UCR carrier classifications: which boxes to tick
Last updated September 18, 2026 · written from the live UCR.gov classifications screen
UCR.gov shows five classification checkboxes — Motor Carrier, Motor Private Carrier, Freight Forwarder, Broker and Leasing Company — and asks you to check all that apply. The portal pre-ticks them from your FMCSA record, which tells you what the federal record currently says, not that it is right. Tick every category that genuinely describes the business, including more than one where both apply. Classification does not set your fee: your power-unit count does, on the next screen. A carrier who also holds broker authority is still priced on their power units.
This is the sixth of nine screens on the official portal, and it takes most carriers about fifteen seconds — which is roughly fourteen seconds of clicking CONTINUE and one second of doubt. The doubt is usually one of two questions: what exactly separates a motor carrier from a motor private carrier, and whether ticking Broker changes anything. Both have clean answers, and neither is documented anywhere a search engine can read, because www.ucr.gov is a JavaScript shell behind a security check.
The five checkboxes, one at a time
The screen is headed "check all that apply", and it means it. These are not five mutually exclusive identities — they are five things a transport business can be, and plenty of businesses are two or three of them at once.
Motor Carrier
The for-hire carrier: you move other people's property or passengers, in your own or leased power units, and you are paid to do it. This is the box the great majority of USDOT holders tick, from a single owner-operator with one tractor to a fleet of hundreds. If you have operating authority and you haul loads that belong to somebody else, this is you.
Tick it if you are paid to move freight or passengers that are not your own.
Motor Private Carrier
The private carrier: the trucks exist to serve the business, not the other way round. A building-supply company running its own delivery fleet, a farm hauling its own produce across a state line, a manufacturer moving its own components between plants — none of them are paid to carry freight, because the freight is theirs. They still operate commercial motor vehicles in interstate commerce, and they are still in the UCR programme.
Tick it if the freight in the trailer belongs to your own business.
Freight Forwarder
A freight forwarder assembles and consolidates shipments, takes responsibility for the transportation, and issues its own bill of lading — while arranging the line-haul with carriers. It is a distinct authority from broker authority, and the difference matters: a forwarder takes on carrier-like liability for the goods, a broker arranges the transport and does not. Tick this box if your FMCSA record shows forwarder authority.
Tick it if you hold freight forwarder authority, not just broker authority.
Broker
A broker arranges interstate freight between shippers and carriers without taking possession of it. Broker authority is registered with FMCSA and comes with its own bond requirement. Brokers are inside the UCR programme in their own right — a broker with no power units at all still registers, and lands in the lowest fee bracket because the fee is priced on power units.
Tick it if you hold broker authority, whether or not you also run trucks.
Leasing Company
A company whose business is supplying commercial motor vehicles to interstate carriers, rather than operating them itself. Like brokers and forwarders, leasing companies are covered by the UCR programme, and a leasing company with no power units of its own operating in interstate commerce falls in the lowest bracket.
Tick it if you lease or rent commercial motor vehicles to interstate carriers.
Pre-ticked is not the same as correct
When the screen loads, some of the boxes are already ticked. The portal has read your FMCSA record and set them to match. That is genuinely useful — it means you are correcting a draft rather than filling a blank form — but it is worth being clear about what the pre-tick is claiming. It is claiming that this is what the federal record says about your business today. It is not claiming that the record is current.
Federal records drift for ordinary reasons. A carrier adds broker authority and the classification never follows. A business lets an authority lapse and the old flag stays set. A company that started as a private fleet begins hauling for hire and nobody updates anything, because nothing forces them to until an audit or a renewal. The result is a screen that looks confidently filled in and is describing a business from four years ago.
Read the ticks rather than the button. If a box is ticked for something you no longer do, untick it. If something you do is missing, tick it. And if the underlying FMCSA record is the thing that is out of date, update that record too — UCR reads from it every year, and so does everyone who looks your business up.
What actually sets the fee — the 2027 brackets
Classification describes what kind of business you are. The fee is decided one screen later, by how many power units that business operates. Entities with no power units of their own — brokers, freight forwarders and leasing companies that do not run trucks — have a Vehicle Total of zero and land in the bottom bracket.
| Power units | 2027 government feeyou pay this 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 |
Government 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.
