Motus help

Authority Inactive After Motus: What Happened and What to Do

Updated September 2026

Three different things can make an authority read inactive or suspended in Motus, and they have three different fixes. Sort out which one you have before you call anyone.

1. The biennial update - not the problem right now

Normally, missing your MCS-150 biennial update deactivates the USDOT number and can cost up to $1,000 a day, capped at $10,000. FMCSA suspended those deactivations for Motus-related reasons starting June 1, 2026, and as of September 9-10 the pause continues until further notice, with FMCSA promising ample warning before it resumes. FMCSA also said about a quarter of the four million reminder letters it mailed bounced back to bad addresses.

So if your only issue is a late biennial update, file it in Motus (it is free) and you are done - it is not what took you inactive this summer.

2. BOC-3 - the process-agent filing

CAB found 143 authority records marked inactive for a missing BOC-3 where 23 had a BOC-3 on file when they were cancelled and 120 have one on file now. One Texas carrier's filing from 2008 was purged without warning; FMCSA reactivated it within a day of a CCJ report.

Fix: call your process agent and ask them to confirm the blanket BOC-3 is on file in Motus and, if it is not, to re-file it. Only a process agent can file it. Then open a ticket with the agent's confirmation.

3. Insurance - the big one

CAB counted more than 1,200 carriers with active, sufficient insurance sitting under involuntary suspension with the reason 'no active insurance meeting minimum coverage on file'. Suspension orders jumped after launch - 3,381 in June 2026 and 1,674 in July. The reported causes include an agent change that did not sync, a replacement policy that did not cancel the old one, and minimums that were changed by the migration.

Fix: your insurer must have an active BMC-91 or BMC-91X filing showing at least $750,000 for general freight. Call the agent, get the filing confirmation, and if Motus still shows a gap, open a ticket with that confirmation attached. FMCSA said in mid-September that insurance-synchronization fixes were still under internal review, with no timeline - so the ticket, not waiting, is the move.

New applications stuck in pending

If you are new and waiting: as of late August 2026 Motus showed roughly 18,000 pending applications, most lacking the insurance filing and many lacking the BOC-3, with a median age of 36 days. The two filings are what move an application - see the walkthrough steps on the insurer's filing and the BOC-3. FMCSA's rule is still 20 days from publication for both, with a 60-day cure window before dismissal.

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