How to Get a DOT Number (and Why the EIN Comes First)

DOT number, MC number and EIN: three different numbers

People say "DOT number" and "USDOT number" for the same thing. Neither one is a tax ID, and neither replaces the EIN.

Who needs a USDOT Number

Under the federal rule, you need one if you operate in interstate commerce with a vehicle that:

• has a gross vehicle weight or weight rating, alone or in combination with a trailer, of 10,001 pounds or more, or
• is designed or used to carry more than 8 passengers, driver included, for compensation, or
• is designed or used to carry more than 15 passengers, driver included.

Carriers that haul hazardous materials in the types and quantities that need a safety permit must register too, even when they stay inside one state.

Interstate commerce is wider than crossing a state line yourself. It includes a trip between two places in one state that passes through another state, and a trip inside one state that is one leg of a shipment starting or ending somewhere else.

Why the EIN comes first

• A company has nothing else to register under. FMCSA keeps an EIN or an SSN on each registration. An LLC, corporation or partnership has no SSN, so the EIN has to exist before the application does.
• FMCSA asks sole proprietors to use one. Its notice for sole proprietors strongly encourages registering with an EIN. It also warns that personal details used to register are published on FMCSA websites, including a home address, phone number and email when those double as the business contact.
• The truck tax return needs one. IRS Form 2290, the heavy highway vehicle use tax return, asks for an EIN, and its instructions tell a filer who has none to apply. It covers vehicles with a taxable gross weight of 55,000 pounds or more.
• FMCSA may ask for the IRS letter later. To change the EIN or SSN on a registration, FMCSA lists the IRS EIN confirmation letter as a supporting document. Keep your CP 575 letter with the company records.

How to get a DOT number, in order

1. Settle the business structure. If the company will be an LLC or corporation, get the state filing approved first. See how to get an LLC and an EIN.
2. Get the EIN. Apply in the exact legal name of the company, or in your own name with any DBA if you are a sole proprietor.
3. Register in Motus. Create a Login.gov account, sign in at motus.dot.gov and complete the registration. FMCSA verifies the identity of the person applying against a government-issued ID, and verifies the business as well. Use the legal name exactly as it appears on your IRS letter.
4. Add operating authority if you need it. See the next section. FMCSA charges a filing fee for each authority and does not refund it, so choose only the types your business will use.
5. Finish the state side. FMCSA does not track state rules for you. Your state may have its own carrier registration, and it will have its own state tax accounts.
6. Keep the record current. New carriers enter FMCSA's New Entrant Safety Assurance Program, and every registrant owes an update every two years.

Who files each step

You can do all of it yourself: the IRS does not charge for an EIN and FMCSA registration is online. If you would rather hand it off, the work splits in two. We file the EIN. The FMCSA filings go to ICR Filings. ICR Filings is a separate company we work with. Its prices on November 9, 2026:

• New USDOT Number: $199.
• New authority package (USDOT, MC authority, BOC-3 and UCR): $499 plus $355 in government fees.
• The update every two years, and a free USDOT lookup that shows what a number you already hold still needs.

Forming the company as well? See LLC for a trucking company or LLC for a box truck business, and EIN for a trucking company for who needs the number.

When you also need an MC number

Operating authority is a second registration on top of the USDOT Number. In general you need it if, in interstate commerce and for a fee, you carry passengers, carry federally regulated goods that belong to someone else, or arrange that transport as a broker or freight forwarder. The authority is identified by an MC, FF or MX number depending on its type, and one company can need more than one.

FMCSA says these carriers do not need operating authority:

• private carriers, which haul their own cargo,
• for-hire carriers that haul only exempt commodities, and
• carriers that work only inside a federally designated commercial zone.

Authority also brings paperwork that someone else files for you. Your insurer files proof of insurance with FMCSA electronically, and a Form BOC-3 names your process agents. The type of authority sets the level of insurance you must carry.

FMCSA has proposed to stop assigning MC numbers and identify every registrant by USDOT Number alone. The 2026 Motus release did not make that change, so operating authority still comes with a docket number.

Trucks that stay in one state

Apart from the federal rule, many states require their own intrastate commercial vehicle registrants to hold a USDOT Number. FMCSA lists those states on its Do I Need a USDOT Number page, linked below, and sends you to your state agency for the rule itself. The number is still issued by FMCSA through the same registration.

Quick answers