MOTUS Data Studio API Terms of Use

1. Scope and relationship to other terms

1.1 What these API Terms cover. These API Terms govern your access to the MOTUS Data Studio application programming interface at mds.motorcarrier.ai (the "API"). This includes:

• /v2/profile, /v2/profile-lite, /v2/carriers, /v2/autocomplete, /v2/exports and the monitoring endpoints;
• related documentation;
• all data returned by any of them.

1.2 Site Terms. The motorcarrier.ai Terms of Service at motorcarrier.ai/terms (the "Site Terms") also apply to your account. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle your account information.

1.3 Precedence. If these API Terms conflict with the Site Terms, these API Terms control for the API and MDS Data. A signed order form with you controls over both. In particular, for the API and MDS Data:

2. Definitions

• "MDS Data" means all data, records, fields, files and exports returned by the API. This includes carrier identity, authority, insurance filing, safety and fleet data, Contact Data and Estimated Fields.
• "Contact Data" means any MDS Data that identifies or contacts a person or business. This includes the phone, cell_phone, email, contact_name, officer and contact-name fields, and any similar field we add later.
• "Estimated Fields" means fields that we calculate or model rather than copy from a source record. This includes estimated_expiration_date, inferred_renewal_date, days_to_renewal, renewal or expiration "basis" and "confidence" fields, and any field labelled estimated, inferred or modeled.
• "Customer Systems" means your internal CRM (for example HubSpot), databases, data warehouses, spreadsheets and business applications. They must be operated by you, or for you by a service provider under Section 4.3.
• "Authorized Users" means your employees, and individual contractors working only for you, who access MDS Data on your behalf.
• "API Key" means a credential we issue for the API, for example mca_live_ production keys and sandbox keys.

3. Licence grant

3.1 Grant. Subject to these API Terms and payment of applicable fees, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable licence during your subscription to:

• (a) access the API using your API Keys; and
• (b) use, copy, store, and combine MDS Data with your own data, including loading and refreshing it (for example daily) in your Customer Systems.

You may do so only for your internal business purposes and only as permitted in Section 4.

3.2 Sandbox. Sandbox keys return fixture data for testing and development only, at no charge. Sandbox data must not be used in production or for outreach.

3.3 Contact Data. Contact Data is included with paid API subscriptions at no additional charge.

We may withhold specific records or fields, for example suppressed or disputed records, or fields we stop offering.

3.4 Reservation. All rights not expressly granted are reserved. No rights are granted by implication.

4. Permitted uses

4.1 Examples. Examples of permitted internal business uses:

• (a) identifying, researching and prioritizing motor carriers as prospects or accounts, including for marketing commercial insurance, freight, compliance or other business-to-business services;
• (b) business-to-business outreach to carriers, in compliance with Section 7;
• (c) enriching, deduplicating and verifying carrier records in your CRM;
• (d) carrier vetting, onboarding and monitoring for your own freight, brokerage, or supply-chain operations, where that is not an FCRA purpose (Section 8);
• (e) internal analytics, reporting and dashboards used by Authorized Users.

4.2 Your own work product. You may show individual MDS Data points to a carrier about that carrier's own record in the ordinary course of dealing with it. For example, you may confirm a carrier's own DOT number or filing details in a quote or email.

4.3 Service providers. You may let service providers (for example your CRM, cloud hosting or data-warehouse vendor) host or process MDS Data solely on your behalf, provided that:

• they may not use MDS Data for their own purposes; and
• you are responsible for their compliance.

5. Prohibited uses

You must not, and must not allow anyone else to:

• (a) use MDS Data for any purpose under the Fair Credit Reporting Act or similar law (Section 8);
• (b) contact anyone in violation of Section 7, or after they have opted out or asked not to be contacted;
• (c) use MDS Data to harass, stalk, threaten, defraud or discriminate against anyone, or in any way that violates law, including privacy, consumer-protection, anti-discrimination and insurance laws;
• (d) use MDS Data to impersonate FMCSA, USDOT or any carrier, or to send communications that imply government affiliation or an official compliance requirement;
• (e) share, disclose or expose API Keys, or access the API other than through your own keys;
• (f) exceed or circumvent rate limits, quotas or access controls; or use multiple keys or accounts to evade them;
• (g) scrape the motorcarrier.ai or MOTUS Data Studio websites or applications;
• (h) reverse engineer the API, or probe, scan or test its security;
• (i) remove or alter any disclaimers, basis/confidence fields or expiration_verified: false flags in a way that presents Estimated Fields as verified facts to anyone;
• (j) use MDS Data to train or improve a machine-learning model or dataset that is offered to third parties, or that substitutes for the API;
• (k) use the API or MDS Data in breach of U.S. export control or sanctions laws.

