How to file UCR for 2027 — every UCR.gov screen, in order
You file UCR on the official portal at www.ucr.gov, and it is nine screens long. Enter your USDOT number, confirm the carrier record it shows you by re-entering the USDOT, press REGISTER NOW on the 2027 row of your registration history, clear the Intrastate Only notice, certify who is filing, confirm your carrier classifications, answer the vehicle question that sets your fee, pay by card or ACH, and submit. UCR.gov then issues a registration receipt — the only proof the programme produces. Registration for 2027 opens October 1, 2026 and runs to December 31, 2026.
Most guides to this describe a form. UCR.gov is not a form — it is a sequence of nine screens, and the places carriers get stuck are specific and repeatable: a confirmation step that looks like an error, a year selector that is not a dropdown, and one vehicle question that decides whether you pay $55 or several hundred dollars more. What follows is written from those screens, in the order you meet them.
What to have in front of you
The whole flow starts from it. You do not need an account, a username or a password — the portal has none.
Straight trucks and tractors you operated, and whether that matches your most recent MCS-150. Trailers are not power units.
Visa, Mastercard, Discover or a bank account for ACH/eCheck. American Express is not accepted by the portal.
Nine screens. Most of the time goes on the vehicle question, which is the one worth slowing down for.
The nine screens
- 1Open www.ucr.gov and enter your USDOT number
- 2Confirm the carrier record on the “Is this you?” screen
- 3Press REGISTER NOW on the 2027 row of the registration-history dashboard
- 4Read and clear the “Intrastate Only” notice
- 5Enter who is filing on the “Registered By” screen
- 6Confirm your carrier classifications
- 7Answer the vehicle question — the screen that sets your fee
- 8Enter billing details and pay the government fee
- 9Check the summary, submit, and save the receipt
Transcribed from the live UCR.gov portal while filing, September 2026. We describe the screens rather than reproduce them: UCR.gov's terms prohibit republishing their pages, so there are no portal screenshots here.
Open www.ucr.gov and enter your USDOT number
Go to www.ucr.gov and check the address bar really does read that before you type anything. The entry screen is one box and a tick-box: enter your USDOT number under “Enter USDOT to begin”, tick the acknowledgement of the Privacy Notice and Website Terms of Use, complete the reCAPTCHA if it appears, and press SUBMIT. There is no account to create and no password — the portal starts from your USDOT number, not a login.
| On screen | What you do |
|---|---|
| Enter USDOT to begin | Type your USDOT number. Nothing else goes in this box — not your MC number, not your EIN. |
| I acknowledge the Privacy Notice and Website Terms of Use | Tick “I Agree”. |
| Security check | Complete the reCAPTCHA yourself if it appears. |
The security check is there to confirm a real person is filing. That is the structural reason no service can complete this screen for you — and it is why, on UCR.gov, the carrier is always the filer.
Confirm the carrier record on the “Is this you?” screen
The portal shows the legal name and address it holds against that USDOT, then asks you to type the USDOT a second time to confirm it. This is not an error and not a loop — it is a deliberate confirmation step, and it is the single most common place people think something has gone wrong. Read the legal name and address first. If either is wrong, press TRY AGAIN rather than continuing.
| On screen | What you do |
|---|---|
| USDOT # | Check it matches the number you meant to file for. |
| Legal Name | Check it against your FMCSA record, not your trading name. |
| Address | Check the city and state look right for this carrier. |
| Please re-enter USDOT | Type the same number again. This is the confirmation box, not a second carrier. |
If the name and address belong to someone else, you have almost certainly typed a digit wrong. Press TRY AGAIN. Registering against the wrong USDOT is far more painful to unwind than re-typing nine digits.
