The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is reminding motor carriers that several legacy systems will be taken offline on Thursday night as the agency transitions to the next-generation Motus system.

Julie Otto with FMCSA’s Office of Registration told trucknews.com that the Motus system will not only streamline the registration and updating process but also help reduce fraud.

“Motus is going to be your one-stop shop to be able to control and manage all of your registrations in one,” Otto said. 

However, for this upgrade to proceed, the agency will sunset the Unified Registration System (URS) and certain features of the FMCSA Portal and L&I at approximately 8 p.m. EDT on Thursday, May 14.

Ahead of that deadline, FMCSA has asked fleets to log in to their FMCSA Portal accounts to confirm they are active. They should check that all company information, operation classification, and the individuals authorized to access the account are correct. Updates can be made in the portal. 

Otto said that FMCSA has contracted with Idemia to incorporate stronger identity-verification protocols, enhanced data validation, and more secure account-management features into Motus. Idemia’s technology is currently used by the Transportation Security Administration at U.S. airports. 

FMCSA’s goal is to better protect legitimate carriers and brokers from scams, identity theft, and unlawful manipulation of operating authority.

Moving forward, all new industry entrants will need to be verified, and existing registrations will have to be verified when users access Motus for the first time after the system is activated, starting May 19. 

Otto encouraged fleets to contact FMCSA’s customer service center online or by calling 1-800-832-5660 if they need help navigating the changes or do not log in to the portal prior to the May 14 deadline. She also said FMCSA was posting a series of short Motus explainer videos.