The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is taking a lesson from banks, bars, and airline counters: show your driver’s license.
Effective immediately, FMCSA is requiring a copy of a company officer’s personal driver’s license to accompany the filing of certain forms with the agency.
Why? Because fraud accounts for over $1 billion in losses in trucking and transportation. Activities like double-brokering and cargo theft by criminals impersonating legitimate truckers and brokers can, at times, trace back to falsified applications for motor carrier or broker authority and USDOT numbers. Now, FMCSA is saying to applicants “show me who you say you are.”
FMCSA now requires a driver’s license for these forms:
- The MCS-150 form is used to update a USDOT number. (Initial registration for a USDOT number must still be made through the Unified Registration System.)
- The MCS-150B form combines the motor carrier identification report with the hazardous materials safety permit application.
- The MCS-150C form is for intermodal equipment provider registrations and updates.
- The MCSA-5889 form can be used to submit requests for operating authority name and address changes, and also to request reinstatement of an operating authority.
Only one driver’s license copy is needed, from one of the company principals listed as “sole proprietor, partners or officers” on these forms. In other words, identification from someone with authority to make decisions for the company.
Any step curbing fraud in the trucking industry is welcome. Motor carriers can help by supplying a company officer’s driver’s license when submitting these FMCSA forms.
The PrePass blog and podcasts are published as a public service of PrePass®, the most reliable and technologically advanced weigh station bypass and integrated electronic trucking toll payment platform in North America. PrePass also includes INFORM™ Safety and INFORM™ Tolling software for improving truck safety scores and lowering toll costs.
