How to Get a USDOT Number

You need a USDOT number if your company operates commercial motor vehicles that carry cargo or passengers in interstate commerce. A vehicle counts as a commercial motor vehicle if it:

• Has a weight rating or actual weight of 10,001 pounds or more, whichever is greater.
• Is designed or used to carry more than 8 people, including the driver, for pay.
• Is designed or used to carry more than 15 people, including the driver, not for pay.
• Carries hazardous materials in amounts that require placards.

Interstate is broader than crossing a state line yourself. A trip between two places in your state still counts when the freight started, or will end, outside the state or the country.

Intrastate carriers of hazardous materials that need a federal safety permit must register too, and some states require a USDOT number for carriers that never leave the state. FMCSA’s Do I Need a USDOT Number? (opens in a new tab) page lists those states.

FMCSA’s USDOT Wizard (opens in a new tab) tells you whether you need a USDOT number alone or a USDOT number plus operating authority. Its result pages still mention URS, which is offline; apply in Motus.

If you are paid to haul other people’s regulated freight across state lines, you also need operating authority. See How to Get an MC Number.

Gather these before you sign in.

• A smartphone or tablet with a working camera, for the identity check.
• A valid government-issued ID in hand: a driver’s license, state ID card, passport or resident card.
• A phone that can get Login.gov’s codes by text or phone call, or another Login.gov sign-in method such as an authentication app.
• A personal email for your own Motus profile. FMCSA recommends not using your public business email for it.
• Your company’s exact legal name, and any trade name (DBA), as your state filings show them.
• Your principal place of business: a real business location. FMCSA does not accept a P.O. box or a private mailbox.
• The names of your company’s owners and officers.
• The basics of your operation: whether you cross state lines, whether you haul for pay, what you will carry, and the drivers and vehicles you plan to use.

FMCSA moved registration to Motus in May 2026. The old Unified Registration System (URS) is permanently offline, so a guide that walks you through URS is out of date.

Sign in with Login.gov

Everyone who uses Motus needs a Login.gov (opens in a new tab) account, the federal government’s sign-in service, with two-factor authentication, such as a code sent to your phone by text or phone call, an authentication app, or face or touch unlock. On the Motus home page, choose Sign In Login.gov in the Regulated Entities & Supporting Companies section.

Verify your identity

Motus then runs its own identity check, separate from Login.gov, and every new registrant must pass it. You scan a QR code on the screen with your phone or tablet, take a photo of your ID, then take a photo of your face. Your profile name fills in exactly as it appears on your ID.

If the online check fails, call the FMCSA Contact Center at 1-800-832-5660. You may be referred to a location where you can finish it in person.

Register your business

Next comes the company. Motus verifies the business itself: its legal name, principal place of business, ownership and company officials. Enter each one exactly as it appears in your state filings, such as your registration with your Secretary of State.

Describe your operation, then certify and submit

The rest of the application asks what you do: whether you cross state lines, whether you haul for pay, what you carry, and the drivers and vehicles you will use. If you haul other people’s regulated freight for pay across state lines, you add operating authority in this same registration.

Check your answers before you certify. Even if you hire a filing service, you start the application and pass the identity and business checks yourself, and you review its entries and sign the final oath and certifications.

We haven’t found an official processing time for Motus, and the day counts in many older guides were written for URS. Two things are in your hands: having everything ready before you sign in, and watching your email afterward.

Motus emails the confirmation of your new application, and later letters such as certificates, to your company’s account owner. FMCSA will not call you right after you apply, but private companies may, because carriers’ contact details are public. If something seems stuck, ask the FMCSA Contact Center.

If you also applied for operating authority, it becomes active after the number, once your insurance and process agent filings are on record and a 10-day protest period has passed. The MC number guide has that timeline.

• A mailbox as your business address. FMCSA does not accept a P.O. box, a private mailbox, or any address with no real tie to your business, such as a process agent’s.
• Names that don’t match. Motus verifies your legal name, address, owners and officers, so use them exactly as your state filings show them.
• Your public business email on your own profile. FMCSA recommends not using your public business email for your Motus user profile, because your business details are public.
• A fake Motus site. Look-alike “MOTUS” sites and emails exist. The real address is motus.dot.gov.
• Expecting a filing service to do it all. A filing service can’t do the identity and business checks for you, and the government generally does not require you to use a private business to register.
• Buying or renting a number. A USDOT number belongs to the same legal entity for good and can’t be sold, transferred, rented or leased. FMCSA inactivates a number used by anyone else.
• Hauling for pay with only a USDOT number. For-hire interstate carriers of regulated freight or passengers also need active operating authority.

• Look yourself up. Search your USDOT number, legal name or DBA in the Motus company search (opens in a new tab), or on FMCSA’s SAFER Company Snapshot (opens in a new tab), and check that your details are right.
• Mark your vehicles. Each self-propelled commercial motor vehicle shows your legal name (or the one trade name on your registration) and “USDOT” followed by your number, on both sides, in letters that contrast with the background and can be read from 50 feet in daylight. A suffix you may see after your number in Motus is not part of the marking.
• Keep your registration current. You update it every 24 months in Motus, by a deadline set by the last two digits of your USDOT number. Missing the update can bring penalties and deactivation of your number.
• Get ready for the New Entrant period. New carriers are monitored for 18 months, with a safety audit within your first 12 months of operating, or your first 120 days if you carry passengers. Our New Entrant Safety Audit Checklist covers what the auditor checks.