How do I get an MC number and operating authority?

Chapter 01

What is operating authority, and which kind do I need?

Operating authority is FMCSA’s permission to haul freight for pay between States. It comes with a number that starts with MC. That is why owners call it an MC number or MC authority. It is not the same as your USDOT number, which is the ID FMCSA uses to track your safety record. The authority is your right to work for hire. A truck owner who hauls other people’s freight for pay needs both. The kind of authority to ask for is “motor carrier of property” (the rule on the online application).

Here is how that looks in real life. Say you have driven trucks for nine years. For the last three, you have owned your truck and leased it on to a carrier. You hauled that carrier’s loads under its authority. Its name and its USDOT number were on your door. You never had numbers of your own. Now you want to book your own loads and keep the whole rate. In September 2026 you formed a small company in your State and opened a business bank account. What comes next?

First, the USDOT number. FMCSA says you need one to haul between States if your truck is rated at 10,001 pounds or more (FMCSA’s page on who needs one). A tractor pulling a trailer is far above that. There are other cases too, such as some passenger vans and some hazardous materials loads. “Between States” also covers a trip inside one State when the freight comes from, or goes on to, another State or country. Some States also require a USDOT number for trucks that never leave the State. FMCSA uses the number to collect your safety record from inspections, audits and crashes.

Then the authority. Every carrier needs a USDOT number before it starts work between States. A carrier that hauls for pay also needs operating authority, unless its kind of hauling is exempt (the rule on starting interstate work). A company that moves only its own goods registers for the number and stops there (the rule on USDOT registration). You will haul other people’s freight for money, so you need both.

This is FMCSA’s decision. In April 2026, FMCSA put it in one line. Carriers, brokers and freight forwarders “may conduct transportation services in the United States only if they are registered with FMCSA” (its notice on Motus). In plain words: no active authority, no paid loads across State lines.

Now pick the right kind. FMCSA grants several kinds of authority (the rule on the online application). One is for carriers of general freight and one for movers of household goods. Others are for passenger carriers, brokers and freight forwarders. You carry freight in your own truck for pay. So you ask for authority as a motor carrier of property, not household goods. For this kind, FMCSA must find only one thing (the rule on kinds of applications). You must be “fit, willing and able” to do the work and follow the rules. In practice, fit means you meet the insurance and safety rules.

The other kinds are for other work. A household goods mover carries people’s furniture and belongings. FMCSA must also find that the service meets a public need, and the mover must file cargo insurance too (the insurance filing rule). Passenger carriers run buses and vans. A broker arranges loads for other carriers and is paid for that. In its role as a broker, the company does not haul the freight, and it files a bond or a trust fund instead of truck insurance (the review rule). Freight forwarders have a kind of their own as well.

Each kind costs money. The fee is $300 for each type of authority you ask for (the fee rule). So ask only for what you will really do. If you haul loads only in your own truck, broker authority is not for you. Ticking that box too would cost a second $300.

One more thing sets your path. You never had a number of your own from FMCSA. So FMCSA treats you as a new applicant. You ask for the USDOT number and the authority in one application (the rule on the online application). An owner who is already registered with FMCSA does not start from scratch. In Motus, a company that is already registered asks for more authority from its own account (FMCSA’s April 2026 notice).

Choose with care before you send it. After the application is filed, FMCSA generally does not let you change what you asked for. You can add evidence only with its approval (the rule on changes after filing).

Chapter 02

How do I apply for an MC number in Motus?

You apply online at Motus, FMCSA’s registration website since May 2026. You make an account and prove who you are with a phone and a photo ID. Then you fill in the application in English. It asks about your company, its owners and address, the work you plan, your trucks and drivers, and your safety rules. You pay the $300 fee online (the fee rule). The screens change often, so read what follows as it stood in September 2026.

Start with the identity check. You need a smartphone or tablet and a valid government ID, like a driver’s license or a passport. You scan a code on the Motus screen with your phone. Then you take a photo of the ID and scan your face (FMCSA’s April 2026 notice). FMCSA added this step to stop people who steal carriers’ identities.

Motus checks the business too. It confirms the company’s legal name, its main business address, who owns it and who runs it (the same notice). So have your company papers from your State at hand. Type the legal name exactly as your State shows it, down to the “LLC” at the end. That same name must appear on your insurance filing later, as the next section explains.

