UCR fee calculator — 2026 registration year

The Unified Carrier Registration Plan is the annual state-administered registration created by the UCR Act (49 U.S.C. 14504a) for businesses that operate in interstate commerce. Its eligibility wizard at plan.ucr.gov (checked 2026-09-14) puts it this way: a motor carrier or motor private carrier transporting "property, household goods, or passengers across state lines, or US national borders" is required to register, as are freight forwarders, brokers, leasing companies and for-hire passenger carriers. Registration follows the entity, not the truck: a business that operates only vehicles too light to be commercial motor vehicles still registers if it holds a federal MC number, but it falls into the lowest fee bracket.

Who does not: the same wizard exempts businesses engaged only in intrastate commerce ("the transportation of goods or passengers within a single state"), private carriers of passengers (its examples are "churches, schools, and businesses transporting their own employees"), operations solely within Hawaii, vehicles owned or operated by the federal government, and emergency vehicles.

Base state. Every registrant registers with, and pays, one base state for the year, normally the state of its principal place of business. Forty-one states participate in the Plan: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin (plan.ucr.gov/participating-states, 2026-09-14). A carrier based in one of the nine other states (Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, Wyoming) or the District of Columbia is not thereby exempt if it crosses state lines; it registers through a participating state under the Plan's base-state rules, which the eligibility wizard at plan.ucr.gov walks through.

The fee depends only on fleet size, which the Plan defines as the "number of commercial motor vehicles owned or operated by exempt or non-exempt motor carrier, motor private carrier, or freight forwarder." Six brackets cover fleets from zero vehicles up to 1,001 and more, and the fee is per entity per registration year, not per vehicle: a carrier with 20 power units and one with 6 pay the same $276.00 in 2026. Brokers and leasing companies that do not operate vehicles pay the bracket-1 fee whatever the size of the fleets they arrange or lease out. The calculator above applies exactly that table; enter the vehicle count you report to the Plan and it returns the bracket fee.

The fees are set for each registration year and change from year to year, which is how a two-year-old guide comes to quote a bracket-1 fee almost four times the current one. The table on this page is transcribed from the Plan's own fee page and carries its retrieval date, so you can tell at a glance whether it is the current year's schedule.

When: the registration year is the calendar year, and each year's registration opens on October 1 of the year before. The 2026 period is open now, and the Plan states that the 2027 portal "opens October 1, 2026." Registering late does not shorten the year or prorate the fee: a carrier that registers in November owes the full annual fee for that year.

How it is checked: UCR issues no cab card, decal or plate. Roadside enforcement officers and state auditors check the national registration database, so a registration that was paid but recorded under the wrong USDOT number will not show up. Confirm the USDOT and MC numbers on the receipt against the FMCSA record before you file it; the carrier lookup on this site shows the census record for any USDOT number.

Penalties: enforcement and fines belong to the states, and the Plan's site does not publish a single national fine schedule. A carrier found operating without a current UCR registration can be cited at roadside or in an audit, and the citation amount is set by the state that issues it. The cost of the registration itself is small next to the fine, the lost day, and the roadside inspection that usually comes with it.

Where the money goes: UCR fees are distributed to the participating states to fund motor carrier safety programs, enforcement and the administration of the Plan.

Where: register only at the official site, plan.ucr.gov, or with your base state's own UCR office where the state runs one. Third-party filing services charge a processing fee on top of the state fee; the fees on this page are what the Plan itself charges, and nothing on this page is a substitute for the Plan's own eligibility wizard for an unusual operation.

What you need: the USDOT number, the MC number if any, the number of commercial motor vehicles you operate, and a payment method. New carriers usually register for UCR in the same week they receive operating authority; the startup-cost guide lists the other federal fees that fall due at the same time.

What operating authority actually costs in 2026 — where UCR fits among the federal fees a new carrier pays, each one quoted from the rule that sets it.