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New survey + MOTUS alert!

Author

Reed Loustalot
May 15, 2026

TRUCK PARKING CLUB

Friday Bulletin • May 15, 2026

Good Morning Truck Parking Club Members,

How would you use on-site truck maintenance at Truck Parking Club locations?

We want to hear how you keep your truck running for a $25 promo code! What services do you get most often? PMs, oil changes, tires, brakes? Where do you usually go for repairs when you're out? How do you pay for work on the road? Let us know!

The Big Thing

FMCSA's New Registration System Goes Live Today. Here's What Every Carrier Needs to Do.

Motus, FMCSA's new registration system, launches today, May 14. It replaces the legacy registration portal that motor carriers, brokers, and freight forwarders have used for decades to apply for USDOT Numbers, operating authority, and other registration actions. FMCSA announced the launch on April 28 and gave the industry roughly two weeks to prepare. That window closes today.

Motus consolidates registration activity into a single dashboard. New USDOT applications, operating authority filings, MCS-150 biennial updates, name changes, address changes, and authorization updates all run through it. FMCSA says the system is designed to streamline registration, prevent fraud, and create a more intuitive experience. The shift matters because it changes how every motor carrier in America interacts with the federal government on registration matters. After today, if your account isn't properly linked to Motus, you can't update your information, file a biennial, or take registration actions until it gets sorted out.

Here's the rule that's catching carriers off guard. Only the FMCSA Portal Company Official using the same Login.gov email tied to the original Portal account is permitted to claim the company's account in Motus for the first time. One person. One email. If the original Company Official has left the company, lost access to that email, or never had Login.gov configured, the company can't claim its own Motus account on the first try. That's the single biggest snag carriers are running into right now, and it's the one that takes the longest to fix once the system is live.

The other trap is account dormancy. FMCSA Portal accounts get disabled after 90 days of inactivity and archived after 12 months. Carriers who haven't logged in since the last biennial update may already be locked out without realizing it. The fix is a call to the FMCSA Contact Center at 1-800-832-5660 to unlock the account, but call volume is going to be heavy this week.

Here's what to do today if you haven't already. Log into your FMCSA Portal at portal.fmcsa.dot.gov and confirm the account is active. If you don't have a Portal account, grab your USDOT PIN at safer.fmcsa.dot.gov and create one. While you're in there, check that your company information, operation classification, contact info, and authorized users are all correct. If anything is off, fix it through Biennial Update (MCS-150) under the Registration tab. Once your account is successfully linked to Motus, you won't need to use the FMCSA Portal anymore for registration changes.

For most owner-operators and small fleets this is a 10-minute task. For larger fleets with multiple authorized users, multiple Company Officials over the years, or staff turnover since the last biennial, it can take days to untangle. The carriers who got ahead of this two weeks ago are fine. The ones who waited are about to find out what their account status actually looks like.

There's a bigger picture worth keeping in mind. Motus is one piece of a broader FMCSA push to clean up the trucking industry's registration data, which has been a source of fraud for years. More than 300,000 carriers operate under USDOT authority, and the agency has said the legacy system can't reliably verify who is actually behind each authority. Double-brokering, identity theft, and chameleon carriers have all exploited those gaps. The pitch for Motus is that tighter identity verification at the registration layer makes that kind of fraud harder. The cost of getting there is some short-term friction for legitimate carriers who have to migrate over.

What to watch over the next two weeks. Expect heavier-than-usual wait times at the FMCSA Contact Center, an early wave of account claim issues, and a learning curve for anyone who hasn't touched the registration system in years. If you're a Property Member with Truck Parking Club, your registration status doesn't affect your listing or payouts. If you're a fleet customer booking parking through TPC, make sure your registration is in good standing because every other thing you need to do as a carrier flows through it.

The legacy system worked for a long time. Today it gets replaced. Don't be the one who finds out about it the next time you need to file something.

Stay Off The Ramp

You shouldn't have to choose between a highway ramp and a HOS violation. Thousands of drivers make that call every night. We built Truck Parking Club so you don't have to.

Use code ramp25 for $25 off any daily booking at any of our 5,100+ locations. Find a real spot tonight.

Shell Rotella Promotion

New: Earn up to $100 in Club Cash with Shell Rotella oil change!

Follow the directions at the link below to receive up to $100 in Club Cash from Truck Parking Club when you purchase a minimum 11-gallon Shell Rotella® Synthetic heavy duty diesel engine oil change at participating locations. Offer ends June 30, 2026. Terms apply.

WE ASKED HUNDREDS OF DRIVERS ABOUT TRUCK PARKING CLUB

Here’s what they said:

Quick Hits

Super Trucker Membership — $9.99/month

Unmatched flexibility + brand new features, right at your fingertips.

  • 5 refunds per month (cancel before booking starts, money goes to Club Cash)

  • 5 free booking date changes per month

  • 5% Club Cash on every purchase (up from 1%), up to $50/month

  • Access to Truck Navigation with every booking

  • MORE BENEFITS TO COME!

Property Members: Free Signage & Access Controls

Need signage for your lot? Have an automated gate you want connected to our app? We cover it.

News

Trump Floats Federal Fuel Tax Suspension, Industry Pushes Back President Trump proposed suspending the federal fuel tax on Monday, May 11, with gas now averaging $4.52 a gallon nationally and diesel volatile after the conflict with Iran. The Truckload Carriers Association, American Trucking Associations, and National Tank Truck Carriers issued a joint statement Tuesday warning that past gas tax holidays delivered almost nothing to consumers. Because the tax is collected at the wholesale level, the savings rarely reach drivers at the pump. The bigger concern: every dollar suspended is a dollar out of the Highway Trust Fund that pays for the roads truckers run on every day. Read more on The Trucker

Diesel Reverses Course With a 29-Cent Spike After three straight weeks of declines, the national average for diesel jumped 28.9 cents per gallon in a single week to $5.64. The Midwest got hit hardest with a 61-cent increase, the sharpest weekly move in years. Crude markets are reacting to ongoing tensions with Iran, and U.S. distillate inventories have fallen to their lowest level since 2014. If you locked in a fuel surcharge based on last week's numbers, this week just broke your math. Read more on FTR

Trucking Adds Jobs for First Time in Over Two Years For-hire trucking added 4,300 payroll jobs in April, the strongest hiring number since September 2023. The broader transportation and warehousing sector added more than 30,000 jobs in the month, outperforming healthcare and leading every major category. The U.S. economy added 115,000 jobs overall with unemployment holding steady at 4.3%. Combined with rising spot rates and the upcycle commentary from Landstar and Werner, the labor data is one more sign capacity is tightening for real this time. Read more on FTR

Texas AG Goes After Five Trucking Schools Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opened an investigation into EP Texas Trucking, Trucker Certified, Fast Track CDL, CDLCALL.COM, and Lindenwood Education System for allegedly certifying unqualified drivers and ignoring federal English proficiency requirements. Some of the schools are advertising 20-day CDL programs, well below the industry standard of three to seven weeks. One school is accused of telling prospective students English proficiency is not necessary and marketing exclusively in Spanish. Several of the schools told CCJ they had no idea they were under investigation when Paxton announced it publicly. Read more on CCJ

The Walcott Truckers Jamboree -- July 9-11

The 48th Annual Walcott Truckers Jamboree returns to the Iowa 80 Truckstop off I-80, Exit 284 in Walcott, Iowa. Last year's event drew over 45,000 people.

This year features the Super Truck Beauty Contest, antique truck display, Trucker Olympics, Iowa pork chop cookout, fireworks at 9 PM, and live music all three days. Admission and parking are free.

The Regulars

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