When must I update my MCS-150, and what if I miss it?

Chapter 01

When is my MCS-150 update due?

Your MCS-150 update is due every 24 months, by the last day of a month picked by your USDOT number. The last digit gives the month. The digit before it gives the year: odd means odd years, and even means even years. You file it even when nothing has changed. A new company also files the form once before it starts running (the update rule).

Here is how that looks in real life. Say you run two trucks under your own authority, hauling general freight across State lines. One Monday in September 2026, a broker you want to haul for looks you up on FMCSA’s public company snapshot. It shows your USDOT number inactive (FMCSA’s company snapshot). He will not give you the load until it says active. You last filed the update in April 2024. A year ago, you moved the office to a new address and got a new phone number. You never told FMCSA.

The form behind all this is the Motor Carrier Identification Report, Form MCS-150. It is FMCSA’s record of who you are and how big you are. To see when yours was due, start with your number. Say it ends in 24. The rule turns the last digit into a month (the update rule):

Your last digit is 4, so your month is April. The digit before it is 2, which is even, so you file in even years. Your update was due by April 30, 2024, and again by April 30, 2026. You filed the first one and missed the second. That missed update is why your number went inactive.

The due date comes from your number, not from the day you last filed. A late filing does not move it. Whatever day you file this time, your next update will still be due by April 30, 2028.

Chapter 02

What happens when the update is missed?

The rule says a carrier that skips the update faces civil penalties “and deactivation of its USDOT Number” (the update rule). Deactivation stops your trucks. A separate rule says a truck hauling across State lines must not run without an active USDOT number (the rule on prohibited transportation). There is a temporary exception to enforcement. FMCSA has paused deactivations for some updates missed during the move to Motus.

Start with the money. The update rule points to the federal penalty for missing reports and records. In FMCSA’s penalty table in September 2026, that penalty is up to $1,584 for each day, and no more than $15,846 in all. In some cases FMCSA can use a different penalty instead, from $1,365 to $10,269 for each violation (FMCSA’s penalty table). These are the permitted amounts and limits. FMCSA sets the real amount by how serious the violation was and how much you were at fault. It also weighs your history and your ability to stay in business (the penalty rule).

Running while the number is inactive is a separate problem, and a costlier one. It breaks the rule on prohibited transportation. The penalty table allows up to $19,246 for each violation of that kind (FMCSA’s penalty table).

Here is how the pause works. FMCSA moved its registration work to Motus on May 19, 2026. To ease the move, FMCSA says it “has temporarily suspended enforcement of biennial updates and the inactivation of USDOT Numbers.” That covers companies that have not done the update (FMCSA’s registration page). FMCSA’s own notice, last updated September 10, 2026, says who the pause covers. It says that “Registrants whose biennial update was due on or after June 1, 2026 will receive additional time to complete any required biennial updates”. And it says they “will not have their USDOT Number inactivated for failing to submit a biennial update” (FMCSA’s notice). In plain words: if your update was due on June 1, 2026 or later, you get more time. Your number is not switched off for missing it. FMCSA gives no end date. It says only that it “will share additional guidance” as Motus recovers (the same notice).

Your update was due on April 30, 2026, before that date. So the pause does not reach you. If your month is June 2026 or later, file anyway. The rule itself has not changed, and the pause has no end date yet.

What about your operating authority, the MC number? It is a separate registration, and it depends on filings of its own. If your insurance filing lapses, for example, FMCSA suspends or revokes the authority (FMCSA’s April 2026 notice). To get it back, you apply for reinstatement, and Motus takes that request too. FMCSA’s fee schedule lists $80 for a petition to reinstate revoked authority (the fee schedule). We could not find an FMCSA page that says what an inactive USDOT number does to the authority. In practice it changes little. Without an active number, your trucks may not haul across State lines at all. How the authority is granted is in our guide to operating authority. The process agent filing that goes with it is in our BOC-3 guide.

Chapter 03

How do I file the update and get my number active again?

File the update in Motus, at motus.dot.gov, with every detail brought up to date, and ask for reactivation there. Your Motus company account stays open while your USDOT number is inactive. FMCSA says you can “request reactivation directly in the system” (FMCSA’s page on Motus). FMCSA does not say how long that takes. Until the number shows active again, keep the trucks off interstate loads.

So that Monday evening, you sit down with a laptop, your phone and your driver’s license. The first time you sign in, Motus checks who you are. FMCSA said in April 2026 that Motus would check the people behind about 800,000 existing companies this way, at their first sign-in. The check needs a smartphone or tablet and a government ID. You take a photo of the ID, and then of your own face (FMCSA’s April 2026 notice). FMCSA’s guide to the first login walks through it.

Once you are in, open your company account page. There you see your status, make changes and file the biennial update (FMCSA’s guide to the company account page). Then go through your record line by line.

FMCSA’s public census file shows what the record holds for each company (FMCSA’s Company Census File). It has your legal name and any trade name, your physical and mailing address, your phone, cell phone and email, and your company officers. It has the trucks, tractors and trailers you own or lease. It has your drivers and how many hold a CDL, and your miles with the year they were driven. It also lists the cargo you haul and how you run: across State lines or inside one State, within 100 miles or beyond.