Then comes the application itself. FMCSA describes it as asking who you are and what work you plan, and where. It asks about your safety policies and the drivers and trucks you plan to use. It also asks whether you know the safety rules and will follow them (the same notice). What you say you will carry decides how much insurance you must keep. The whole application must be completed in English (the review rule). If English is your second language, ask someone you trust to read your answers before you send them.

Take the safety questions seriously. They are promises. Within your first 12 months, a safety auditor checks your records against the same rules (the rule’s definitions). Think of drug and alcohol testing, driver files, hours of service and truck repairs.

Here is how your evening goes. On Monday, October 5, 2026, you sit down with your phone, your driver’s license and your company papers. You pass the identity check. You ask for authority as a motor carrier of property, not household goods. You list one tractor, one trailer and one driver: you. You say you will haul general freight. You leave the broker box empty.

Then you pay. You pay through Pay.gov, the federal government’s payment website (FMCSA’s April 2026 notice). The fee is due when you file. Once FMCSA accepts the filing, the fee is not refunded. That holds whether your application is granted, rejected, dismissed or withdrawn (the fee rule). The $300 is the government’s fee for the authority. Your insurance, the process agent’s charge and the yearly UCR registration are separate costs.

Watch your email after you send it. Motus emails copies of its most common letters to the owner of the company account. They include the confirmation of a new application and the certificate. The letters also come by mail (FMCSA’s page on registration changes). But numbers in your account are not permission to haul. The authority behind them is not active until the steps below are done.

Chapter 03

What must be on file before my authority is active?

Two filings, and other companies usually send them for you. Your insurance company files proof of your liability insurance with FMCSA. A process agent company files a form called the BOC-3. The rules give 20 days for both (the review rule). The 20 days count from the day FMCSA publishes a notice of your application in its daily FMCSA Register. FMCSA issues no certificate of authority until your insurance filing is on file and accepted (the insurance filing rule).

Take the insurance first. For general freight in a truck rated at 10,001 pounds or more, the lowest liability coverage the rules allow is $750,000 (the minimum limits). Hazardous materials need more. What goes to FMCSA is not your policy. It is a certificate your insurer files on a federal form, usually the BMC-91 or the BMC-91X (the rule on insurance forms). The insurer also gives you an endorsement called the MCS-90. You keep it at your main place of business (the rule on proof of insurance). For general freight, the federal filing covers liability only. The rules ask for a cargo insurance filing only from household goods movers (the insurance filing rule). Choosing the policy is its own subject. Here what matters is that the filing reaches FMCSA.

One detail matters more than it looks. The certificate must be issued in “the full and correct name” of the company that gets the authority (the rule on insurance forms). A filing under your personal name does not match a company called “Your Name Trucking LLC”. Give the agent your company’s legal name exactly as it is in Motus. FMCSA’s page on insurance filings warns about this too. The name and address must match your State papers exactly, or the grant is delayed (FMCSA’s page on insurance filings).

Now the BOC-3. It names your process agents. A process agent is a person in a State who can accept court papers for your company. You need one in every State where you operate and every State you drive through (the rule on required States). The rules let you use a company that keeps agents in every State and lists them all on one form (the rule on blanket agents). That is the simple way. Only one BOC-3 can be on file for you. You keep a copy at your main place of business (the rule on the form). How to choose an agent and check the filing is in our guide to the BOC-3.

You do not upload the insurance proof. Insurance companies and BOC-3 filing companies have their own accounts in Motus, and they send their filings there themselves (FMCSA’s April 2026 notice). Your job is to line both companies up early and then make sure they act.

Back to your case. The week you apply, you call a process agent company and your insurance agent. You give both your company’s legal name, spelled as it is in Motus. On October 13, a summary of your application appears in the FMCSA Register. Your 20 days run to November 2. The process agent company files your BOC-3 on October 14. Your insurer files on October 20. Both are in with days to spare.

Chapter 04

What happens after I apply, and how do I know I am active?

FMCSA staff check your application first. Then FMCSA publishes a summary of it in the FMCSA Register. For 10 days after that, anyone can protest that you are not fit. If no one does, and your insurance filing and BOC-3 are in, FMCSA issues your certificate and the authority becomes active (the rule on the notice). FMCSA’s page on getting authority says a new application may take 20 to 25 business days, or longer with a further review (FMCSA’s page on getting authority). Before you haul, check your status in your Motus account and on FMCSA’s public company lookup.

The first check is for mistakes. FMCSA looks at whether your application is correct and complete. Small mistakes are fixed without telling you. An application that leaves out something important is rejected. A company with an Unsatisfactory safety rating from DOT is rejected too (the review rule).

