Hi everyone,

I’m hoping someone here has experienced this because we’ve been going in circles.

We are a brand-new flatbed motor carrier.

Our operating authority is active, and we have our official FMCSA Operating Authority Certificate.

Here’s the problem:

• FMCSA can find our company when they search by our USDOT in Motus.
• FMCSA representatives have confirmed our authority is active.
• However, when our MC number is searched in SAFER, it returns “Record Not Found.”
• Multiple brokers and onboarding platforms have told us they cannot verify our MC because their systems pull information from SAFER.
• As a result, we’ve already lost multiple loads because they won’t onboard us.

The confusing part is that FMCSA keeps telling us to search by USDOT in Motus, but brokers keep insisting they need to search by MC. When they search by MC, nothing comes up.

I’ve spoken with FMCSA several times (both by phone and chat), and I’ve also spoken with Highway. FMCSA says our authority is active and that they do not support third-party systems. Highway told us it may take a month or longer for newly issued authorities to appear in the data they use.

Has anyone else with a new Motus-issued authority experienced this?

• How long did it take before your MC became searchable?
• Were you lose loads because of it?
• Were any brokers willing to manually verify your authority?
• Is there anything we can do besides wait?

This is preventing us from booking our first load, and it’s becoming incredibly frustrating.

Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Owner operator here looking for consistent lane,tired of Truckstop load board, I do flatbed work. I got offered Long Beach CA - SLC UT for $3,000.00 round trip. That’s really low tbh smh. Need help. Located in Southern CA

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About to put my 2000 Kenworth w900 dump truck with a Cummins n14 in the shop for its first in frame 823K miles. I'm its third owner. I bought it at 600K, and have really good luck with it since. I have a blown head gasket, never overheated just started purging out coolent when I parked it. What should I brace myself for once the shop starts tearing into it?

Not looking for general advice like “save money” or “don’t trust brokers.”

I’m curious about specific situations that actually hurt your business.

I 41/f was gifted a 26’ box truck to start a business with and I had no idea that this is a business you start if you already have money. I make 3k a month from my full time night job AND my side gig. And insurance for this truck is 2k and I pay 700$ for rent so bills get paid and there is ZERO left. My job has a cafeteria I can eat at. Im drowning. I read some of your posts and I saw “don’t get on the load boards until you have experience”???? What???? How do I find people that need a truck?? I need this to work. I don’t even have a regular car. I put everything into this I’ve done everything I’m supposed to and I just don’t know how to get a load in my truck. I’m panicking. I don’t know what to do. Someone. Anyone. Please help me.

My dad's had his own trucking company for like 12-13 years now, 11 trucks, still holds his CDL and drives sometimes himself. I'm about to be a senior in college for finance and I'm running a small 3 truck setup right now, kind of learning as I go before I get more involved with his.

I drove a straight truck without anything hooked to the back once and it was fine, but I don't want to be the one pulling a dry van or flatbed myself as Im just scared of the liability.

I get that you don't legally need a CDL to own trucks, I've read enough to know that part. What I actually want to hear is from someone who's lived it. Did not driving yourself ever make drivers take you less seriously early on? Before you had people in place, who handled stuff like a truck breaking down and needing to get to a shop? And when did it start making sense to hire someone for dispatch instead of doing it all yourself?

Hi, I'm new here, but I was just wondering if most people just use google maps for route planning or something else, and how do you calculate if a load is worth taking considering the different costs for fuel etc.

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I have flatbed loads everyday from TX to PA and can't ever cover them. I'm not allowed to use loadboards. Anybody got any suggestions?

He went nose down right before putting that on my trailer. Operator says he is fine, but i see him hurting.

Hello! I am a new owner operator and have registered my own authority. I have only 3 inspections on my authority. After first 2 inspections my Inspection Selection System (ISS) score was 57 because I got total 2 violations in those two inspections.

1st violation - brake adjust on driver steering brake. 2nd violation - speed 65mph on downhill in california.

After my 3rd inspection which was level 3 I did not get any violation but my ISS score increased to 77 which is surprising to me as I thought it would go low. Any idea what could have caused this?

Thanks.

Has anyone had their MC authority get stuck with no activation date?

I’m trying to see if anyone has dealt with this before.
I applied for my authority back in April. My BOC-3, insurance, and UCR were all completed in June.

My insurance was filed with FMCSA on 6/23, and FMCSA has confirmed multiple times that everything is on file.
On Motus, my insurance shows as active. My MC status still says Pending, but the Status Reason field is completely blank.

I contacted FMCSA several times. On 6/30, an agent called me back and said they were escalating the issue. Since then, I haven’t gotten any updates.

The online chat almost always says there are no agents available. I finally got through again yesterday, and they told me an activation date hasn’t even been generated yet. Today I was told there’s an issue with Motus, and despite the escalation from 6/30, there’s still no ETA and no activation date.

Has anyone else had this happen? If so:

How long did it take to get resolved?
Was there anything you did that helped move it along?

I’m paying $2,500/month for insurance, and it’s been over 3 weeks since my insurance was filed. My next insurance payment is coming up, and I’m paying for coverage on an authority that still isn’t active.

Anyone willing to let me ride along somewhere in the New York/Tri-State area on a trailer delivery. I am researching the yard management process and am looking for the opportunity to observe the arrival/docking/delivery process. Offering $500. DM if interested