FMCSA's New Registration System Is Broken. Its Enforcement System Is Worse.

FMCSA is simultaneously failing at two things: knowing who should be on the road, and taking action against those who should not be.

In May 2026, the agency launched Motus, a new carrier registration system meant to modernize how motor carriers interact with the federal government. By August, Commercial Carrier Journal was documenting serious data flaws: insurance limits being arbitrarily altered, valid operating authorities erroneously revoked, out-of-service orders failing to display, and old insurance policies failing to cancel when replaced.

At the same time, FMCSA's enforcement output was in free fall. Carrier enforcement cases dropped from 3,794 in FY 2024 to 750 in FY 2026, an 80% decline. Broker enforcement cases: zero since FY 2024. Total settlements collected: $27.8 million in FY 2024, down to $5.5 million in FY 2026.

The agency cannot accurately track who has insurance. It also cannot close a broker enforcement case.

Dmitry Borovoy's reporting in CCJ (August-September 2026) documents four categories of Motus failures:

First, out-of-service inaccuracies. Motus frequently fails to display active out-of-service orders, contradicting the older but more reliable SAFER system. A carrier under an active OOS order may appear clean in Motus. This masks severe safety violations.

Second, arbitrary insurance limit changes. Motus is automatically altering federal filing requirements, leaving carriers unexpectedly underinsured. Carriers whose filings were correct under URS find their insurance limits changed by the system without explanation, making them vulnerable to operating authority revocation.

Third, flawed cancellation and revocation processes. When a carrier replaces an insurance policy, the old policy should cancel. In Motus, it often does not. Meanwhile, valid operating authorities are being erroneously revoked. Carriers with proper insurance and filings discover their authority has been pulled by a system error.

Fourth, misleading excess policy displays. Motus shows the limits of excess insurance policies in a way that creates a false impression of adequate primary coverage, when dangerous gaps may exist.

These are not edge cases. They affect the fundamental data that determines whether a carrier is legally authorized to operate.

Borovoy's second investigation examined the 18,000 pending carrier applications in the Motus system as of August 27, 2026. The findings:

- 16,606 (92.3%) lack proof of financial responsibility (no BMC-91/91X filing) - 11,216 also lack a BOC-3 process agent filing - Only 1,394 pending applications have an active liability insurance filing - The median pending application is 36 days old - 627 are already past the approximately 90-day dismissal window

Of those 18,000 pending applications, 373 are household goods carriers. Another 862 are property brokers.

Dismissals, which ran near 100 per month through February 2026, dropped to single digits from March through May and showed zero for June, July, and August. This coincides with the Motus data migration. The enforcement vocabulary changed: revocations collapsed to near zero, and enforcement for lapsed coverage now surfaces as suspension orders instead (3,381 in June, 1,674 in July).

The stalled applications concentrate in the same states that lead everything else in trucking: Texas (2,041), California (2,001), Florida (1,489), Georgia (790), Pennsylvania (775), Illinois (698), New Jersey (689).

The timeline matters. Motus launched in May 2026. FMCSA's enforcement output was already falling before that, with FY 2025 closing at 35% of FY 2024. But the Motus launch coincides with the steepest phase of the decline.

Application dismissals went to zero in June 2026. Carrier enforcement cases in FY 2026 are running at 20% of FY 2024. Broker enforcement has been at zero since FY 2024. HHG carrier safety investigations hit a five-year low (89 in FY 2026 through July, down from 192 in FY 2025).

The agency devoted resources to launching a new registration system. That system is producing bad data. The enforcement system it was supposed to support is producing almost nothing.

State-level EMIS data confirms the enforcement decline is universal. Every major state saw carrier enforcement drop 75% or more between FY 2024 and FY 2026. Illinois closed zero carrier cases. Georgia dropped 92%. The collapse is not a data migration artifact. It predates Motus. But the migration made a declining system worse.

