Type
Registered mover
Computed from objective federal flags only: broker-only registration, fleet size, complaint volume and severity, hostage-goods reports and past revocations. Lower is safer. This is a summary of public records, not a review.
No roadside inspections or crashes on federal record for this company. For a working carrier that usually means very low mileage; for a broker it is expected, brokers have no trucks to inspect.
No insurance filings found in the federal Licensing & Insurance system for this company. Interstate movers must file proof of liability coverage; always ask for a current certificate of insurance before moving day.
Source: FMCSA Licensing & Insurance filings, refreshed nightly.
Every liability policy this company filed with FMCSA, newest first. Frequent insurer changes or repeated cancellations are worth a direct question; one long-running policy is what stability looks like.
On the evidence, Mendel Trucking looks like a reliable operator: operating since 1974 with zero federal complaints in the last four years. A record like this is exactly what an honest mover's file tends to look like.
No public record can guarantee your specific move, so keep the basics: written binding estimate, USDOT 13039 on the paperwork, and reasonable deposit. But nothing in the federal file says walk away.
This assessment is generated from the public federal records shown on this page: registration, fleet, complaints, inspections, insurance and authority filings. It is a summary of records, not a review or an accusation.
Mendel Trucking, doing business as James D Mendel, is a federally registered mover based in Marion, South Dakota, registered with FMCSA since June 1974. Federal filings show no trucks registered to this company.
Over the last four years, the federal complaint database shows no complaints against this company. For a mover doing real volume, a clean federal record is a genuinely good sign; for a very small operation it may simply reflect a small number of moves. Combine it with the fleet data above and recent references.
The grade and risk score at the top are calculated by MoverAudit from objective federal flags: whether the company is a broker or a carrier, how many trucks it operates, the volume and severity of complaints, hostage-goods reports, and past authority revocations. They are not official government ratings, and they are not reviews: every input is a public federal record shown on this page.
The complaint categories come from the FMCSA household goods complaint system. A single bad move can generate complaints in several categories at once, so the category sum can exceed the total. Pay the most attention to "Hostage Goods" and "Deceptive Business Practices": those describe intent, not accidents. "Loss and Damage" at low volume is normal friction for a carrier doing thousands of moves; the same number at a tiny company is not.
The fleet numbers matter more than they look. A company advertising nationwide service with zero or one registered truck is not doing that work itself: your move will be handled by someone you have not vetted. Compare the fleet size to the promises in your quote.
If you are considering this company, use this report as a starting point, not a verdict. Get the estimate in writing and check whether it is binding, confirm the USDOT number on their paperwork matches 13039, and if a different company shows up on moving day, stop and check that company here before a single box goes on the truck.
Sources: FMCSA Motor Carrier Census (registration, fleet), FMCSA Household Goods Complaint History via NCCDB (complaints, checked Sep 3, 2026). MoverAudit summarizes public federal records; it does not accuse any company of wrongdoing. Verify details at protectyourmove.gov.