Press REGISTER NOW on the 2027 row of the registration-history dashboard
Next comes a dashboard listing every registration year with its status. This is where you choose the year — and there is no year dropdown, which catches out almost everyone. You pick the year by finding its row and pressing REGISTER NOW on that row. For this season, that is the 2027 row. The left panel of the same screen shows your MCS-150 “Last Updated” date and your base state, both pulled from your FMCSA record.
| On screen | What you do |
|---|---|
| Year to register | Find the 2027 row and press REGISTER NOW on it. |
| Earlier years | Worth reading while you are here — any year showing “Unregistered” is a gap that is still visible at roadside, and each year has its own REGISTER NOW button. |
| MCS-150 Last Updated | Note the date. It decides how good the vehicle count two screens from now is. |
| Base state | Check it. This is the state your fee is administered through. |
That MCS-150 date matters more than it looks. The vehicle count on the Vehicles screen is drawn from that filing, so an old date means an old count — and the count is what sets your fee. If your fleet has shrunk since, updating the MCS-150 before you register is the legitimate way to be priced on the trucks you actually run.
Read and clear the “Intrastate Only” notice
A pop-up asks you to confirm that your business is actually subject to UCR. Clicking “I ACCEPT” certifies that your business meets the criteria to be subject to UCR and its registration fees. It is worth reading rather than clicking through, because the definition is wider than people expect: UCR applies to interstate commerce, and that includes a movement entirely inside one state when it forms part of a longer interstate journey. If you operate purely intrastate and never cross a state line as part of a through movement, press CANCEL — you may not owe this at all.
Hauling a container from a port to a warehouse in the same state is usually still interstate commerce, because the load is part of an international or interstate move. Pure intrastate means the freight itself never leaves the state as part of a through movement.
Enter who is filing on the “Registered By” screen
This is the first step of the wizard proper. Enter your own first and last name, then tick the certification that you have been given proper authorization to perform or modify UCR registration information for that USDOT for 2027. Only the authorised person can truthfully tick that box — which is the second structural reason the filing itself has to be done by you rather than by anyone acting for you.
| On screen | What you do |
|---|---|
| Name (First, Last) | The person filing — you. Not your dispatcher, unless your dispatcher is the one at the keyboard and is authorised. |
| I certify that I have been given proper authorization to perform or modify UCR registration information for this USDOT for 2027 | Tick “I Agree”. |
Confirm your carrier classifications
Five checkboxes: Motor Carrier, Motor Private Carrier, Freight Forwarder, Broker and Leasing Company. Tick every category that applies. The portal pre-ticks what it already holds from your FMCSA record, so the job here is to check it rather than to assume it is right — records go stale, and authorities get added and dropped.
| On screen | What you do |
|---|---|
| Motor Carrier | Tick if you haul freight for hire. |
| Motor Private Carrier | Tick if you haul your own goods in your own trucks. |
| Freight Forwarder | Tick if you hold forwarder authority. |
| Broker | Tick if you hold broker authority. |
| Leasing Company | Tick if you lease vehicles to carriers. |
If you hold broker authority as well as running trucks, tick both. A broker or forwarder with no power units of their own falls in the lowest fee bracket — but a carrier who also brokers is still priced on their vehicles, not on the broker registration.
Answer the vehicle question — the screen that sets your fee
There are two ways to answer, and the choice matters. Option A autofills the count straight from your most recent MCS-150. Option B lets you enter the vehicles you operated during a fixed 12-month window — for the 2027 registration year that window is July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. Either way the counts split into “Straight Trucks and Tractors” and “Passenger Vehicles”, there is an add-or-exclude question underneath, and the portal computes a “Vehicle Total” from your answers. That total is what picks your fee bracket. Everything else in this process is admin; this screen is the money.
| On screen | What you do |
|---|---|
| Option A — autofill from your most recent MCS-150 | Use this when your MCS-150 is current. The portal takes the count straight off that filing. |
| Option B — vehicles operated July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026 | Use this when your MCS-150 is stale or the fleet has changed. You enter the numbers yourself. |
| Straight Trucks and Tractors | Power units only. Trailers, semi-trailers and dollies never count. |
| Passenger Vehicles | Usually 0 for a freight carrier. Buses and passenger vans go here. |
| Add or exclude any commercial motor vehicles? | Answer Yes if you need to exclude units used exclusively in intrastate commerce. |
| Vehicle Total | The portal computes this. Check it before you continue — it is the number that picks your bracket. |
Two things to get right here. Only self-propelled power units count — trailers never do, and carriers who count them routinely buy a bracket they do not owe. And the add-or-exclude question is where units used exclusively in intrastate commerce come out of the total; skipping past it is the most common way a carrier overpays by a full bracket.
