UPDATE 1/17/17: The FMCSA announced that it is temporarily putting on hold the effective date for EXISTING carriers and brokers to begin using the new Unified Registration System. The agency has not yet set a new effective date. For more information, see Final Stage of MC Number Rule Suspended.
The FMCSA will again delay implementation of its Unified Registration System (URS), which will do away with MC numbers. The final phase was scheduled to begin January 14, 2017. FMCSA says it will announce the new date in January.
In an email sent to stakeholders last Friday, the agency said:
“FMCSA is extending the implementation date of the final stage of the Unified Registration System beyond January 14, 2017 because additional time is needed to securely migrate data from multiple legacy platforms into a new central database and to conduct further compatibility testing with its State partners.”
FMCSA said it is working with its information technology contractor to finalize a new schedule and that it will publish a Federal Register Notice in early January 2017 announcing the revised compliance dates.
Once in place, the URS will do away with MC, FF and MX numbers, and will use only the USDOT number to identify carriers, brokers and freight forwarders. All entities regulated by FMCSA will be required to update their information in the URS system every two years.
There are other rules mandated by the URS, as well. For more information, and to read questions and answers, see our earlier blog post Goodbye, MC Numbers. Hello, Unified Registration System
