The network · Not built yet
PLANNEDThe vetting is not overhead. It is the product.
A freight network is worth exactly what its worst partner is worth. When a transporter damages a customer’s cargo, the customer does not blame the transporter — they blame whoever put the two of them together. So this process is the thing being built, and it is published here before it has been run on anybody.
Nothing on this page is operating today. No transporter has been verified, no Trust Score has been issued, and no load has ever been placed with a partner. This is the process we will run, written down first so that a transporter can read the rules before the rules are applied to them.
The process
Six stages, and what each one actually produces.
- 01
Registration
Same day
A transporter registers with their base, routes, fleet and a self-declared compliance position. Nothing is verified at this point and the confirmation says so in those words.
On the list. Not on the network.
- 02
Document collection
Typically a week
Company registration, director identity, vehicle ownership or lease, roadworthy certificates, licence discs, operator card, driver licences and PrDPs, permits, and the goods-in-transit policy schedule.
A complete file, or a specific list of what is missing.
- 03
Independent confirmation
Varies by issuer
The step that makes the difference between verification and paperwork: insurance currency confirmed with the insurer rather than read off a certificate, company status confirmed at source, licence and permit validity checked against the issuing authority.
Confirmed by the body that issued it, not by the person who benefits from it.
- 04
Operational assessment
One conversation, one inspection
A physical look at the vehicle and a conversation about how the operator actually runs: how a customer is told about a delay, what happens when a POD is queried, who answers the phone at 19:00.
A judgement about reliability that no document can supply.
- 05
Probation loads
First loads, monitored
Early work is watched closely — collection and delivery windows, communication during transit, documentation quality. A partner is told they are in this period; it is not a secret test.
The first real performance data, and the start of a Trust Score.
- 06
Ongoing monitoring
Continuous
Compliance documents carry expiry dates and the system tracks them. An expired licence, permit or policy suspends the listing automatically rather than quietly lowering a number.
Verification that stays true after the day it was granted.
What gets checked
Six pillars. A gap in any one of them is a no.
Identity
- Director and owner identity
- Proof of address
- Background verification
Business
- Company registration
- Tax status
- Banking verification
- Operating history
Vehicle
- Ownership or lease proof
- Roadworthy certificate
- Licence disc validity
- Vehicle condition check
Compliance
- Operator card
- Driver licences and PrDP
- Permits including cross-border
- Dangerous-goods certification where claimed
Insurance
- Goods-in-transit cover and limit
- Liability cover
- Policy currency confirmed with the insurer
Performance
- On-time delivery record
- Communication quality
- Documentation accuracy
- Claims and safety history
The limits
What verification will not do.
Every verification scheme in every industry is sold on what it guarantees. The gap between what it is sold as and what it actually covers is where trust dies. So here is ours, stated before anyone relies on it.
- A verified partner is not a River Express employee, and we will never describe one as our driver or our truck.
- Verification confirms what was true when it was checked. It cannot predict how someone will behave on a bad day.
- We will decline transporters, and we will not publish a public rejection list — being turned down should not follow someone around.
- A self-declaration on a registration form is not a verification. Until an issuer confirms it, it is an unverified claim and it will be labelled as one.
We run ourselves against this first.
Our own truck will be verified on these criteria and will carry a Trust Score on the same basis as every partner. Every process we will later ask a transporter to follow, we run ourselves first — a standard we would not accept for ourselves is not a standard.