What Is Required?
All new entrant Motor Carriers must submit an application package to obtain both a DOT Number and an MC Number.
After the initial application has been submitted, before the authority will be granted:
- You must submit a Process Agent Filing. A process agent is a representative upon whom court papers may be served in any proceeding brought against a motor carrier, broker, or freight forwarder.
- Your insurance company must file proof of liability and cargo insurance.
How Much Insurance Is Required?
The FMCSA minimum requirement for insurance is for $750,000 of liability insurance and $5000 for loss to or damage to property carried on any one motor vehicle and $10,000 for loss of or damage to property occurring at any one time and place. However, from a practical standpoint, a lot of shippers and brokers will require that you have $1,000,000 of liability insurance and $100,000 of cargo insurance before they will even consider using your services. We can recommend an insurance carrier for you if you don't know who to call.
How Fast Can I Get My Own Authority?
Your requests for authority will be reviewed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and will be published as a preliminary grant almost immediately after we submit the electronic filing. The grant decision publication notices do not represent authority to operate. In the absence of opposition, authority will be issued within 20 days of date of publication provided the Process Agent filing has been submitted and your insurance company has filed proof of the required cargo and liability insurance.
How We Can Help.
We will file the application package for you electronically and obtain your DOT Number and MC Number and we will handle the Process Agent Filing. While the application is pending, we will keep you posted on the status of your application and check to confirm that your insurance has been recorded. We will also be available to help you in any way we can and answer any questions you might have during and after the application process.
How Much Will It Cost?
We will file the necessary application forms for you electronically for only $440.00. This includes the non-refundable filing fee of $300. It also includes the necessary Process Agent Filing. It does not include the cost of the cargo and liability insurance that you must obtain.
What else do I need?
You need to do a UCR Registration (Universal Carrier Registration). This is a step many new applicants miss because it is not required to get their authority and they simply don't know about it. They usually find out the hard way by getting fined the first time they are stopped and checked. We can handle this for a small charge of $30 plus the state filing fee which is $43.86 if you just have one truck and trailer. The filing fee increases as your fleet size increases.
If your combined GVWR is over 26,000 pounds you must have a Class A CDL. This, in turn, requires that you get setup with a consortium for random drug testing.
If your combined GVWR is over 26,000 pounds you must also obtain an IFTA license for payment of your fuel taxes.
If you are a Texas based carrier you also need to get a Texas DOT number.
Please our "Q & A For New Carriers" section for more information on these additional requirements and to see how we can help you cover some of these items.
An added bonus.
When we help you to get your own authority, we want to help you to succeed so we will provide you with a FREE lifetime subscription to HotshotCarrier.com and Freight-Terminal.com so you will always have access to the contact information for all loads posted by others.
Ready To Get Started?
You can call us 7 days a week between at 9:00 AM and 9:00 PM EST at: 440-625-1194 or you can fill out the following form to provide us with the some basic information and we will contact you.
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