6. No resale, redistribution or competing dataset

You must not, whether directly or indirectly, for free or for a fee:

• (a) sell, resell, rent, lease, license, sublicense, lend, distribute or publish MDS Data, or any portion or derivative of it that could substitute for it;
• (b) act as a data broker with MDS Data, including selling or sharing lead lists, contact lists or "enrichment" to any third party, including affiliates, clients, agents, brokers, carriers or partners;
• (c) make MDS Data available in any product, API, website, feed, marketplace or service used by anyone other than your Authorized Users;
• (d) use MDS Data to build, supplement or maintain a database or dataset that competes with the API or MOTUS Data Studio, or that is offered to third parties;
• (e) combine MDS Data with other data to re-identify, profile, or create dossiers on individuals, beyond the business-contact purpose of Section 4.

Affiliates are third parties for this Section unless listed in an order form.

7. Contact Data and outreach compliance

7.1 Your sole responsibility. Contact Data is provided for lawful business-to-business use. You alone decide whether, how and when to contact anyone, and you are solely responsible for complying with all laws that apply to your outreach and data handling. We do not screen Contact Data against do-not-call lists or consent records. We do not know whether a number is a cell phone or residential line, whether it has been reassigned, or whether a person has consented to contact from you.

7.2 Laws you must follow. These include, as applicable:

• Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and FCC rules.
  • You must have prior express consent, and prior express written consent for telemarketing, before making calls or sending texts to cell phone numbers using an autodialer, or an artificial or prerecorded voice.
  • You must follow caller-ID, identification, time-of-day and opt-out requirements.
  • You must maintain an internal do-not-call list.
  • You must honor revocations of consent.
• National Do Not Call Registry and state DNC lists. You must scrub numbers against the National DNC Registry, and any applicable state DNC lists, before telemarketing calls or texts. This applies particularly to cell numbers and to sole proprietors and owner-operators, whose numbers may be treated as residential. You must pay any required registry fees.
• State telemarketing and "mini-TCPA" laws (for example Florida, Oklahoma and Maryland). These can include stricter consent, autodialer definitions, calling hours, call-frequency limits and telemarketer registration or bonding.
• CAN-SPAM Act for commercial email, including business-to-business email. You must:
  • use accurate header, "from" and subject lines;
  • identify the message as an advertisement where required;
  • include a valid physical postal address;
  • provide a working opt-out, honor it within 10 business days, and not sell or transfer opted-out addresses.
• State privacy laws, where applicable (for example the CCPA/CPRA and other comprehensive state privacy laws). This includes honoring deletion, opt-out and other rights requests you receive, and giving any required notices.
• Non-U.S. laws for non-U.S. carriers, for example Canada's CASL and PIPEDA, and Mexico's data-protection law.
• Industry-specific rules that apply to you (for example state insurance producer, marketing and privacy rules, and GLBA if applicable).

7.3 Minimum practices. Without limiting Section 7.1, before using Contact Data for outreach you must:

• (a) maintain written outreach compliance procedures;
• (b) scrub against the National DNC Registry and applicable state lists at the intervals the law requires (currently at least every 31 days);
• (c) maintain and apply your own internal do-not-contact and email-suppression lists;
• (d) not use cell_phone values for autodialed, prerecorded or artificial-voice calls, or for marketing texts, unless you have the required consent from that person;
• (e) honor opt-outs across all channels and all your systems.

7.4 Attestation. By using the API, you confirm that you follow the practices in Section 7.3. We may require an officer or compliance contact of yours to confirm these practices in writing, on request and periodically.

7.5 No representation of lawfulness. Providing Contact Data is not a representation by us that any particular use or contact is lawful, or that any person has consented to be contacted.

8. No FCRA use

8.1 Not a consumer report. motorcarrier.ai is not a "consumer reporting agency", and MDS Data is not a "consumer report", as those terms are defined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.) or similar state laws. MDS Data has not been collected or verified to FCRA standards.

8.2 Prohibited purposes. You must not use MDS Data, in whole or in part, as a factor in determining any individual's eligibility for, or terms of:

• credit;
• insurance for personal, family or household purposes;
• employment, including hiring, retention, promotion, or engaging an owner-operator or driver as an individual;
• tenant screening;
• a government licence or benefit;

or for any other permissible purpose under FCRA § 604.

8.3 Sole proprietors. Many carriers are individuals operating as sole proprietors or owner-operators. You must not use MDS Data about such carriers for any purpose in Section 8.2.

8.4 Insurance use. Using MDS Data to identify, market to and contact motor carriers about commercial insurance is permitted under Section 4.

9. Opt-outs, removal requests and deletion

9.1 Requests to us. Individuals and carriers may ask us to remove or suppress their Contact Data using the opt-out form at mds.motorcarrier.ai/opt-out or by email to privacy@motorcarrier.ai. We may remove, suppress or flag records at our discretion, or as required by law.

