and up to $1,500 if willful or knowing. Our terms bar robocall, voice-broadcast and ringless-voicemail campaigns with our data.

What hours can I call owner-operators?

Federal rules allow telephone solicitations between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. local time at the called party's location. Florida and Oklahoma limit commercial solicitation calls to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the called person's time zone and to three calls in 24 hours on the same subject. Our terms apply 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the three-call limit everywhere. Set each carrier's time zone from its physical address.

Is cold email to new trucking companies legal under CAN-SPAM?

Yes, if you follow the rules. CAN-SPAM does not require prior consent, and the FTC says it makes no exception for business-to-business email. Use accurate headers and a subject line that reflects the content, say the message is an advertisement, include a valid postal address, give a working opt-out, and honor opt-outs within 10 business days. Each violating email can draw penalties of up to $53,088.

What happened to the FCC one-to-one consent rule?

A federal court vacated it. On January 24, 2025, the Eleventh Circuit held in Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC that the FCC exceeded its authority with the requirement that consent cover one seller at a time and only logically and topically related calls, and it vacated that part of the 2023 order. The current definition of prior express written consent in 47 CFR 64.1200(f)(9) has no one-seller language. Cold lists from public records carry no consent either way.

Is it legal to use FMCSA census data for marketing?

The data itself is public. The Company Census File is a free federal open dataset, and the FMCSA says it displays carrier contact information under its open data policy, so private businesses may contact carriers. What governs your outreach is how you make contact: the TCPA, the Do Not Call rules, CAN-SPAM, state laws and the FTC's impersonation rule. Never make outreach look like it comes from the FMCSA or DOT.