Enter billing details and pay the government fee
Billing address on the left, payment on the right, and the fee for your bracket shown at the bottom. You can reuse the Principal or Mailing address from your MCS-150 in one click, or clear it and type another. Payment is by credit/debit card or ACH/eCheck. American Express is not accepted — Discover, Mastercard and Visa are. Both card and ACH carry a convenience fee, and the portal also offers a mail-in option that avoids it.
| On screen | What you do |
|---|---|
| Billing address | Reuse the Principal or Mailing address from your MCS-150, or clear it and type another. |
| Payment method | Credit/Debit Card or ACH/eCheck. American Express is not accepted. |
| Card number, expiry, CVV | Yours, typed by you, on the government site. |
| Registration fee shown for 2027 | Check the amount and the bracket label beside it both match your fleet size before you pay. |
Your registration is not valid until the payment actually arrives and clears. That makes the mail-in option a false economy anywhere near the deadline — you save the convenience fee and gamble the registration date. And a note on card details: you enter them yourself on the government site. No preparation service needs them, and nobody from EasyUCR will ever ask you for them.
Check the summary, submit, and save the receipt
The last look before it is final. Check the vehicle total and the fee one more time against what you expected, then press SUBMIT. UCR.gov issues a registration receipt. That receipt is the whole proof — there is no UCR card and no credential of any kind — so download it, keep a copy on your phone, and put another somewhere you can find it in twelve months.
| On screen | What you do |
|---|---|
| Vehicle total | Check it against the number you expected before you submit. |
| Fee bracket | Check the bracket label matches that vehicle total. |
| Total due | Check the amount one final time. |
Save the receipt properly. It is the only document the programme produces, it is what you show at roadside, and re-downloading it later means going back through the entry and confirmation screens all over again.
What UCR 2027 costs
The government fee is set by one number: how many power units you operate. One fee covers the whole fleet for the year — it is not charged per truck. Brokers, freight forwarders and leasing companies with no power units of their own pay the lowest bracket.
| Power units | 2027 government feepaid by you on UCR.gov | EasyUCR service feeoptional, paid to us |
|---|---|---|
| 0–2 | $55 | $49 |
| 3–5 | $167 | $69 |
| 6–20 | $333 | $99 |
| 21–100 | $1,163 | $149 |
| 101–1,000 | $5,548 | Contact us |
| 1,001+ | $54,165 | Contact us |
Fee amounts are set by federal rulemaking and are adjusted between registration years — confirm the current amounts on UCR.gov before you pay. The portal adds its own convenience fee on card and ACH payments.
Filing direct on UCR.gov costs the government fee and nothing else. You are not required to use EasyUCR or any other preparation service, and this page is deliberately complete enough to file from on your own. What we sell is the lookup and the double-check — your real carrier record pulled for you, your bracket confirmed before you pay anything, and every value prepared so the nine screens take minutes. You still open the portal, you still answer every question, and you still press SUBMIT.
The 12-month measurement window, explained
On the Vehicles screen, Option B asks how many commercial motor vehicles you operated during a fixed 12-month period — not how many you own today, and not how many you ran last calendar year. The window ends the June before the registration year, so the 2027 registration measures July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. (The 2026 year asked for July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, which is the same rule one year back.)
The portal takes the count straight off your most recent MCS-150. Right choice when that filing is current. Check the “Last Updated” date on the registration-history dashboard first — it is shown there for exactly this reason.
Right choice when the MCS-150 is stale or the fleet has changed. You enter Straight Trucks and Tractors and Passenger Vehicles separately, and the portal totals them. If the fleet shrank, updating the MCS-150 before you register is the legitimate route to being priced on the trucks you actually run.
If your base state does not participate in UCR
Nine states do not participate in the UCR programme. Carriers based in them are not exempt — this is the single most expensive misreading in UCR. Non-participating means the state does not collect or enforce the fees itself, not that the registration stops applying to an interstate carrier based there. If your base state is on this list, you designate a participating base state during registration and pay the same national fee.