9.2 Suppression updates. When we suppress or remove a record, we will reflect that in the API by omitting the suppressed Contact Data (the affected fields are returned empty, as null). We will do so within 10 business days of processing the request. You must:

• (a) check for suppression updates at least as often as you refresh MDS Data, and at least every 7 days;
• (b) delete or suppress the affected Contact Data in all Customer Systems within 10 business days of the update; and
• (c) not re-import suppressed data from any source that relies on MDS Data.

9.3 Requests to you.

• If a person asks you to stop contacting them, you must honor that request under Section 7.
• If a person asks you to delete their data, or opts out of sale or sharing, you must honor that request as required by applicable law.
• You must forward to privacy@motorcarrier.ai, within 10 business days, any request that asks for removal from motorcarrier.ai's data, so we can suppress it at the source.

9.4 Deletion on request or termination. Within 30 days after the earliest of the following, you must delete all MDS Data (including copies in Customer Systems, exports and backups) and, on request, certify deletion in writing:

• (a) termination or expiry of your subscription;
• (b) our written request because of a legal requirement, a suppression, or your breach of these API Terms;
• (c) your breach of Section 5, 6, 7 or 8.

You may keep:

• (i) opted-out phone numbers and emails, solely to honor suppression;
• (ii) records you must keep by law, kept only for that purpose;
• (iii) the basic business contact details of carriers with whom you have independently established a customer relationship or an active, documented business dialogue, as part of your ordinary records of that relationship.

Backups that cannot practically be purged must be deleted in the ordinary backup cycle, and must not be restored for use.

9.5 Provenance. You must keep MDS Data identifiable in Customer Systems, for example with a CRM source field, so that you can meet Sections 9.2 and 9.4.

10. Data sources, accuracy and Estimated Fields

10.1 Sources. MDS Data is compiled mainly from public government records and datasets, including FMCSA registration data (Company Census / MCS-150), FMCSA licensing and insurance filings, and similar public or licensed sources. We normalize, match and enrich it.

10.2 No verification. Source records are self-reported by carriers or filed by third parties, and they may be incomplete, outdated or wrong. We do not verify MDS Data, including whether:

• a phone number belongs to a cell phone or residential line;
• a number has been reassigned;
• an email address is deliverable or belongs to the named person;
• a named officer or contact is current.

10.3 Estimated Fields. Estimated Fields are estimates, not facts.

• estimated_expiration_date is not a policy expiration date and is not taken from insurance policy data. FMCSA insurance filings generally remain in effect until cancelled and do not report policy terms. The estimate is derived from filing dates (for example an anniversary of the latest effective date, or a filed cancellation) and may be wrong. For example, policies may have non-annual terms, be rewritten mid-term, or not be refiled at renewal.
• The accompanying basis, confidence and expiration_verified: false fields describe how an estimate was made. They are not a guarantee.
• You must independently confirm any policy date with the carrier, its agent or its insurer before relying on it.

10.4 Changes to the API. We may add, change, deprecate or remove endpoints, fields, filters, sources, coverage and limits. We will try to give reasonable notice of material breaking changes. We may act immediately where law, a source's terms, security or a suppression requires it.

11. API keys, security and rate limits

11.1 Keys. Each API Key is issued to one Customer. Fees are charged per production API Key. You are responsible for all activity under your keys. Keep keys confidential: do not embed them in client-side code or public repositories, and rotate them if they are exposed. Notify us promptly at daniel@motorcarrier.ai of any suspected compromise. We may revoke and reissue exposed keys.

11.2 Security. You must protect MDS Data in Customer Systems with reasonable administrative, technical and physical safeguards. At a minimum, you must:

• use access controls limited to Authorized Users;
• use encryption in transit;
• follow industry-standard practices for data containing personal information.

You must notify us within 72 hours of any unauthorized access to or disclosure of MDS Data.

11.3 Records and audit. You must keep records reasonably sufficient to show compliance with Sections 6–9, including DNC scrub logs and opt-out handling. You must give them to us on reasonable written request, no more than once per year unless we reasonably suspect a breach.

11.4 Rate limits and fair use. The API is subject to rate limits and caps published in the documentation. These currently include:

• 60 requests per minute for paid keys, and 30 per minute for sandbox keys;
• a per-job row cap on exports.

"Unlimited pulls" means there is no per-lookup quota within those limits. It is not a right to unlimited throughput. We may throttle, queue or block traffic that threatens the stability of the service, or that appears aimed at bulk replication of our database (Section 6(d)).

12. Fees and payment

12.1 Fees. The API is $500 per month per production API Key, or the price shown at checkout or in your order form. It is billed monthly in advance through our payment processor. Contact Data is included. Fees exclude taxes, which you are responsible for (except taxes on our income).

12.2 Renewal and cancellation. Subscriptions renew monthly until cancelled. There is no long-term contract. You may cancel at any time, and cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. Fees already paid are non-refundable, except where required by law.

