FMCSA Motus Identity Verification: What Owners Must Complete Themselves
Motus lets a service provider help with registration, but the company official must personally pass identity proofing and must never share Login.gov credentials.
By Day One Authority · Updated
The short answer
- The owner, officer, or other eligible company official completes identity verification through their own Login.gov account.
- Identity proofing uses Login.gov’s secure flow for ID capture and facial matching; a filing company cannot collect the scan or complete it for you.
- Never share Login.gov credentials. After verification, authorize a Transportation Service Provider inside Motus for the work you want delegated.
- Prepare a current government-issued photo ID and make sure your personal and business records use matching legal names before you begin.
Motus is FMCSA’s registration system for motor carriers, brokers, and the service providers that assist them. It closes a long-standing security gap: a third-party filing company can no longer impersonate an owner with borrowed credentials. The person who controls the carrier must establish their own identity first, then grant access inside the system.
What you must do yourself
- Create and control your own Login.gov account with multi-factor authentication.
- Complete Login.gov identity proofing using the secure process presented in that account.
- Connect yourself to the business using an eligible company-official role.
- Review any certifications that Motus requires the company official to make personally.
- Authorize or remove service providers from inside your Motus account.
What a Transportation Service Provider can do
FMCSA created the Transportation Service Provider role for companies that help registrants. Once you authorize one in Motus, it can perform the functions allowed by the permission you grant. It does not become your owner or company official, and it should use its own credentials rather than yours.
| Task | Who completes it |
|---|---|
| Login.gov identity proofing | Owner or eligible company official |
| Prepare company, fleet, cargo, and authority answers | Owner with service-provider assistance |
| Enter delegable registration data | Company official or authorized provider |
| Company-official certifications | Company official |
| BOC-3 submission | Registered process agent |
| Insurance filing | Licensed insurer or authorized insurance filer |
| Monitor application and resolve data mismatches | Company official or authorized provider |
Your 20-minute readiness check
Prepare before opening Motus
- 1
Check your identification
Use a current government-issued photo ID accepted by the Login.gov flow. Confirm that your legal name and date of birth are accurate before starting.
- 2
Match the business records
Put the Secretary of State record, EIN confirmation, DBA filing, physical address, and mailing address side by side. Resolve spelling, suffix, and address differences before submission.
- 3
Secure your account
Choose a multi-factor method you control and save recovery information somewhere private. Do not use a vendor’s phone number or shared email address.
- 4
Complete verification on the official flow
Start from Motus and follow the Login.gov prompts. Check the browser domain before uploading identification or completing facial matching.
- 5
Delegate only after verification
Invite your service provider through Motus and review the requested role. Do not solve an access problem by handing over your Login.gov password.
If verification fails
- Read the exact Login.gov message before retrying; repeated attempts with inconsistent data can make diagnosis harder.
- Check for an expired ID, an old legal name, a recent address change, glare or blur in the document image, or business records that identify a different person as the company official.
- Use the official Login.gov or FMCSA support path shown on screen. A filing company cannot override an identity-proofing decision.
- Keep the rest of the filing package staged. Once verification clears, the registration can move without rebuilding the company data.