Next, the notice goes public. It appears in the FMCSA Register, FMCSA’s daily list of registration actions (the FMCSA Register page). The rules call it a preliminary grant. It tells the public about your application, in case anyone wants to oppose it (the review rule). For a general freight carrier, a protest can argue only that you are not fit (the rule on kinds of applications). A protest must reach FMCSA within 10 days of the notice (the rule on protest deadlines). If someone does protest, you may answer with a reply within 20 days of the notice (the rule on replies).

Then the authority becomes active. If no one opposes, the rules say the grant “will become effective by issuance of a certificate” (the rule on the notice). But no certificate is issued until your insurance filing is accepted (the insurance filing rule). In your case the 10 days end on October 23, and your filings were in by October 20. Say Motus emails you the certificate on October 27. FMCSA’s page on getting authority says the documents normally go out within 3 to 4 business days after the grant (FMCSA’s page on getting authority). Yours may come sooner or later.

How long does it take in all? FMCSA’s page on getting authority, last updated April 20, 2026, gives a figure. It says a new application may take 20 to 25 business days. If FMCSA decides the application needs a further review, that can add 8 weeks or longer (FMCSA’s page on getting authority). That page was written for the system before Motus, so treat it as a guide, not a promise. The rules themselves fix only two periods: 10 days for protests and 20 days for the filings, both counted from the notice. FMCSA gave one more number in April 2026. It was for applications sent on the older OP-1 forms instead of through Motus. Those should expect at least eight business days just for the first review (FMCSA’s April 2026 notice). So do not promise a shipper a date on a guess.

How do you know you are active? Look in two places. Your Motus company account shows the status of each authority, and Motus now adds the reason for a status (FMCSA’s page on registration changes). FMCSA’s registration page also sends people to the SAFER Company Snapshot, a free public lookup, to check a company’s status (FMCSA’s registration page). Look yourself up there too, the way a stranger would. FMCSA’s page on getting authority, written before Motus, still sends you to a third place. That is the Licensing and Insurance site, under Authority History, which shows the date your authority was granted (FMCSA’s page on getting authority). Your authority must show as active, not still waiting. You cannot haul for pay across State lines until it does (the insurance filing rule). What you can do while you wait, and what must wait, is in our guide to finding loads before your authority is active.

Expect calls, texts and letters once you are registered. FMCSA’s site for new carriers warns that some come from people who pretend to be FMCSA to steal a carrier’s details. It says FMCSA never calls through telemarketers or “robo-call” messages, and never asks for a card number by phone (FMCSA’s new carrier site). It also says FMCSA charges nothing for its downloadable forms. One real call you should expect: within 90 days after your registration is complete, FMCSA’s New Entrant Contact Center calls to confirm your details. If you do not respond, your registration may be revoked (the same site).

Being active is not the end. Your authority does not become permanent until you complete FMCSA’s program for new carriers (the new entrant rule). For 18 months, FMCSA watches your safety closely. A safety audit comes once you have run long enough to have records, generally at least three months (the monitoring rule). How to get ready is in our guide to the new entrant safety audit.

There is one more federal registration to sort out. UCR, the Unified Carrier Registration, is a yearly registration with a fee. The UCR Plan says a business with a federal MC number must register (the UCR Plan’s questionnaire). Do it before your first load, so it does not become one more thing to fix later. How to file it, and what it costs, is in our guide to UCR registration. Plates, fuel tax and the other yearly filings have their own dates, gathered in our filing calendar.

Chapter 05

What if my application is rejected or the insurance never shows up?

If FMCSA rejects your application, you have 10 days from the date of the rejection letter to appeal (the appeal rule). If the insurance filing or the BOC-3 never arrives, FMCSA issues no authority, and you cannot haul for pay across State lines (the insurance filing rule). An application can end in dismissal. The $300 fee is not refunded (the fee rule). You can apply again, but you start over.

Now take a second owner. Say a friend of yours applies the same week, also with one truck. He tells his insurance agent his own name, not his company’s. The agent files the proof under his personal name. The rules want “the full and correct name” of the company that gets the authority (the rule on insurance forms). His filing does not match his application. His notice appears on October 13, like yours. November 2 comes and goes. FMCSA still has no insurance filing in his company’s name.

