The USDOT Number, Explained

Who needs one

The USDOT number is an identifier for safety oversight, not a licence to haul for money. Interstate carriers of property or passengers need one, and so do private carriers moving their own goods across a state line. A number of states also require a USDOT number for purely intrastate operations, which catches out plenty of local operators who assumed federal registration was for long-haul only.

Getting the number

One online form, MCSA-1 (the URS online application), handles the USDOT number, operating authority and a hazardous materials safety permit together. The number issues immediately and arrives inactive: you may not begin operations, and you may not mark a vehicle with it, until FMCSA writes to say it has been activated.

New carriers then enter an eighteen-month new-entrant period, at the end of which a safety audit decides whether the registration becomes permanent.

The biennial update

Every 24 months the registration information has to be updated — even when nothing has changed, even when the trucks are parked. The month is the month matching the last digit of the USDOT number, and the year is decided by the next-to-last digit: odd next-to-last digit files in odd years, even in even years.

Marking the vehicle

The legal name or trade name of the carrier and the USDOT number go on both sides of every self-propelled commercial vehicle, in letters that contrast with the background and are readable from fifty feet in daylight while the vehicle is stationary. Magnets are allowed; a number that has fallen off is a violation whichever way it was attached.

If you operate under someone else's authority, the marking shows their name and their number, plus your own name if the arrangement requires it — and the lease has to say so in writing.