In your case, the record still shows your old office address and phone number. The email is one you stopped reading. And the partner you brought in last year is not listed as an officer. Fix those first, because they decide where FMCSA’s letters go. Motus emails copies of the most common FMCSA letters to the account owner, and FMCSA still mails them as well (FMCSA’s page on Motus). For a year, anything FMCSA mailed you went to the old office. A working phone matters most for a new company. FMCSA’s new entrant office calls in the first 90 days to confirm the registration. If nobody answers, the company can lose its registration (FMCSA’s new entrant site).

Then fix the numbers. You still run two trucks, but one of them now runs with a team, so you have three drivers. Count the drivers you have today. For miles, give what the two trucks really ran and the year they ran it, from your fuel and trip records. The rule punishes “misleading information” and “false statements” on this form, so do not guess (the update rule).

The update fixes what you tell FMCSA about your company. It does not fix inspections or crashes. If an inspection on your record is not yours, or a crash report is wrong, that takes a separate request, a DataQs challenge. And if you find changes you never made, such as a strange email or address, call FMCSA at 1-800-832-5660 (the update rule). FMCSA reports a sharp rise in fraud, including stolen carrier accounts (FMCSA’s April 2026 notice).

With the details right, file the update and ask for reactivation from the account page. Owners often search for this step as USDOT number reactivation. We could not find any published time for it. If the account page gives you trouble, FMCSA’s notice says to call 1-800-832-5660 or open a ticket with its contact center (FMCSA’s notice). FMCSA’s older list of registration forms, last updated in September 2025, shows the same road. A reactivation request went in by ticket, with the MCS-150 form attached, and cost nothing (FMCSA’s registration forms page). Filing on paper does not guarantee a shorter wait either. FMCSA’s April 2026 notice says it still accepts the paper MCS-150 with a copy of a government ID. It also says the first review of a paper form takes at least eight business days (FMCSA’s April 2026 notice). Yet FMCSA’s registration page says it stopped taking paper transactions on September 30, 2025 (FMCSA’s registration page). We could not tell which holds for a form sent by mail today, so use Motus.

Until the company snapshot shows your number active, keep both trucks off loads that cross State lines (the rule on prohibited transportation). Check the snapshot each morning. It is the same page the broker checks.

You can do all of this yourself. FMCSA says it never charges a fee for its downloadable forms, and it does not require you to use a service. Its list of registration forms shows no processing fee for the biennial update either (FMCSA’s registration forms page). It also warns that people pose as FMCSA in letters, emails, texts and calls to steal carrier details (FMCSA’s new entrant site).

Chapter 04

How do I keep my record right from now on?

Put your next due date on your calendar, and update the record whenever your company changes, not only every two years. By law, a new name or address must be reported (FMCSA’s April 2026 notice). Motus lets you make changes at any time (FMCSA’s page on Motus). Keep the truck and mile counts right above all, because your safety scores are built on them.

Your next update is due by April 30, 2028 (the update rule). Put it next to your other filings. Our guide to your filing calendar puts the year’s deadlines in one place. Some changes take extra steps. With operating authority, a new legal name, or a new business form such as a corporation, has its own steps. You send proof of the change, and a name change costs $14 (the name change rule, the fee schedule). Motus takes name and address change requests (FMCSA’s April 2026 notice).

Now the numbers, and why they matter so much. Take a different owner. His company grew from two trucks to six over the past year, but his record still says two. FMCSA’s safety scores, which most people call CSA scores, take the truck count from this record (FMCSA’s scoring manual). The unsafe driving score and the crash score add up your violations or crashes, counted by how serious and how recent they are. Then they divide the total by your trucks. A smaller truck count means a worse score. With two trucks on record instead of six, each violation weighs about three times as much.

Fixing the record today does not fix the score at once. The scores average the trucks on your record now, six months ago and 18 months ago (FMCSA’s scoring manual). If he updates today, that is six plus two plus two, divided by three: about three trucks. The average reaches six only once his record has said six for 18 months. Every month he waits pushes that day further away.

Miles count too. The same scores give a company whose trucks run many miles a bigger divisor. Take a fleet that is at least 70 percent tractors. If its trucks average from 160,000 to 200,000 miles a year, it gets the largest boost: the truck count is multiplied by 1.6. But only miles reported in the past 24 months count. With no recent miles on record, there is no boost at all (FMCSA’s scoring manual). Your own miles came in with the April 2024 update, more than 24 months ago, so you get no boost until you file. A small company may have no score yet, because the scores need enough inspections. The truck and mileage counts remain on the record all the same. Miles matter in a safety audit too, where FMCSA counts your crash rate per million miles (how the audit is scored). Keep the fuel and trip records that back up your number.

What has changed, and which advice is out of date? Before May 2026, owners made this update in FMCSA’s older online systems or on paper. FMCSA said in April 2026 that Motus would replace those systems, including the old FMCSA Portal (FMCSA’s April 2026 notice). Guides that send you to the old portal are out of date. So are posts that say FMCSA stopped issuing MC numbers. Motus still issues them, and existing numbers do not change (FMCSA’s page on Motus).

There are two things we could not check. FMCSA does not say how long reactivation takes. And we could not confirm how a paper form sent by mail is handled today. Check FMCSA’s registration page before you rely on either.

If you would rather have someone watch your due dates and keep your record current every month, here is what that costs.