The specialty capabilities that move the most jobs

The five specialty flags we see generators filter on most

1. USCG + ship-to-shore. Marine terminals, barge operators, and anyone working on or adjacent to water filter for this constantly. USCG certification is a binary — you either have it or you don't. Flag it honestly; the terminals verify before pickup anyway.
2. Stainless, code-compliant trailers. For caustics, acids, and certain reactive hydrocarbons, carbon steel is a non-starter. A customer with a weekly spent-caustic stream will filter for stainless on every post. One stainless coded 150 bbl trailer in your fleet translates into a lot of qualified bids.
3. Hazmat endorsement + placard-capable. DOT hazmat endorsement on your driver CDLs is assumed for most regulated waste streams. But "placard-capable" (you'll actually placard the load) plus specialty like UN-portable tanks gets you into otherwise inaccessible bid pools.
4. Bilingual (Spanish) drivers. A surprising number of Gulf Coast sites — especially mid-sized refineries and shipyards — prefer or require Spanish-speaking drivers for safety coordination. Flag drivers who qualify; you'll get filtered into jobs that would otherwise route around you.
5. 24-hour standby + after-hours dispatch. Emergency response, tide-window ship-to-shore, and overnight refinery turnarounds all need a qualified crew at 2 AM. If you can actually staff it, flag it — not many can.

Flags that sound like they help but don't

• “Environmental” vs specific capability. “We do environmental” is too generic to filter on. List the actual credential (EPA, TCEQ, RRC) and the actual capability (absorbent placement, spill response, free-product recovery).
• Any gear you can rent. Don't flag a capability your fleet doesn't currently have — you'll win a job you can't run without subcontracting, and the generator will notice.
• Credentials you're in the process of obtaining. Pending doesn't count. Wait until it's on a letter before turning on the flag.

How generators search

On the Dispo post-a-job form, generators pick capability requirements (not just credentials). The matching logic is AND, not OR: require USCG + Avetta + $5M insurance and you get only providers with all three. Flags you set in your provider profile either put you in the qualified pool or leave you out.

There's no penalty for leaving flags off. But there's a real penalty for turning one on that you can't back up — you'll bid on a job you shouldn't win, run a job you shouldn't accept, and eat the rating hit.