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Closing down

How to close a trucking company the right way

Selling, retiring, or taking time off? We’ll tell you whether to close out or just pause, and file it the right way.

Tell us your goal or call 703-821-0000

Where you might be

You’re selling

The buyer may want your MC number transferred instead of closed. Ask us before you file anything.

You’re retiring

Your plates and fuel tax accounts close first. Our sister company, Consultran, handles those. Then we close your DOT and MC numbers.

You’re taking time off

A season off, a health problem, a slow market. Closing may not be the right call. We’ll tell you whether to close out or pause.

You’re driving for someone else

Once your own insurance drops off, your MC number gets revoked. Giving it up on purpose looks better on the record. We’ll tell you what to do with your DOT number.

What’s at stake

Walking away leaves a mess

If you just stop, the federal record doesn’t. Biennial update mail keeps coming, the DOT number can go inactive, and an MC number whose insurance lapses gets revoked on the public record. Closing it on purpose is cleaner. It won’t erase your inspection or crash history, and anything already open still has to be dealt with, but it stops new problems from piling up.

Close out, or pause?

Deactivating your DOT number tells FMCSA you’re out of business. Giving up your MC number ends your authority to haul for hire. You can give up the MC number and keep the DOT number, or close both. The DOT number can’t close while the MC number is still active.

Either one can be undone later, as long as the company still exists. A DOT number comes back with a filing, and a revoked MC number takes a reinstatement. If you might be back in a few months, closing may cost you more than it saves. Call us before you file anything and we’ll tell you which way fits.

When you’re ready, we file to deactivate your DOT number, give up your MC number, or both, and send you proof when it’s done.

How it works

Three steps. Most of them are ours.

1

Tell us your goal

Call or send a note. Plain words are fine. You don’t need to know which filing it takes. That’s our job.

2

We handle it with FMCSA

We know what the agency wants and how to get it through.

3

You get back to driving

We follow it through until it’s done. You get back to work.

Sixty years and counting

Tell us your goal. We’ll take it from there.

One call or one form. That’s the whole first step.

Tell us your goal or call 703-821-0000