The Department of Transportation announced its new registration system Tuesday. Motus, after a planned migration of registered entities' data from the old system over this past weekend, appears to be live for use.
- The new system follows a registration modernization effort by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration stretching back to early 2024.
- It's aimed to address what current Administrator Derek Barrs has called the agency's "front door problem," allowing bad actors to game the authority system.
- Registered entities will need to claim their new Motus profile with a few ID-verification steps to make any change going ahead.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FMCSA's Barrs lauded the rollout of Motus as replacing a decades-old network of loosely connected applications "rife with fraud, waste, and abuse," according to the Tuesday press release announcing the launch.
All motor carriers, brokers and other registered users will now undergo identity verification to claim their profiles.
Previously, bad actors applying for registration/authority could easily hide their identity, game the system, and endanger American families on the road, DOT acknowledged, estimating "several thousand suspicious registration numbers tied to fraudulent carriers."
With Motus in place, FMCSA can now use biometrics and data analytics to verify:
- That registrants are who they say they are, and
- That the businesses they represent are legitimate, legal entities.
FMCSA Office of Registration Director Ken Riddle, speaking to Overdrive Radio last week, emphasized what should be a fairly simple process to get set up in the new system.
[Related: FMCSA registration to go dark: How truckers can prep for Motus]
It starts with the login.gov account active carriers should have "because we require that now," Riddle said. "And then they're going to come into the system, and they will have to go through identity verification, even if they've already been through it before."
This brief outline of the three-step process for registration is housed at this link to FMCSA's website, detailing how to move into Motus for both new and existing registrants.
Riddle felt the transition to Motus happening now would be "in and of itself a large cleanup effort," he said last week. "I anticipate quite a few people not coming in and claiming their account because they shouldn't have an account. And there will be some that try," but who "won't be able to pass the ID verification" and/or subsequent business verification, he noted.
[Related: FMCSA's new ID-verification test-drive]
FMCSA plans to analyze every single registered entity via a contract with Thomson Reuters' Clear service for the business verification, Riddle said.
It's all part of the agency's "new fraud prevention and security measures," he said.
At this stage, getting past the ID verification for any carrier's designated company official should be enough to claim the new Motus account, he noted. "If we see that it's the company official logging into Motus," they'll be prompted to confirm their USDOT number, "and then they'll be able to claim the account. It's a pretty easy step."
Readers, have you tried to claim your account? Drop a comment below to tell us how it went if so or email us directly.
Administrator Barrs said the registration modernization effort "improves efficiency for legitimate carriers while strengthening FMCSA’s ability to detect fraud, improve data quality, and identify unsafe operators.”
Secretary Duffy laid benefits out in more stark terms: “Dangerous foreign drivers and the shell companies who employ them have been taking advantage of this lax, decrepit federal registration system for years. The lack of accountability is disturbing, and it’s killed American families on our roads."
The new system would "strengthen oversight on shady carriers," Duffy said. "And for good, honest drivers who follow the rules -- our new system will improve customer service, enhance reliability, and cut down on red tape.”
More Motus resources are available at FMCSA's Office of Registration site at this link.
[Related: Inside FMCSA's registration overhaul to 'clean up the bad actors']
