The courier industry is a fairly closely watched and regulated one, and usually, legal status is not something that a client of one of these companies should have to be concerned with. That isn't to say that you shouldn't do you due diligence though, because as with any company that you are allowing to work with your assets, you need to protect yourself. Any courier service that you do business with should meet a few basic requirements to show that they have an appropriate legal status.
The most basic element of this is going to be the insurance that they carry. All couriers are required to carry two different types of insurance on their company. They need to have all their drivers and vehicles insured so that they are protected from any liability in the case of a traffic accident. Next, they also need to carry insurance which is going to protect the cargo that they are shipping. This is just usually called courier insurance, and protects you against things like weather damage and theft of your packages.
The next thing that you might want to look at is their driver hiring process. A few things should be happening here. First of all, they should be doing thorough background checks on their drivers to make sure that they have clean criminal records. Most of the courier insurance companies are going to require this as well.
Second, you want to make sure that their drivers are being trained in an acceptable manner. Many states will require that all drivers take a DOT mandated driver training course. You should find out if this is compulsory in your location, and if your courier has followed through on this requirement.
Another thing that you can do is ask to speak to references from the courier company. There is a good chance that if anything is being operated in a way that is not legally acceptable; it will have come up before to one of their other clients. If they can provide you with several clean references though, it should appear that everything is one the level and being operated in an acceptable manner.
Finally, if you do have further suspicion, all you can do is go the authorities in your area. A transportation official should be able to confirm for you the legal status of a courier if it is truly in question for you.
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