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FMCSA Motus: the new USDOT registration system
Motus is FMCSA's new USDOT registration system at motus.dot.gov. What changed, how to create your account and what to have ready. Talk to Ether today.
The FMCSA has moved registration to Motus, a new system at motus.dot.gov. If you are applying for your first USDOT number, filing for operating authority or just keeping your record current, this is where it happens now — and the way you sign in changed too. Here is what Motus is, how the account works and what to have on hand before you start.
What Motus is
Motus is the FMCSA's modernized registration system. It replaces the agency's legacy registration systems and brings registering, managing your registrations and controlling who is authorized on your account into one place.
It lives at motus.dot.gov. From there you can apply for a new USDOT number, apply for operating authority or another applicable registration, keep your business information current and submit your biennial update.
The FMCSA rolled it out in phases. Phase I opened on 8 December 2025 for supporting companies — blanket companies, financial responsibility filers and transportation service providers — so they could create their accounts first. Phase II arrived in the second quarter of 2026 and opened the system to all regulated entities.
Since 14 May 2026 the FMCSA's legacy registration systems yield to Motus. As of today, Motus is simply where registration happens: the old bookmarks and the old logins do not take you anywhere useful anymore.
The registration process
You do not create a password with the FMCSA. You sign in through Login.gov — either with an account you already have or with a new one, which is free. All you need to start is an email address.
The first time you log in you complete identity verification. Motus pairs Login.gov with identity verification to protect your personal data and keep someone else from opening a registration in your name.
For that step you need a device with a camera — a smartphone, a tablet or a computer with a webcam — and a valid government-issued ID. If you have no device with a camera, the FMCSA lists enrollment centers where you can complete the verification in person.
If you already hold a USDOT number, you do not start from scratch. Your company official sets up the company account by linking to and claiming your existing record, and your company data comes across automatically.
One detail worth getting right the first time: the company official has to use the same Login.gov email address for the FMCSA Portal that they use for Motus. Two different addresses is the fastest way to lock yourself out of your own record.
If you are brand new, this is also where you apply for the USDOT number and the operating authority themselves — the application and the account live in the same system.
Documents you will need
A valid government-issued ID for the identity verification step: an identity card, a driver's license, a passport or a resident card.
The email address behind your Login.gov account — the same one your company official uses on the FMCSA Portal.
Your business identity details: the legal name of the entity and who inside the company will hold the account as company official.
Motus lets you upload documents for FMCSA review and keeps them stored in your account, so you are not hunting for the same PDF every renewal. Which documents you upload depends on the registration type you are applying for.
Financial responsibility and process agent filings still apply as they always have — a motor carrier's BMC-91 certificate of insurance, a broker's BMC-84 surety bond or BMC-85 trust fund agreement, and the BOC-3 designation of process agents. In practice your insurance agent files the financial responsibility side and your process agent files the BOC-3; you are not uploading those yourself.
There is no single closed checklist that fits every carrier, because what Motus asks for depends on what you are registering as. Check the requirements for your own registration type before you sit down to file.
What changed vs. the old system
New USDOT numbers and operating authority docket numbers are now issued at random. That is a deliberate anti-fraud measure: a sequential number tells anyone watching roughly when it was issued, and a randomized one does not. Numbers already issued do not change — if you have a USDOT number today, it stays exactly as it is.
You can upload documents directly for FMCSA review, and they stay stored in the account instead of living in an email thread.
The interface is smartphone-friendly and built to catch mistakes as you make them, with auto-population, real-time data validation, smart logic, edit checks and notifications.
You control who is authorized on your company account. That matters more than it sounds: it is how you stop a former dispatcher or a service you stopped paying for from still having a way into your record.
The legacy registration systems have been retired. If your process was 'log into the old site and file', that process no longer exists and needs to be rebuilt around Motus.
What it means for your insurance filings
Your authority depends on a financial responsibility filing being on file and active. That filing is made by your insurer, not by you — but it is your authority that goes dark if it lapses.
So the practical rule is unchanged by Motus: when anything about your entity changes — legal name, address, the operation you run — your agent needs to know, so what is filed matches what is in your record.
Ether files the insurance side and coordinates with your process agent on the BOC-3, so the FMCSA sees one consistent picture of your operation instead of three versions of it.
Common mistakes
- Opening a brand-new company account when you already have a USDOT number, instead of claiming the record you have. You end up with your history in one place and your filings in another.
- Using one email on the FMCSA Portal and a different one on Login.gov. The company official then cannot get into the account, and fixing it costs more time than doing it right did.
- Starting identity verification on a desktop with no webcam and stalling halfway through, with a filing deadline already running.
- Assuming the old registration login still works. The legacy systems were retired on 14 May 2026 — anything built on them has to be redone in Motus.
- Setting the account up under a personal email that belongs to an employee. When that person leaves, your access to your own registration leaves with them.
- Waiting until a biennial update or a renewal is due to create the account for the first time, so a one-time setup lands on top of a deadline.
Our recommendations
- Create the Login.gov account and finish identity verification now, while nothing is due. It is a one-time step and it is much cheaper to do calmly than under a deadline.
- Decide who your company official is before you start, and register them under a company email address you control — not a personal one.
- Have a valid government-issued ID and a device with a camera next to you before you begin, so verification is one sitting instead of three.
- If you already have a USDOT number, claim the existing record rather than creating a second account, and confirm the imported company data is actually correct.
- Keep your own copies of everything you upload. Storage inside Motus is a convenience, not a substitute for your own file.
- Review who has authorized access to your company account periodically, and remove anyone who no longer works with you.
- Check motus.dot.gov for the current requirements before each filing, and tell your agent whenever your entity details change so your filings stay in step with your record.