New-carrier hub

Starting a trucking company in Motus

Every new carrier now starts in Motus — about 43,000 new motor carriers registered in a single 90-day stretch of 2026 (FMCSA Company Census File), roughly 175,000 a year at that pace. The system is the permanent front door, so learn the sequence once, in the right order. The order is the product: most new-carrier stalls are sequence errors, not paperwork errors.

The sequence

1. Form the company and get an EINMotus records are legal-entity records. Your articles of organization and EIN confirmation letter become your ownership proof for every future correction — keep the originals where you can find them.
2. Create your Login.gov account and pass identity verificationThe company official's own Login.gov, with the official's own government ID, verified through Idemia inside the flow. Use an email the company controls permanently — this email becomes the key to the record.
3. Apply in Motus for your USDOT number (and operating authority if you haul for hire across state lines)One application, exact legal name. Every later filing must match this name character-for-character — decide the name here, carefully, once.
4. Insurance filing: your insurer transmits the BMC-91/91XYou don't upload insurance; your insurer files it electronically. Confirm the transmission date and the exact name/USDOT used. This starts the real clock.
5. BOC-3: your process agent files the designationChoose a BOC-3 blanket company (process agent) and confirm their filing date. Both filings — insurance and BOC-3 — are due inside the 20-day filing window that starts with your application.
6. Watch the filings post, then the grant activatesMedian application-to-grant was 26 days in the month ending October 17, 2026 (FMCSA data). Check the record, don't assume. A submitted application is not authority — do not haul for hire until the grant shows active.
7. Set the biennial reminder and guard the official emailYour MCS-150 update recurs every two years on a schedule set by your USDOT number. And if the company official ever changes, update the record's official email immediately — that correction takes weeks when it's urgent and minutes of planning when it isn't.

Who files what — the table that prevents the #1 stall