The short answer
Not yet. FMCSA has proposed retiring MC numbers and identifying every registrant by its USDOT number alone, but when its new Motus registration system rolled out to registrants in 2026, MC and FF docket numbers stayed. The agency’s April 29, 2026 notice says: “In response to stakeholder feedback, the Phase II release of Motus will not include the implementation of safety registration, the elimination of MC/FF numbers, or changes to the Form BOC-3 filing process” (Federal Register).
So an MC number still identifies an operating authority, and new authorities still receive a docket number: the Motus Carrier dataset notes that Motus assigns a unique docket number to each operating authority.
What Motus changed in 2026
Motus is replacing the older registration systems, and the same notice set its timing: “In Phase II, planned for the second quarter of 2026, Motus will become available to all regulated entities.” The USDOT number stays at the center of it: “With Motus, FMCSA will continue to identify all regulated entities by a USDOT Number as the unique identifier that the Agency issues as part of the registration process.”
The visible change so far is suffixes. In the notice’s words, “New USDOT Number suffixes, which will appear at the end of a company’s USDOT Number to indicate each type of registration granted, are only visible in the system for ease of use at this time.”
Operating-authority data moved too. The legacy authority datasets on data.transportation.gov were last refreshed on May 14, 2026, and the Motus datasets replace them; downloading FMCSA data lists which is which.
What would come next
Any end to MC numbers would come through a rulemaking. The notice says: “FMCSA anticipates issuing a rulemaking in the Spring of 2026 proposing, among other things, to require the usage of Motus for all registrants, and to eliminate the listed forms.” When we checked the Federal Register on October 23, 2026, we found no published proposed rule on eliminating MC numbers. A proposed rule would be published there with a period for public comment before any final change.
What it means for carrier data and leads
For now, nothing changes in practice. An MC number still finds a carrier: enter it as “MC 123456” in the DOT number lookup. Our files keep mc_number and active_dockets beside dot_number, and fresh leads label new USDOT registrations and new authority grants as separate events.
If FMCSA does retire MC numbers, authority would be read from the USDOT number and its registration type instead of a separate docket, and the USDOT number, which every record already carries, would be the key to match on. Build your CRM around dot_number today and the change will cost you nothing.
Sources
- Federal Register, Availability of Motus, FMCSA’s New Registration System (April 29, 2026)
- Motus Carrier dataset (data.transportation.gov)
- 49 U.S.C. 13902, registration of motor carriers
Figures marked as current come from the FMCSA Company Census snapshot of November 7, 2026, as published on this site. How the data is built