UCR 2027 fees and deadlines: the new brackets, who must register, and when enforcement starts

The Unified Carrier Registration (UCR) is an annual fee paid by interstate carriers, brokers, freight forwarders and leasing companies to fund state motor carrier safety programs. The 2027 registration year brings the first fee increase since 2023, and it is not small. Here is what changes, who pays, and when.

2026 versus 2027 fees

UCR fees are set by bracket, based on the number of commercial motor vehicles you operate in interstate commerce. The 2027 brackets are the same; the amounts go up by roughly 20 percent.

Fleet size	2026 fee	2027 fee	Increase
0 to 2 vehicles	46 USD	55 USD	9 USD
3 to 5 vehicles	138 USD	167 USD	29 USD
6 to 20 vehicles	276 USD	333 USD	57 USD
21 to 100 vehicles	963 USD	1,163 USD	200 USD
101 to 1,000 vehicles	4,592 USD	5,548 USD	956 USD
1,001 vehicles and up	44,836 USD	54,165 USD	9,329 USD

These are government fees paid to the UCR plan through your base state. Any filing service charges its own fee on top; ask to see the two amounts separately.

Who must register

UCR applies to anyone who operates in interstate or international commerce and falls into one of these groups:

• Motor carriers, for-hire and private, with a USDOT number and interstate operations. That includes an owner-operator with one truck.
• Brokers and freight forwarders, even with no vehicles. They register in the lowest bracket.
• Leasing companies that lease vehicles to interstate carriers.
• Canadian and Mexican carriers operating in the United States.

Who does not: purely intrastate carriers with no interstate movements, and carriers that only operate exempt vehicles such as those under 10,001 lb with no hazmat or passengers. If you are unsure whether a movement counts as interstate, the FMCSA test is whether the freight itself is moving across a state line, not whether the truck does. Hauling a load from a rail yard to a warehouse in the same state can be interstate commerce if the goods came from out of state.

Counting your vehicles

The bracket is determined by the number of commercial motor vehicles you operated in interstate commerce during the 12 months before the registration, or the number reported on your most recent MCS-150, whichever you choose. A commercial motor vehicle for UCR means a vehicle over 10,001 lb GVWR, or one carrying hazmat requiring placards, or one designed for 9 or more passengers for hire, or 16 or more not for hire.

Two adjustments are allowed:

• You may exclude vehicles used only in intrastate commerce.
• You may exclude trailers. UCR counts power units.

Choose the method that is accurate. A carrier that reports 25 vehicles on its MCS-150 but registers in the 6 to 20 bracket invites a question at roadside. Fix the MCS-150 first, then register.

Base state

You register once, in your base state, and the registration covers every state. Your base state is:

1. The state where your principal place of business is, if that state participates in UCR.
2. If it does not participate, the participating state where you have the most drivers or the nearest participating state, following the plan’s neighboring-state rules.
3. For Canadian and Mexican carriers, the participating state where you do the most business or first enter the United States.

Non-participating states in 2026 include Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Wyoming and the District of Columbia; Maryland and Vermont have also been outside the plan. A carrier based in one of them still has to register, just in a neighboring participating state. A Florida carrier, for example, typically registers through Georgia or Alabama.

Deadlines

• October 1, 2026: registration for 2027 opens.
• January 1, 2027: the 2027 registration year begins and states may begin enforcing. Because the plan gives states a short grace period, most begin roadside enforcement in January.
• December 31, 2027: the 2027 registration expires.

There is no filing deadline in the sense of a date after which you cannot register. You can register late. But every day you operate after January 1 without a current registration, you are exposed to a citation in any participating state.

How to register

1. Go to ucr.gov, the only address for the national system, or your base state’s UCR page if it processes registrations itself.
2. Enter your USDOT number. The system pulls your name and address from FMCSA. If the address is wrong, fix the MCS-150 in Motus first.
3. Confirm your carrier type and the vehicle count.
4. Pay the bracket fee by card or ACH.
5. Print or save the receipt. There is no decal or cab card; the receipt and the online record are your proof.

Keep the receipt in the truck. A roadside officer checks the UCR database, but the database can lag by a day or two after payment.

Enforcement

UCR enforcement happens at roadside, at weigh stations and during compliance reviews. Officers query the UCR database by USDOT number. If it shows no registration for the current year, the state can issue a citation under its own law. Fines vary by state; several set them in the hundreds of dollars per occurrence, and some states place the vehicle out of service until the registration is completed and paid on the spot.

Some states also link UCR to other credentials. An IRP renewal can be held until UCR is paid, and a few states check UCR when issuing intrastate operating credentials.

Common errors

• Registering under the wrong bracket because the MCS-150 vehicle count is stale.
• Paying a lookalike site. Several private sites charge a “processing fee” on top of the government fee without saying so. The government fee is the amount in the table above; anything extra is a vendor fee and should be shown as such.
• Forgetting the broker registration when a carrier also holds broker authority. Each entity with its own USDOT or authority registers.
• Assuming the receipt is the same every year. The registration is annual. A 2026 receipt does not cover 2027.
• Cross-border carriers skipping it. A Quebec carrier delivering to Plattsburgh and returning is in interstate commerce and needs UCR.

What Profirm does for you

Profirm files your UCR every year before enforcement starts, confirms the vehicle count against your MCS-150 so the bracket is right, and sends the receipt for the truck. At the time of writing our filing fee is 49 USD per year; the government fee is the bracket amount in the table above, shown separately on the invoice and paid at cost. UCR filing is included in the Owner-Operator Plan, which is 449 USD a year for the whole compliance calendar. Profirm is a private compliance firm, not the UCR plan or a state agency.