Read your Motus registration status through an API

What you can build on Motus

• Get registration and authority status

  Build this

  Reads the Motus dashboard that shows the status of each registration and operating authority for a company account linked to your login.

  Takes

  USDOT number (optional)

  Returns

  USDOT number, suffix, legal name, registration or operating authority, status

• Look up a company in Search for Companies

  Build this

  Runs Search for Companies with an exact USDOT number, or the start of a legal or DBA name, and reads the company information in each result.

  Takes

  USDOT number, or legal or DBA name

  Returns

  USDOT number, legal name, DBA name, company information shown in the result

• Read your Motus notifications

  Build this

  Reads the notifications Motus shows for your account, such as a prompt to Link USDOT Number, with the company each one is about.

  Takes

  Nothing

  Returns

  Date, company, USDOT number, notification text

• Request an address change

  Build this

  Opens the company account in Motus, enters the new address you give in an address change request and submits it.

  Takes

  USDOT number, new address

  Returns

  USDOT number, request, submitted date, status

Automate Motus with a workflow

A workflow runs your methods as one process, with nobody at the screen. A schedule or a call from your own system starts it, the steps run in order, and the result arrives in your inbox or in the systems you already use.

• Registration and authority status check, every company

  Build this

  Starts

  Every weekday at 7:00

  Step 1

  For each USDOT number you name, get the registration and authority status from the Motus dashboard.

  Step 2

  Keep the registrations and authorities whose status changed since the last run, and stop when none did.

  Step 3

  Email you the list, one section per company.

• New Motus notifications, posted to your team

  Build this

  Starts

  Every weekday at 8:00

  Step 1

  Read your Motus notifications.

  Step 2

  Keep the notifications that were not there on the last run.

  Step 3

  Post each one, with its date, company and USDOT number, by webhook to your Slack or another system.

• Carrier check before a load is booked

  Build this

  Starts

  When your system calls the workflow's webhook with a list of USDOT numbers

  Step 1

  For each USDOT number, look the company up in Search for Companies.

  Step 2

  Keep the legal name, DBA name and company information shown.

  Step 3

  Post the results to your webhook, one record per USDOT number.

You can run a workflow by hand on every plan, Free included. Schedules and webhook triggers come with the paid plans, from $29 a month.

Once built, one call from your code

Once you have built a method, it is one POST to /v1/runs from your backend, or a tool an AI agent calls over MCP. This is what “Get registration and authority status” would look like.

curl https://api.fous.com/v1/runs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FOUS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "method": "motus.dot.gov/get_registration_status",
    "input": {
      "usdot_number": "4012345"
    }
  }'

{
  "status": "completed",
  "data": {
    "usdot_number": "4012345",
    "suffix": null,
    "legal_name": "Northwind Freight LLC",
    "registrations": [
      {
        "type": "USDOT registration",
        "status": "Active"
      },
      {
        "type": "Operating authority, motor carrier of property",
        "status": "Active"
      },
      {
        "type": "Operating authority, broker of property",
        "status": "Pending"
      }
    ]
  }
}

An example with invented data, not a ready-made endpoint. The method exists in your organization once you build it, and its name, inputs and fields follow your request.

Motus’s own options

FMCSA's notice announcing Motus describes no API for it. Registration changes are made in Motus by signed-in users, fees are recorded through Pay.gov, and the paper forms are still accepted for now, with at least eight business days for review. Anyone can look up a company in Search for Companies without signing in.

Read on November 12, 2026: Availability of Motus, FMCSA's New Registration System (Federal Register notice), Motus Search for Companies, FMCSA Motus FAQs for IRP Carriers (MassDOT RMV).

Signing in to Motus

Regulated entities and supporting companies sign in to Motus through Login.gov, and FMCSA staff use MyAccess with a PIV card. The first time, you verify your identity with a government-issued ID and a device with a camera. With Fous you sign in once through Motus's own sign-in with your own account: the login is sealed with AES-256, never returned by the API or written to logs, and code and AI agents never see it.

Worth knowing

Identity verification comes first

Every user is identity-proofed on first access: you scan a QR code with a phone or tablet, photograph your ID and take a selfie. Have this done before you build anything on the account.

Claim your USDOT number before reading it

Existing carriers follow the Link USDOT Number notification to claim their records. A claim is matched against FMCSA's records, so an outdated address or a mismatched legal name blocks it.

The FMCSA Portal is view-only now

Business information can only be updated in Motus. The FMCSA Portal still shows historic records, and the URS was switched off on May 14, 2026.

Suffixes show only inside Motus

Newly granted USDOT numbers carry a letter suffix for the registration type, and existing companies get theirs later. Suffixes do not appear in FMCSA's formal correspondence.

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