12.3 Price changes. We may change prices with at least 30 days' notice before your next billing period. Continuing your subscription after that means you accept the new price.

12.4 Non-payment. If payment fails, we may suspend API access after 7 days' notice.

13. Attribution and publicity

13.1 Attribution. No attribution is required for internal use. If we permit any external display of MDS Data in writing, you must credit "Source: motorcarrier.ai MOTUS Data Studio; includes public FMCSA data".

13.2 No endorsement. You must not state or imply endorsement by motorcarrier.ai, FMCSA or USDOT.

13.3 Publicity. Neither party may use the other's name or logo in marketing without prior written consent.

14. Intellectual property

14.1 Our IP. Individual facts from public records are not owned by us. We and our licensors own all rights in:

• the API, documentation and software;
• the compilation of MDS Data, including its selection, coordination, arrangement, normalization, matching and linking;
• our derived data, including Estimated Fields, scores, flags and indexes.

These are protected by copyright, trade secret and other laws. Your licence is limited to Section 3.

14.2 Your data. You keep all rights in your own data. We do not claim ownership of your CRM records. You grant us the right to process the API requests you send (for example DOT numbers queried) to provide, secure and improve the service. We will not sell your query data or disclose it to third parties, except to service providers or where required by law.

14.3 Feedback. You may send us suggestions or feedback. If you do, we may use them without obligation to you.

15. Suspension and termination

15.1 Suspension. We may suspend any key, Contact Data access, or the whole API immediately, where reasonably necessary:

• because of a suspected breach of Sections 5–9 or 11;
• because of a security risk or legal requirement;
• because of a complaint or regulatory inquiry about your outreach; or
• for non-payment.

We will notify you and restore access once the issue is resolved, where appropriate.

15.2 Termination.

• You may terminate by cancelling your subscription (Section 12.2).
• We may terminate for convenience on 30 days' notice, with a pro-rata refund of prepaid fees for the unused period.
• We may terminate immediately for material breach, including any breach of Sections 5–8.

15.3 Effect. On termination, your licence and API access end, and Section 9.4 applies. Sections 5–9, 11.3 and 14–21 survive termination.

16. Disclaimers

THE API AND MDS DATA ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE", WITH ALL FAULTS. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING:

• MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT;
• ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, TIMELINESS OR AVAILABILITY;
• THAT ANY USE OF CONTACT DATA IS LAWFUL.

We are not a law firm and do not give legal, insurance or compliance advice.

17. Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify and hold harmless motorcarrier.ai, its affiliates, and their officers, employees and agents from and against all claims, demands, regulatory actions, damages, fines, penalties, settlements, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to:

• (a) your or your Authorized Users' or service providers' use of MDS Data, including any calls, texts, emails or other outreach, and including claims under the TCPA, state mini-TCPA and telemarketing laws, DNC rules, CAN-SPAM, CASL or privacy laws;
• (b) any use of MDS Data for a purpose prohibited by Section 8;
• (c) your breach of these API Terms; or
• (d) your violation of law or third-party rights.

We will give you prompt notice of the claim and reasonable cooperation, at your expense. You may not settle any claim that imposes obligations on us without our written consent. We may take part in the defense with our own counsel at our own cost.

18. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW:

• (a) motorcarrier.ai will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data or goodwill, even if advised of the possibility;
• (b) our total liability arising out of or relating to the API, MDS Data or these API Terms will not exceed the fees you paid for the API in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.

These limits do not limit your obligations under Sections 6, 8, 12 or 17, or your liability for misuse of MDS Data.

19. Changes to these API Terms

We may update these API Terms. For material changes, we will give at least 30 days' notice by email or in the dashboard before they take effect for existing subscribers. The exception is changes required by law, or needed to address data suppression or security, which may take effect sooner. Your continued use of the API after the effective date means you accept the changes. If you do not agree, cancel before the effective date.

20. Governing law and disputes

These API Terms are governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Exclusive venue for any dispute is the state courts located in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, or the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, and each party consents to personal jurisdiction there. Either party may seek injunctive relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to protect its intellectual property or stop misuse of MDS Data.

21. General

• Entire agreement. These API Terms, the Site Terms (as modified by Section 1.3) and any order form are the entire agreement about the API.
• Assignment. You may not assign these API Terms without our consent. We may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets.
• Severability. If any provision is unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted, and the rest remains in effect.
• No waiver. Failing to enforce a provision is not a waiver.
• Independent contractors. The parties are independent contractors.
• Force majeure. Neither party is liable for delays caused by events beyond its reasonable control, except for payment obligations.
• Notices. Notices to us: daniel@motorcarrier.ai, and 57 Union St. S #1059, Concord, NC 28025. Notices to you: the email on your account.