Why it is worth getting right anyway
If classification does not change the amount, why slow down for it? Because the registration is a statement about your business, made by a person certifying on the previous screen that they are authorised to make it. A registration that describes a pure motor carrier, filed by a company that has been brokering half its freight for three years, is not a costly error — it is simply not true, and it sits in a federal system that other people read.
There is a practical angle too. The classifications on this screen are the same flags that appear in the records brokers, shippers and insurers pull when they vet you. Keeping them accurate is part of keeping the business legible to the people who check it — and this screen, once a year, is a natural moment to notice that something has drifted.
See your classifications before the portal does
Enter your USDOT and EasyUCR reads your real carrier record — legal name, address, base state, classifications and the power-unit count on your latest MCS-150 — so you know exactly which boxes UCR.gov is about to pre-tick and whether they still describe the business. Free, before you pay us anything. You open the portal yourself and file it.
Carrier classifications — common questions
What is the difference between a motor carrier and a motor private carrier?+
Who owns the freight. A motor carrier is paid to haul property or passengers belonging to somebody else — it is a transportation business. A motor private carrier hauls its own goods in its own trucks as part of some other business: a lumber yard delivering its own timber, a food producer moving its own stock between states. Both operate commercial motor vehicles in interstate commerce, both are in the UCR programme, and both are priced on power units. A business that does both ticks both boxes.
Do I tick Broker on UCR if I have both carrier and broker authority?+
Yes — tick both. Holding dual authority is common and the screen is explicitly "check all that apply", not a single choice. Ticking Broker alongside Motor Carrier does not add a second fee and does not create a second registration. It does not reduce your fee either: a carrier who also brokers is priced on their power units like any other carrier, so a fleet of eight tractors still pays the 6–20 bracket at $333 regardless of how much brokered freight moves alongside it.
The boxes are already ticked. Do I need to do anything?+
Check them. The portal pre-ticks the classifications from what FMCSA already holds against your USDOT, which is a convenience, not a verification. Records go stale: authority gets added, authority gets dropped, a business changes what it does and the federal record does not catch up for years. The pre-tick tells you what the government currently believes about your business. Whether that is still true is your call to make on this screen.
Does my carrier classification change my UCR fee?+
Not directly. The fee comes from one number — the Vehicle Total the portal computes from your power-unit count on the next screen. Classification changes the fee only in the sense that an entity with no power units at all, such as a broker-only or forwarder-only business, has a Vehicle Total of zero and therefore falls in the lowest bracket at $55. Tick a second classification on top of Motor Carrier and the amount does not move.
I am a broker with no trucks. Do I still register for UCR?+
Yes. Brokers, freight forwarders and leasing companies operating in interstate commerce are inside the programme in their own right, whether or not they own a single power unit. With no power units the Vehicle Total is zero, which puts the registration in the 0–2 bracket at $55 for 2027. The registration is the same nine screens as anybody else's.
What if a classification on the screen is wrong?+
Correct it on the screen so the registration reflects the business as it actually operates. If the underlying FMCSA record is what is wrong — you dropped an authority years ago, or added one that never made it through — the durable fix is to update that record rather than to keep correcting the pre-tick every October. UCR reads from it, and so does everyone else who looks your business up.
Is there a classification for owner-operators?+
No, and there does not need to be one. An owner-operator running under their own authority ticks Motor Carrier like any other for-hire carrier. An owner-operator leased on to somebody else's authority is usually covered by that carrier's registration rather than filing their own — which is a question about whose authority the truck runs under, not about which box to tick.
Where does this screen sit in the UCR.gov flow?+
It is screen six of nine. It comes after the "Registered By" certification and immediately before the vehicle question that sets your fee, so it is the last screen where the portal is asking what kind of business you are before it asks how big you are. Pressing CONTINUE takes you to the vehicles screen.
Keep reading
All nine UCR.gov screens in order, written from the live portal.
The screen immediately after this one, and the one that costs money.
What brokers owe, and why a brokerage with no trucks still registers.
Which state you file under, and what the dashboard already says.
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 for anyone. Which classifications apply to your business is a question about the authority you hold; this page explains what each box means and is general guidance, not legal advice. Confirm the current screens and requirements on UCR.gov before you file.