This article explains the three Shield Status values shown in Highway, MCP, RMIS and what each one tells you about a carrier's onboarding state.

When you'll see this: Mostly during the onboarding process, when you're working in Highway directly. Once a carrier is fully connected, you'll mostly look at the polt.ai Assessment Result instead.

The carrier has not yet been verified by Highway.

What to do: Do not connect. The carrier hasn't completed Highway's identity and document verification. They need to finish that before you can move forward. Walk them through their onboarding link, or escalate to your team if they're stuck.

The carrier is verified by Highway but has not yet completed their polt.ai onboarding.

What to do: Send the onboarding link to begin connecting them to polt.ai. Once they accept, the check turns gold and they sync into polt.ai.

See Onboarding a new carrier through Highway.

The carrier is fully verified by Highway, has completed polt.ai onboarding, and is connected to your team. This is the ready-to-go state.

What to do: Ready to haul. The carrier's data is now synced into polt.ai and you can assign loads — provided their Assessment Result is Pass or Partial pass and they meet other checks.

Important: Always check the shield status before and after sending the onboarding link. Identity theft alerts on a carrier's profile can appear at any point and require a compliance review before proceeding.