Motus Is Broken. No Carrier Should Lose Its Authority Over It

FMCSA built Motus to keep fake carriers off the road. By the agency's own account, it's also keeping out real ones, and nobody can say when that stops.

Motus, the new USDOT registration system, went live May 19 (FMCSA). Five months later, an FMCSA official told CCJ that "about 95%" of registrations in Motus are working. "If you're part of that 5%, that's still a challenge. That's not acceptable to us," he said (CCJ).

Five percent sounds small until you're in it. One filer in twenty is a lot of new authorities, address changes and insurance updates sitting in limbo. For a one-truck operation, a registration that won't go through can mean a truck that can't legally haul.

"Weeks, not months," again

In early October, Deputy Administrator Jesse Elison told an industry group FMCSA was "weeks away" from fixing Motus. On Oct. 26 he was asked again and gave no new date. He said stabilizing the system would take "really weeks and not months," and admitted it is keeping out "absolutely more people than just the bad actors we intended it for" (FreightWaves).

His advice to carriers: "If you don't need to go in, don't go in yet." Those who do need to get in should contact FMCSA or their insurance contacts, he said, because the agency moves on those cases "in real time" (FreightWaves).

That help line had its own problems this month. POLITICO reported that the FMCSA contact center, run by the contractor Senture, was taken offline after a cyberattack, with technical trouble first reported Oct. 6 (POLITICO).

So the official workaround for a broken website is a phone line that was also knocked over. That's not a knock on the people answering the phones. It's a reason to stop treating this as a short glitch.

FMCSA already conceded the principle

The agency has done one thing right. It suspended enforcement of biennial updates and stopped inactivating USDOT numbers for anyone whose update came due on or after June 1 (FMCSA).

That decision admits something important: a carrier shouldn't be punished for failing to file through a system that doesn't work. We agree. The problem is that the relief covers one kind of filing, and Motus problems don't stop at biennial updates.

What we think FMCSA should do now

1. Make the grace period match the problem. Any carrier that can show it tried to file through Motus and got blocked shouldn't face an inactivation, a penalty or a lapse tied to that filing until the system is fixed. The biennial-update suspension is the model. Extend it to every filing Motus touches.

2. Put a date in writing. "Weeks, not months" has now been said twice in one month. FMCSA should publish a dated stabilization plan and a simple weekly status page: how many filings went through, how many failed, how many are waiting on staff. The agency already has a page for Motus alerts. Put numbers on it.

3. Give stuck carriers a receipt that counts. When a carrier calls 1-800-832-5660 or files a web ticket, the case number should mean something. A broker or shipper checking a carrier's status should be able to see "registration pending, FMCSA case open," not just a record that looks wrong.

4. Keep the fraud screening. Chameleon carriers and fake authorities are a real problem, and they hurt honest small carriers most because they undercut rates and wreck the industry's reputation. Nobody should want the vetting turned off. The ask is narrower than that: when the gate fails, the cost shouldn't land on the carrier standing in front of it.

If you're stuck right now

• Screenshot every error and write down the date and time of every attempt.
• Call FMCSA registration at 1-800-832-5660, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday, or use the web ticket form (Motus contact page). Get a case number.
• Tell your insurance agent, since Elison pointed carriers there too.
• If your biennial update came due after June 1, FMCSA says your USDOT number won't be inactivated for missing it (FMCSA).

Motus may well become the system Elison says it will be. Until it is, FMCSA should own the gap in writing, not leave small carriers to absorb it.