A gate pass clears the vehicle. Carpass clears the driver.

Yesterday we announced Carpass, a secure vehicle release system that is now rolling out across the Carpool network. It will be on every Carpool shipment by the end of the year, at no additional cost. This post explains what it does and why we built it.

The problem with the gate pass

The vehicle logistics industry has spent a decade getting better at everything that happens between pickup and delivery. GPS tracking, condition photos, electronic BOLs, real-time ETAs. The one moment that hasn't changed much is the handoff itself.

A gate pass authorizes a vehicle to leave a lot. It says nothing about the person driving it off. Paper passes get forwarded. Screenshots get reused. DOT numbers get borrowed. And at most dealerships there's no pass at all; a porter hands the keys to whoever shows up with the right name on a clipboard.

That gap between carrier assignment and physical handoff is where fraud, theft, and release disputes happen. Every other step in the chain is documented. This one has been running on trust.

What Carpass checks

Carpass ties every vehicle release to three conditions, all checked at the same moment:

1. The driver's face matches the government ID on file. Drivers complete a one-time identity verification in the Carpool driver app: a photo of their government-issued ID and a live selfie. At every pickup after that, a live face match confirms the person at the gate is the person who was verified.
2. The driver is physically at the pickup location. The release only opens inside a geofence around the lot. A driver can't retrieve the release details from a truck stop two states away.
3. The release credential is active and unexpired. Once verified and on site, the driver receives a time-limited, encrypted QR code. It can't be screenshotted, forwarded, or reused.

If any one of the three fails, the vehicle doesn't move.

What gate staff see

Gate staff or porters scan the QR code with any smartphone camera. No app, no login, no new hardware. The scan shows the driver's verified name, photo, company, DOT number, and the vehicles assigned to them. Staff confirm the photo matches the person in front of them and that the company and DOT match the truck, then release.

At auctions, Carpass validates the driver against the existing gate pass. At dealerships, it creates a documented handoff where there wasn't one.

What it does for carriers

Carpass protects carriers as much as shippers. Because every release is tied to a verified identity, no one can haul under another driver's name or DOT number. Every verification attempt and release is logged, so there's a record when questions come up.

Part of a larger system

Carpass is the newest layer in how Carpool manages fraud risk, alongside carrier vetting before any load is booked, live GPS tracking, geo-tagged inspection photos, account-takeover monitoring, and role-based access controls. It's already caught attempted fraud during its pilot phase, before a single load was affected.

Rollout

Carpass is rolling out across the Carpool network now and will be fully deployed by the end of 2026. It is included on every Carpool shipment at no additional cost, and requires nothing new from shippers or gate staff.

For full details, read the press release or visit carpoollogistics.com/carpass.