On September 10, 2026, Commercial Carrier Journal published the most detailed case study of Motus destroying a legitimate carrier's business.

River Oaks Couriers, a Sugar Land, Texas carrier operating for nearly three decades, was stranded at an Oklahoma weigh station when inspectors declared its federal authority inactive. The driver had no equipment violations. No hours-of-service issues. Motus had silently purged the company's BOC-3 process agent designation, a compliance record on file since 2008, without warning or notice on August 20.

The purge automatically deactivated the company's DOT number and motor carrier dockets, leaving loaded freight stranded mid-transit. 'This can put us out of business. Period. End of story,' said President Kevin Clark.

The problems had started earlier. On July 7, Motus overwrote the company's legal name with the name of its separately registered brokerage (Preferred Logistics), nearly costing the carrier its insurance renewal. When DOT attempted to fix the name, the agent changed the wrong entity, entangling both accounts.

Central Analysis Bureau (CAB) data shows River Oaks is not alone. 143 authority records in the Motus dataset are currently listed as inactive despite having a BOC-3 on file. 23 had a BOC-3 in place when Motus cancelled them. Another 120 are inactive despite currently having one on file. 'Motus shows that their BOC-3 was filed after the cancellation occurred,' said CAB Senior Product Manager Jay Weinberg, 'however, looking back at the old L&I system, which shows what they had when Motus went live, they have a BOC-3 already in place.'

FMCSA reactivated River Oaks within 24 hours of CCJ publishing the story. Media pressure fixed what months of trouble tickets, OIG complaints, and hold queues could not. Clark had waited 275th in line on hold, been disconnected at number 10, and sent a personal note to Transportation Secretary Duffy before the story ran.

Clark's message to the Secretary: 'The DOT has broken the covenant by not holding up their end of the bargain. They are no longer a legitimate overseer, as they are causing more damage than they prevent. No one is made safer on the road as a result of this disastrous rollout.'

On September 14, 2026, FMCSA officially defended the Motus rollout to Commercial Carrier Journal, framing the disruptions as temporary growing pains essential to rooting out fraud.

The agency acknowledged the problems but maintained the overhaul was overdue. Before Motus, carrier records were housed in an increasingly fragile 1990s system kept in an undisclosed location. Migrating that repository proved messy, the agency said.

FMCSA also pointed to carrier data quality: when the agency mailed 4 million MCS-150 update reminders, roughly 1 million (25%) bounced back due to faulty or outdated addresses. Small data discrepancies compound during migration.

But the agency declined to take concrete corrective steps. No formal escalation pathway beyond standard customer support. No target timeline for fixing remaining glitches. No reimbursement for carriers whose operations were unjustly sidelined. No commitment to pause automated insurance revocation notices that are deactivating carriers with valid coverage. All remain under internal review.

The defense frames Motus as a fraud crackdown tool. The agency said years of insufficient oversight allowed fraudulent operators and chameleon carriers to proliferate. This is the same agency that has never used its existing chameleon carrier tool (49 CFR 386.73) for a household goods case, has closed zero broker enforcement cases since FY 2024, and whose enforcement output has collapsed 80%. The system that is supposed to catch fraud is currently catching legitimate carriers instead.

For household goods consumers, the implications are direct:

A consumer checking a mover's authority status in Motus may see clean data for a carrier that is actually under an out-of-service order. A carrier whose insurance has lapsed may appear insured. A carrier whose authority was erroneously revoked may be operating in legal limbo, unable to confirm its own status.

FMCSA tells consumers to verify their mover's authority and insurance before hiring them. The system the agency provides for that verification is producing inaccurate results.

Meanwhile, the enforcement system that is supposed to act on carriers with documented violations is running at 20% capacity. The registration system that is supposed to track who is authorized to operate is producing erroneous revocations and missing OOS orders.

The agency that deployed 175 investigators for the CDL fraud task force on August 31 cannot accurately display whether a carrier has insurance on September 1.