The Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) have rolled out a new registration system for truck drivers and other motor carriers aimed at preventing bad actors from applying for a federal trucking registration number.
With the launch of Motus, the department will now use biometric data to verify both the identity of the applicant and whether the business is a legitimate entity.
Motus will integrate mandatory identity verification protocols, including government-issued IDs and digital facial scans, as well as third-party business validation, in an effort to curb fraud.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs hailed the Motus rollout as replacing a decades-old network of loosely connected applications “rife with fraud, waste and abuse.”
“Dangerous foreign drivers and the shell companies [that] employ them have been taking advantage of this lax, decrepit federal registration system for years. The lack of accountability is disturbing, and it’s killed American families on our roads,” said Duffy in a statement. “We are delivering a new registration system that will stop fraud dead in its tracks and strengthen oversight on shady carriers. And for good, honest drivers who follow the rules—our new system will improve customer service, enhance reliability, and cut down on red tape.”
According to the agencies, the legacy Unified Registration System (URS) that Motus replaced only required registrants to provide an email, a name and a physical address. Arguing that the system was outdated, the agencies bemoaned the former platform’s fragmented infrastructure, in which trucking registration and compliance data were scattered across five or six disconnected applications.
“This patchwork has created rampant data sprawl, critical information silos and systemic blind spots,” the press release read. The FMCSA sunset the URS on May 14.
FMCSA said there were “several thousand suspicious registration numbers tied to fraudulent carriers” under the legacy system.
The launch of the tool is part of the Trump administration’s wider crackdown on trucking compliance across the U.S. and follows industry concern regarding both safety and freight fraud.
A 60 Minutes segment in April brought national attention to the trucking community’s concerns over the prevalence of unauthorized operators and “chameleon carriers” throughout the U.S.
Chameleon carriers are trucking companies that illegally reopen under a new name, address and DOT registration number after being cited for safety violations or shut down by the FMCSA. These firms have their safety record effectively wiped clean upon a new registration.
“FMCSA’s registration modernization effort represents a major advancement in how the agency oversees and supports the commercial motor vehicle industry,” said Barrs in a statement. “This system improves efficiency for legitimate carriers while strengthening FMCSA’s ability to detect fraud, improve data quality and identify unsafe operators.”
Aligning with the system upgrade, the FMCSA announced it is making $217 million in grant funding available for trucking and bus safety, workforce development and technology initiatives.
Grants will fund support for states modernizing their commercial driver’s license (CDLs) programs to ensure every trucker is properly qualified, trained and licensed. Additionally, the funds will go to safety enforcement training for law enforcement officers, as well as for current and former U.S. Armed Forces members who are transitioning to the trucking industry.
A day ahead of the Motus debut, supply chain risk intelligence solutions provider Overhaul launched its quarterly Cargo Theft Report, which identified 574 cargo theft incidents across the U.S. from January to March, a decrease of 6 percent compared to the year-ago quarter.
The dip is notable, marking the first time in five years that first-quarter cargo theft incidents fell year over year. According to Overhaul, the drop may be at least partially explained by a large number of arrests across the country as law enforcement cracks down on the issuance of CDLs and English-language proficiency.
However, the company pointed out that fraud-based schemes had grown more prevalent. Deceptive pickup, where criminals use fake identities, forged credentials and carrier impersonation to walk away with legitimate loads, rose 31 percent compared to the first quarter of 2025. Nearly half (48 percent) of those incidents occurred in California.
In total, deceptive pickup accounted for 10 percent of incidents in the first quarter of 2026.
Overhaul still considers the threat of cargo theft in the U.S. to be “high and on the rise” due to the continued increase in the level of organization and sophistication of criminal groups focusing on high-value cargo.
