UCR Registration Fees for Trucking Companies: 2026 and 2027 Brackets

What UCR is and who has to register

Unified Carrier Registration is set up under 49 U.S.C. 14504a. The UCR Plan Board recommends the fees, FMCSA adopts them by rule, and participating states collect the money and have to spend it on motor carrier safety programs and enforcement. The fee is paid for each registration year, and the deadline falls before 1 January of that year. The guide to FMCSA Registration: MC Authority and MOTUS Portal Steps covers the USDOT number, MC authority and MCS-150 filing that come before UCR.

The statute and the UCR Plan's registration questionnaire require these businesses to register.

• Motor carriers that move property or household goods across state lines, whether for hire or as a private carrier hauling their own goods.
• For-hire passenger carriers operating between states.
• Freight forwarders.
• Brokers and leasing companies, which pay the fee for the smallest bracket.

The same questionnaire puts two groups outside the program. A carrier that runs only inside one state does not register, and neither does a private carrier of passengers.

The fee depends on how many commercial motor vehicles you run. The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles describes these as vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of at least 10,001 pounds, vehicles designed to carry more than 10 passengers, and vehicles hauling hazardous materials that need placards. Trailers do not count. Under 49 U.S.C. 14504a(f)(3), a carrier uses either the number on its most recent MCS-150 or the number of vehicles it owned or operated in the 12 months ending 30 June of the year before the registration year.

The 2026 and 2027 fees, as of September 14, 2026

The table gives each bracket's fee as the UCR Plan publishes it, checked against FMCSA's final rule. The last column divides the 2027 fee by the largest and smallest fleet in each bracket.

Every bracket rises by about a fifth. The first truck in each bracket costs between $54 and $56 in 2027, and the cost per truck falls as a fleet fills the bracket. A 20-truck carrier pays $16.65 a truck, and the 21st truck lifts its bill from $333 to $1,163.

UCR fee calculator

Enter the number of power units you will report, or switch to broker or leasing company. The calculator reads the table above and shows both years, the change and where the next bracket starts.

For a monthly budget, divide the fee by 12. The 2027 fee for one or two trucks works out to $4.58 a month, and it sits beside heavy vehicle use tax and IRP plates in what it costs to run a truck.

Deadlines and the 1 October window

Registration for 2027 opens on 1 October 2026 through the National Registration System at ucr.gov, the same day FMCSA's new fees take effect. The UCR Plan's fee page sets the deadline: "In order for an operation subject to UCR to continue to operate legally, it must complete its UCR registration and pay its UCR fee before January 1 of the registration year."

For 2026, the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles notes that registration opened on 1 October 2025 and enforcement began on 1 January 2026.

Penalties for not registering

The statute leaves the penalty to the states. Under 49 U.S.C. 14504a(i)(4), each participating state can issue citations and impose penalties on a carrier that has not filed or paid, so the amount depends on the state where the carrier is stopped.

Registration is checked at roadside inspections. The UCR Plan ran its 2026 awareness initiative from 11 to 17 January and from 7 to 13 June, and asked enforcement partners to record a lapse on the Driver/Vehicle Examination Report as a "392.2 UCR" violation for failure to pay UCR fees.

What changed for 2027, and why

FMCSA published the new fees as a final rule on 1 September 2026 (91 FR 56063, docket FMCSA-2025-0655), signed by Administrator Derek D. Barrs. They take effect on 1 October 2026. The rule follows the UCR Plan Board's recommendation of 18 September 2025 and a proposed rule published on 7 April 2026.

The increase raises an extra $21.79 million so that collections meet the statutory revenue requirement of $118 million, which pays the states' entitlements and the plan's administrative costs. The rule also says excess collections from past years have been used up. FMCSA notes that the 2027 fees are still lower than those carriers paid from 2019 to 2022, and the new schedule stays in place for 2028 and later years until another rulemaking changes it.

FMCSA received 34 comments, 33 of them in scope. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association called the revenue a slush fund for states, and FMCSA answered that states have to spend UCR fees on motor carrier safety programs and enforcement. The Small Business in Transportation Coalition and the National Propane Gas Association objected to a $250,000 allocation for the plan's legal defense, which FMCSA kept. For the smallest carriers, FMCSA pointed to the size of the change: $9 a year. The page UCR Fees 2027: The New Brackets for Trucking Companies sets out the change bracket by bracket.

Method: how each number was obtained

Each figure on this page comes from one of four source groups.

• The fees for both years come from the UCR Plan's Fee Brackets page, matched line by line against sections 367.40 and 367.50 of FMCSA's final rule.
• The portal opening date, the deadline and the 2026 awareness initiative come from the UCR Plan's own pages.
• Who registers, how vehicles are counted and the state penalty power come from 49 U.S.C. 14504a, the UCR Plan's registration questionnaire and the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles.
• The reasons for the increase, the comment count and FMCSA's responses come from the text of the final rule in the Federal Register.

The per-truck figures and percentage changes are our arithmetic on the published fees, rounded to the cent and to one decimal place. The rule names Kenneth Riddle, Director of FMCSA's Office of Registration, as its contact. Pages across the site follow our rating methodology.

What we could not verify

Three points on this page have no primary source we could confirm.

• The fine a state charges an unregistered carrier. The statute leaves it to each state, and none of the sources above gives an amount.
• Whether a business registered as both a broker and a carrier pays one fee or two. The calculator treats a broker or leasing company that runs no vehicles as bracket 1, and a carrier by its vehicle count.
• The fees for 2019 to 2022. The final rule says they were higher than the 2027 schedule, and we have not checked those years against a primary table.

How to cite this

Cite the page with its update date, and the UCR Plan as the source of the fees.

Small Fleet HQ, "UCR Registration Fees for Trucking Companies: 2026 and 2027 Brackets", updated September 14, 2026, https://smallfleethq.com/owner-operator/ucr. Fee data: Unified Carrier Registration Plan, Fee Brackets, retrieved September 14, 2026.