FMCSA pauses deactivations as it works on Motus issues

by Neil Abt July 5, 2026

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has temporarily suspended the inactivation of USDOT numbers for entities that have not completed the required biennial update since June 1.

“Registrants will receive additional time to complete any required biennial updates and should not worry about inactivation resulting from Motus-related access or system issues,” FMCSA said in a statement. “We will share additional guidance as recovery and stabilization efforts continue.”

FMCSA’s announcement follows ongoing technical issues since the rollout of the new Motus registration system in May.

The agency said the goal with Motus is to be a one-stop shop for all registration requirements. The upgrade process required FMCSA to take several legacy systems offline.

In the meantime, a new website launched by HaulClaim has become a place for trucking fleets to share the problems they have encountered since the Motus rollout. More than 45 carriers have reported issues so far.

by Neil Abt

Neil Abt is senior editor of trucknews.com. He is a veteran journalist with 30 years of experience in reporting and public relations. Neil began his career covering sports for The Washington Post, followed by a position in the newsroom of America Online (AOL). He later held both reporting and leadership roles at Transport Topics and Fleet Owner, and served as vice-president of public relations at ISAAC Instruments. Neil is based out of Portland, Oregon. Reach him at neil@trucknews.com

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After purchasing a newer dump truck for road construction 2 weeks ago in Iowa, I went to a Minnesota DMV to get it registered and get plates, they refused me, saying the FMCSA will NOT allow them to do so, stating that my DOT # is “inactive “! I am currently in full compliance, but that the new MOTUS website has a “glitch” I cannot use the truck I just spent $160k for. This is extremely subjective for us and the business, being that the road construction season is only 7 months in Minnesota and is almost half way through! How does the federal government expect businesses to survive their subjective policies? What is Sean Duffy doing for us? Don’t they care how much this is costing us businesses? With loan payments, insurance costs, having paid my heavy highway use tax, D & A consortium cost, and all the MANDATED overhead, it’s not a good idea to invest in business when the FMCSA does this policy change at the beginning of the season, instead of doing this in the winter, when almost all trucks are parked! I fail to see a sense of intelligent logic here, and it’s heavily costing me! It doesn’t exemplify consideration! Haven’t us rural Minnesotans suffered enough from government incompetence?