The fee is national and identical in every state — your base state decides only where the money is administered, never how much you pay. Read the full base-state rule, or find your own state.
When to file for 2027
| Registration opens | October 1, 2026 |
| Register for 2027 by | December 31, 2026 |
| 2027 registration year enforced from | January 1, 2027 |
UCR is an annual registration and does not roll over: registering for 2027 is the same nine screens whether or not you registered last year. More on the UCR deadline.
Have the values ready before you open the portal
Enter your USDOT and EasyUCR looks up your real carrier record, confirms which bracket your power-unit count actually falls in, and prepares the exact value for every field above. Your fee is shown free, before you pay us anything. You open UCR.gov yourself and file it.
Filing UCR — common questions
Where do I actually file UCR?+
On the official portal at www.ucr.gov. It is the only place the registration itself happens — every preparation service, EasyUCR included, stops at the point where you enter your values there. Registration for the 2027 year opens October 1, 2026 and runs to December 31, 2026.
Do I need a UCR.gov account or login to file?+
No, and there is not one to create. The portal starts from your USDOT number rather than a username, which is why the entry screen asks for the USDOT and a reCAPTCHA instead of a password. Anyone telling you they need your UCR login is describing a system that does not exist.
The portal is asking me to enter my USDOT twice. Is that a bug?+
No. The second screen shows the legal name and address it found and asks you to re-enter the USDOT to confirm you meant that carrier. It is a deliberate confirmation step and the most common place people think the site has looped. If the name and address shown are not yours, press TRY AGAIN rather than continuing.
There is no year dropdown. How do I select 2027?+
You do not select it from a list — you press REGISTER NOW on the 2027 row of the registration-history dashboard. That dashboard lists every registration year with its status, and each row has its own button, which is also how a year you missed can still be registered.
Which 12 months does the vehicle question cover?+
If you use Option B and enter the count yourself, the portal measures a fixed 12-month window ending the June before the registration year. For 2027 that window is July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. Option A skips the question by autofilling from your most recent MCS-150 instead.
What does the UCR.gov billing screen accept?+
Credit or debit card, or ACH/eCheck from a bank account — and American Express is not accepted, so have a Visa, Mastercard or Discover ready. Card and ACH both carry a convenience fee. The billing address can be reused from your MCS-150 in one click. There is also a mail-in option that avoids the convenience fee, but the registration is not valid until that payment clears.
What do I get when I have submitted?+
A registration receipt issued by UCR.gov. There is no UCR card, sticker or credential — the receipt is the entire proof of registration, so download it and keep a copy where you can reach it at roadside.
My base state does not participate in UCR. Do I still have to file?+
Yes. Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, Wyoming do not participate in the UCR programme, but carriers based in them are not exempt — you register through a participating base state instead, and you pay the same national fee. Non-participating means the state does not collect or enforce the fees, not that the registration stops applying to you.
How much does it cost to file UCR myself?+
Only the government fee for your bracket — $55 at the bottom of the table, plus the portal's convenience fee on card or ACH. Nobody is required to use a preparation service. If you know your bracket, your base state and these screens, go straight to UCR.gov and pay nothing else.
Keep reading
The guided session, what it costs, and how the copilot works alongside these screens.
Every bracket, what counts as a power unit, and how to avoid buying a tier you do not owe.
Opening, closing and enforcement dates for the 2027 registration year.
Who genuinely does not have to register — and who only thinks they do not.
Why nothing auto-renews, and what changes between years.
The programme itself: who it covers and why the fee exists.
EasyUCR is a private AI software company. We provide AI assistance that helps carriers complete their own UCR registration; we are not a filing service and do not file, submit or pay on anyone's behalf. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the UCR Plan, FMCSA, USDOT or any state agency. You are never required to use EasyUCR — you can register directly at UCR.gov and pay only the government fee. EasyUCR prepares your filing; you enter the values, pay the government fee on UCR.gov and submit, so you are always the filer. We never file, submit, pay or log in on anyone's behalf, and we never ask for your card or bank details. Information on this page is general guidance, not legal advice; the portal is updated from time to time, so confirm current amounts, dates and screens on UCR.gov before you file.