If you haven’t logged into your FMCSA account in the last month, do it before you need to file anything.
As of mid-May 2026, FMCSA officially retired the registration systems carriers have used for years — including the Unified Registration System (URS) — and replaced them with a new platform called Motus. Phase II of the rollout, which opens the system to every motor carrier, broker, and freight forwarder on FMCSA’s books, is now live. If you hold a USDOT number, this affects you the next time you touch your registration — a biennial update, an authority change, an address change, or an insurance filing.
Here’s what’s actually changed, what’s still rolling out, and what to check on your end before this catches you off guard.
What Motus Replaces
For years, FMCSA registration ran across a patchwork of older systems — URS for authority and USDOT number applications, separate portals for insurance filings, BOC-3 process-agent designations, and biennial MCS-150 updates. Each ran semi-independently, which created duplicate records, outdated information, and openings for fraud.
Motus consolidates all of that into a single online dashboard. Carriers, brokers, and freight forwarders are meant to manage their registration information, authority status, and filings from one account instead of bouncing between systems.
The Rollout, in Plain Terms
FMCSA didn’t flip this on overnight:
- Phase I (late 2025) — Limited to “supporting companies”: insurance providers, BOC-3 registered agents, and other entities that file on behalf of carriers. This gave them early access to build out the back end before carriers showed up.
- Phase II (Q2 2026) — This is the one that matters to you. FMCSA confirmed in late April that Motus was opening to all regulated entities, and by mid-May, legacy systems were retired for new activity. If you’re a motor carrier, broker, or freight forwarder, Motus is now your registration system — there’s no opting out or sticking with the old portal.
- Phase III (ongoing) — FMCSA says it will keep refining the platform based on feedback from this rollout. The agency has also floated additional registration-related changes for future rulemaking, but those are separate from this launch and would go through the normal public comment process first.
What This Means the Next Time You File
Motus isn’t a new account you sign up for from scratch — your existing registration data is supposed to migrate over automatically. But here’s where it gets practical: account access is tied to whoever is listed as your FMCSA Portal Company Official, using their existing Login.gov credentials. If that person hasn’t claimed the Motus account, or if your company information is out of date, you may run into friction the next time you need to:
- Apply for a new USDOT number or operating authority
- Update your MCS-150 (required every 24 months)
- Change your business name or address
- Update insurance or BOC-3 filings
- Add or remove vehicles from your operation
The Out-of-Service Risk That’s Getting Buried in the Noise
Here’s the part that should actually get your attention: carriers whose registration data hasn’t fully migrated, or whose Motus account hasn’t been claimed, can show up as incomplete or inactive in the system. For an owner-operator, that’s not just paperwork — a roadside inspection that pulls up an incomplete registration record can result in an out-of-service order, even if everything else checks out.
The fix isn’t complicated, but it does require logging in:
- Confirm your Motus account is claimed — by the person listed as your Company Official, using the same email tied to your FMCSA Portal Login.gov account.
- Check your MCS-150 — if it’s been more than 24 months since your last update, do it now rather than waiting for a renewal notice.
- Verify your insurance filings show as active — insurers are filing through their own systems during this transition, so confirm coverage actually appears on your end.
- Double-check your vehicle count and operation type — migrated data doesn’t always come over clean, and government IT rollouts of this scale rarely go smoothly the first time.
One Thing to Ignore
You may have seen claims floating around that new carrier registrations have effectively frozen since Motus launched — some framed it as zero new carriers approved in weeks. That’s circulating because Motus reports registration data differently than the old system, not because FMCSA has stopped issuing new authority. Worth knowing so you don’t panic if you’re waiting on a new MC number — the numbers aren’t what they look like at first glance.
Bottom Line
This isn’t a “someday” regulatory story — Motus is the system you’re using now, whether you’ve logged in yet or not. The smart move is to spend ten minutes confirming your account is set up properly before you’re on the shoulder waiting for an officer to run your numbers. FMCSA’s registration resources hub at fmcsa.dot.gov/registration/resources-hub has current guides and fact sheets if you want to go deeper.
This piece is current as of publication. Given the pace of this rollout, verify specific filing requirements directly through your FMCSA Portal account.