Your authority was granted. Your name change went through. Your reinstatement was approved. But the FMCSA letter that proves it is nowhere to be found.
That has become a common problem since the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration moved its registration work to Motus in May 2026. The agency stopped adding current authority documents to the public system that carriers and compliance providers had relied on for years. The replacement was supposed to make the letters available to the carrier. In practice, that is not happening reliably either.
Carriers are left waiting on documents they need for brokers, insurers, factors, buyers, and their own records. Compliance providers cannot see the decisions they need to help their customers.
Here is what changed, what the FMCSA says should be happening, and what we are asking the agency to fix.
What we mean by an MC letter
“MC letter” is the trucking industry’s shorthand for several kinds of FMCSA operating-authority documents. They include:
- Certificates, permits, and licenses issued when new authority becomes active.
- Re-entitlement decisions issued after an approved legal name change.
- Reinstatement decisions confirming that authority has been restored.
- Transfer documents issued after an approved transfer or merger.
These documents do different jobs. A reinstatement decision, for example, does not replace or reissue your original authority certificate. But each document is part of the official history of the docket, and each may be needed to explain the current legal status of the business.
Before Motus, the FMCSA published these documents through its public Licensing & Insurance system. Anyone could search the daily releases, find the right document, and print it. A carrier did not need a Login.gov account. A compliance provider did not need access to the carrier’s private portal.
That public record was useful because it gave everyone the same answer from the same source.
The public page is still there. The new letters are not.
The FMCSA still has a page called Daily FMCSA Registration Decisions, Letters, Certificates, Permits, and Licenses. It still offers filters for certificates of authority, re-entitlements, reinstatements, and transfer documents.
But the presence of a search page is not the same as publication.
As of September 4, 2026, the latest certificates of authority and re-entitlement decisions we could find on that page were dated May 20, 2026. The latest reinstatement decisions were dated May 15, 2026. Searches for these documents in late August and early September returned nothing.
That cutoff lines up with the launch of Motus.
The page itself says it will eventually be deleted as Motus gains full functionality. But the public documents have already stopped, while the promised replacement is not working for the people who need it.
Where the letters were supposed to go
The FMCSA describes three ways a carrier should receive or find a new authority letter.
First, the agency says it sends hard copies by mail. Its operating-authority guidance says documents normally go out within three or four business days after authority is granted.
Second, the agency says Motus emails commonly requested letters—including certificates, permits, and licenses—to the company’s account owner. That is one of the features listed on the FMCSA’s registration changes page.
Third, the daily-decisions page directs users to Motus and says the search function is available there.
That sounds like three routes to the same document. Carriers should be covered even if one route fails.
What we are seeing is different.
Carriers we have spoken with say the letters are not available inside their Motus accounts. Other trucking-compliance providers tell us they have not seen them there either. Mail delivery is inconsistent. Email delivery does not appear to be filling the gap.
The FMCSA’s own website reflects some of the confusion. One page directs users to Motus to search for letters. Another says the ability to search for letters in Motus will be available in a future release.
Carriers should not have to sort out contradictory instructions while they wait for a federal document.
Why public access matters
An authority letter is not just a keepsake for the company file.
An insurance underwriter may ask for the certificate before binding coverage. A broker may require it in a carrier packet. A factor may need it before funding invoices. A buyer, lender, or attorney may need the full document history to confirm that the business and its authority match.
When the letter cannot be found, the carrier gets caught between two parties. The FMCSA record may show that an action occurred, while the broker or underwriter still asks for the document. The carrier cannot produce what the agency has not delivered.
Public access also lets a carrier’s authorized service provider monitor an FMCSA decision without asking for the carrier’s Login.gov credentials. That is safer for the carrier and faster for everyone. The old system was imperfect, but it recognized a basic fact: operating-authority decisions are public records, and the public needs a dependable way to retrieve them.
Moving the only copy behind a company login would be a step backward even if the Motus document search worked perfectly. Right now, based on what carriers and providers are telling us, it does not.
What carriers can do now
If you are waiting for a new authority document, check the email address connected to the Motus company owner, including the spam folder. Confirm that the mailing address on the FMCSA record is correct. Then contact the FMCSA at 800-832-5660 or through Ask FMCSA if ten business days have passed since the grant or decision date.
If you need a copy of an existing operating-authority certificate, Get My MC Letter may be able to help. Newly issued Motus documents are not available through the public records the service relies on.
Keep notes. Record the decision date, the email address and mailing address on file, when you contacted the agency, and what response you received. If a broker or insurer is waiting, send them the current FMCSA status record while you continue trying to obtain the actual letter. It may not replace the document they requested, but it shows that you are not simply ignoring the request.
Do not give your Login.gov password or identity-verification information to a third party just so they can look for a letter. Those credentials protect control of your federal registration account.
What we are asking the FMCSA to fix
DNA is sending the FMCSA a letter asking the agency to restore dependable access to operating-authority documents.
The fix should include four things:
- Resume complete daily public publication of certificates, re-entitlements, reinstatements, transfers, and other authority decisions.
- Keep those documents publicly searchable without requiring a Motus or Login.gov account.
- Make every carrier’s documents reliably available inside its Motus account, with clear instructions for finding and downloading them.
- Fix email and mail delivery and provide a direct process for replacing a letter that never arrived.
Motus was supposed to modernize FMCSA registration. Modernization should make public records easier to reach, not leave carriers searching three places for a document that appears in none of them.
Add your company to our letter
If your company has been affected—or if you believe FMCSA authority letters should remain public—we want to include your name in our letter to the agency.
Send us your name and company, and write “MC letters” in the message. We will add you to the list of carriers and service providers asking the FMCSA to restore reliable, permanent public access.
The agency needs to hear that this is not an inconvenience for a few document companies. It is a daily business problem for the trucking companies the registration system is supposed to serve.