Can you buy an MC number?

FMCSA answers this directly, in two halves. No, USDOT Numbers are not transferable. Operating authorities (MC numbers) are transferable. So what is actually for sale is never a standalone number: it is a company, or its operating authority, changing hands under FMCSA's transfer rules.

Is buying an MC number legal?

A genuine transfer is legal and regulated. FMCSA's transfer rules in 49 CFR Part 365, Subpart D cover both the transferor and the transferee. Under the currently operative temporary procedures, the parties file a properly completed Form OP-FC-1 with FMCSA at least 10 days before completing the transaction, and final reissuance of the authority requires FMCSA approval. What is not legal is using a purchase, or a fresh registration, to shed a bad record: Carriers may not register for a new USDOT number to evade civil penalties or prior out-of-service orders; providing false information can bring an out-of-service order or fines.

Why do people pay for aged MC numbers?

The pitch is speed and age: an authority that is already active, with a history that clears the minimum-age gates some brokers and freight programs apply to new carriers. The catch is that the same record that makes the authority old also travels with it, and every counterparty that checks the age can see the rest of the record too.

What does applying fresh cost instead?

FMCSA does not refund application fees, even for mistaken or dismissed applications. The application fee is $300, per authority type, so applying for two authority types costs $600. FMCSA’s current Motus start page gives no single application-processing estimate. Track the application in Motus and allow for agency review and the required supporting filings.

Federal compliance

Buying an MC number

There is a real market for aged MC numbers, and real federal rules underneath it. FMCSA says USDOT numbers are not transferable, while operating authority can change hands under its transfer procedures. This page lays out what a buyer actually gets, what FMCSA must approve, and when the honest answer is to apply fresh instead.

By Evan Reid, Founder of Haul Handbook · Updated Jul 22, 2026

What FMCSA actually allows

The two identifiers behind a trucking company behave differently when it is sold, and FMCSA answers the question in its own words:

USDOT number: No, USDOT Numbers are not transferable. Quoted verbatim from FMCSA's FAQ. The FAQ points readers to FMCSA's guidance on changing ownership, legal name, or form of business.
Operating authority (MC number): Operating authorities (MC numbers) are transferable. Quoted verbatim from FMCSA's FAQ, which points to the agency's operating authority transfer process for the mechanics.
The transfer procedure: FMCSA's transfer rules in 49 CFR Part 365, Subpart D cover both the transferor and the transferee. Under the currently operative temporary procedures, the parties file a properly completed Form OP-FC-1 with FMCSA at least 10 days before completing the transaction, and final reissuance of the authority requires FMCSA approval.
Status of the written rule: 49 CFR 365.401, the scope section of Subpart D, was SUSPENDED INDEFINITELY effective November 17, 2023 (88 FR 80179). The permanent transfer rules are therefore not in force, and the temporary sections carrying a T suffix, such as 365.413T, are what FMCSA actually operates. Anyone reading Subpart D as the live procedure is reading a suspended rule.

In practice that means "buying an MC number" is really one of two transactions: buying the company that holds the registration, or transferring the operating authority itself with FMCSA's approval. Either way, the paperwork runs through the agency; a bill of sale alone moves nothing. What the number actually represents is covered in how MC numbers work.

The transfer paperwork

The transfer application identifies both parties, includes a copy of the operating authority being transferred, a summary of the transaction terms, each party's current safety rating, and evidence of sufficient insurance coverage under 49 U.S.C. 13906. Note what is on that list: the current safety rating of both parties and proof of insurance. The transfer file is a compliance disclosure, not a formality.

Changing a carrier's, freight forwarder's, or property broker's name or business form without selling the authority follows its own procedure in the same subpart (49 CFR 365.413T), separate from a transfer. Sellers sometimes present a name change as if it laundered the record; it does not, because it is a different procedure that moves nothing but the name.

What you are really buying: the record

FMCSA's FAQ addresses transferability only; it does not publish a single rule for how a purchased company's inspection and crash history carries forward in every deal structure. Before any purchase, pull the company's public record through a SAFER snapshot and read it as the record you would be operating under.

That snapshot is exactly what every broker and shipper will pull before working with you, so pull it first: look up the company's public record and read the inspection history, crash history, and safety rating as your own, because after the purchase they effectively are. An aged authority with a rough record can be worth less than no authority at all.

Buying vs applying fresh

The sales pitch for an aged MC is that it skips the wait and the new-carrier gates. Weigh that against what the fresh path actually costs:

Fresh application fee: $300, per authority type, so applying for two authority types costs $600. FMCSA does not refund application fees, even for mistaken or dismissed applications.
Fresh application processing: FMCSA’s current Motus start page gives no single application-processing estimate. Track the application in Motus and allow for agency review and the required supporting filings.

A transfer, meanwhile, has its own filing lead time before closing, its own FMCSA approval step, and a purchase price the market sets with no published benchmark. For most new carriers with a clean history and no company to acquire, the boring answer holds: apply for fresh authority instead and spend the difference on insurance and a working truck. Where a purchase does make sense, it is because you want the operating company, its trucks, drivers, and customers, and the authority rides along under the transfer rules; even then, the acquired carrier's obligations, including any open new entrant monitoring, come with the deal.