What happens then? The rules set the 20 days, but they do not say what FMCSA does on day 21. FMCSA’s page on insurance filings does. If no insurance filing arrives within 20 days of the notice, FMCSA serves a decision. It says the application will be dismissed unless the filing comes in within 60 days (FMCSA’s page on insurance filings). So the 20 days in the rule get a second chance of 60 days. That page speaks of the insurance filing. We could not confirm that a late BOC-3 gets the same 60 days, or how long FMCSA waits in practice. Either way, your friend has no active authority. He cannot haul for pay across State lines until his insurance is filed and accepted (the insurance filing rule). Say his application is dismissed. FMCSA says a carrier can apply again in Motus after a rejection, withdrawal or dismissal, if it meets the conditions (its April 2026 notice). But the first $300 does not come back, and a new application brings its own fee (the fee rule).

The fix costs nothing if you act in time. Call your insurance agent the day your notice appears. Ask for the filing in the company’s exact legal name, and ask the date it will be sent. A few days later, check your Motus account to see that it arrived.

Rejection is the other road. Say FMCSA rejects an application because an important part is missing. The owner can appeal within 10 days of the letter’s date. If the appeal wins, the application counts as filed on the date of the appeal decision, not the first date (the appeal rule). So an appeal costs time even when you win. Read the letter the day it comes. An owner who would rather give up asks in writing for the application to be dismissed (the rule on withdrawal).

The same trap can catch you after you are active. Your insurance must stay on file with FMCSA all the time (the insurance filing rule). If the policy is cancelled, a notice goes to FMCSA. The filing ends 30 days after FMCSA receives it (the rule on insurance forms). FMCSA says that if the required insurance is not kept on file, the authority “will be revoked or suspended involuntarily” (FMCSA’s April 2026 notice). So a policy cancelled for a missed payment can lead to suspension or revocation of your authority. How to keep it active, and how to restore it, is in our guide to keeping your authority active.

Chapter 06

What changed with Motus, and should I do this myself?

On May 19, 2026, FMCSA opened Motus, its new registration website (FMCSA’s registration page). Motus did not change the rules. The kinds of authority, the $300 fee, the filings and the review rest on the same rules as before. What changed is the website, the identity check and the way numbers are issued. Motus still issues MC numbers. You can file the application yourself. FMCSA does not require you to hire anyone, and its forms are free (FMCSA’s new carrier site).

Motus took over from the Unified Registration System, which new carriers had used since 2015. FMCSA also said it would retire the old Licensing and Insurance system, the screens where owners have long checked their insurance filings. It said the public would be able to search a company’s registration record in Motus (FMCSA’s April 2026 notice). The notice explains how Motus meets the existing rules. It did not rewrite them.

FMCSA says new numbers of both kinds, USDOT and MC, are now random, to make fraud harder. Each new authority gets its own number, even when you ask for two in one application. Numbers already issued stay the same (FMCSA’s page on registration changes). Doing away with these numbers is only under consideration. FMCSA says it would first propose it in a rulemaking open for public comment (the same page). So if you read that FMCSA has stopped issuing MC numbers, that is wrong.

You may also see letters after a new USDOT number in your Motus account. FMCSA calls them suffixes. They show the kinds of registration you hold. You do not have to put them on your truck (the same page).

So some advice you will find is out of date. A guide that tells you to apply through the Unified Registration System was written before May 2026. A guide that sends you to the Licensing and Insurance screens may soon be out of date too, since FMCSA plans to retire them. And one that says the numbers are gone was never right.

Should you do it yourself? You can. The application is not hard if your papers are ready, you read English well, and you follow up on both filings. The $300 fee is the same whoever files (the fee rule). What costs owners money is the follow-up: a filing under the wrong name, a missed call from FMCSA, or a policy that lapses in month five. Your own case took three weeks from the day you applied to the certificate, because you lined up both companies early and checked each step. Your friend’s case shows the other road.

There are things we could not check. We could not sign in to Motus, so we do not describe its screens, and what we say about them is as of September 2026. The only official time, 20 to 25 business days, is on an FMCSA page written before Motus. FMCSA’s page on insurance filings gives 60 days to cure a missing insurance filing, but we could not confirm that a late BOC-3 gets the same. We could not confirm the exact status names Motus shows, or what its public search and the SAFER Company Snapshot display for a new authority. Once you are active, finding the first loads is its own story, told in our guide to getting loads with a new authority.

If you would rather hand this to someone, we file the application, line up the BOC-3 and watch your filings every month: here is what it costs.