UCR 2027 registration: who needs it and when
Korey's Fast Filing Group LLC is a private filing service, not affiliated with FMCSA, USDOT or the UCR Plan.
For-hire and private carriers, brokers, freight forwarders, and leasing companies that operate in interstate commerce register for UCR every year. The 2027 portal opened October 1, 2026, and you register and pay before January 1, 2027.
You can register yourself at ucr.gov. FastUCR Filing is a paid filing service, not the UCR Plan.
Source: UCR Plan fee brackets. Checked 2026-10-24.
Updated 2026-10-24
Who must / exemptions decision tree
The UCR Plan's questionnaire starts with the kind of business, then asks whether the transportation is interstate. An in-state leg can still be interstate commerce: the Plan asks whether the property, household goods, or passengers cross a state or national border at any point in the journey, including before you receive them or after you deliver them. The example it gives is carrying goods to a dock or airport.
- Which category fits: motor carrier or motor private carrier, freight forwarder, broker, or leasing company. A company can be a carrier and another category at the same time.
- Do you transport property, household goods, or passengers across state lines or U.S. national borders? If the answer is no, the next question is whether those goods or passengers cross a border at any point in the journey.
- A yes on either interstate question leads into cargo type. Passenger operations are asked whether a fee is charged directly, or bundled into another service such as a hotel, summer camp, or school bus. A carrier primarily engaged in intrastate school-bus operations may exempt its intrastate school buses from its fleet count. That note is about the count, not a blanket pass for the company.
- The questionnaire then asks whether you solely run vehicles with 10 or fewer seats, whether you haul your own property, whether you haul placarded hazardous materials, whether you solely operate in Hawaii, whether you solely operate vehicles owned by the federal government, whether you solely operate emergency vehicles, and whether you solely operate vehicles at 10,000 pounds or less.
| Result on the page | What the page says |
|---|---|
| Required | You are required to register. For-hire passenger carriers are called out as required. |
| Not required: private passengers | A private carrier of passengers is not required. The page says this most often applies to churches, schools, and businesses transporting their own employees. |
| Not required: intrastate | Intrastate commerce — transportation of goods or passengers within a single state — is not required to register. |
| Exempt | One result says you are exempt and do not need to register. The page also says, in two other places, that a fact does not exempt you: hauling your own property does not, and solely operating vehicles at 10,000 pounds or less does not. Solely operating vehicles with 10 or fewer seats does not exempt you from registering; the Plan says that usually affects the fee, and an entity with no commercial motor vehicles ordinarily pays the lowest bracket. |
If the lightweight vehicles pull trailers in interstate commerce and the gross combination weight rating or gross combination weight is 10,001 pounds or more, the Plan says the entity counts those commercial motor vehicles and pays the fee that applies.
Source: UCR Plan: Do I need to register?. Checked 2026-10-24.
2027 fee table
These are the 2027 government fees from the UCR Plan fee-brackets page and 49 CFR 367.50, adopted in FMCSA's final rule 91 FR 56063 (2026-17893), published September 1, 2026 and effective October 1, 2026. Brokers and leasing companies pay the bracket 1 government fee of $55. The plan.ucr.gov homepage may show an older schedule, so use this year-specific table. The 2026 government fees are in the same rows for comparison.
Our service fee is a separate charge. It is not part of the government fee. Where we sell the filing online, the service fee comes from the checkout catalog. Bracket 1 auto-renew is $80 a year, of which $25 is the service fee and $55 is the government fee.
| Bracket | Vehicles | 2027 government fee | 2026 government fee | Our service fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0–2 | $55 | $46 | $35 |
| 2 | 3–5 | $167 | $138 | $88 |
| 3 | 6–20 | $333 | $276 | $142 |
| 4 | 21–100 | $1,163 | $963 | $337 |
| 5 | 101–1,000 | $5,548 | $4,592 | Not sold online |
| 6 | 1,001+ | $54,165 | $44,836 | Not sold online |
Portal processing fee: the fee-brackets page lists the government fee for each bracket and does not list a separate National Registration System processing fee. Fleets of 101 vehicles and up are not in the online checkout catalog. Write to support@fastucrfiling.com for a service price. Do not add a government fee and a guessed service fee together.
Source: UCR Plan fee brackets. Checked 2026-10-24.
Source: 91 FR 56063, 2026-17893. Checked 2026-10-24.
How vehicles are counted; base state
The fee bracket is the number of vehicles owned or operated. The Plan's questionnaire says an entity that operates no commercial motor vehicles — because the vehicles are lighter or carry fewer passengers than the commercial motor vehicle definition — still registers if it has a federal MC number, and ordinarily pays the lowest bracket. If those vehicles pull trailers and the combination is 10,001 pounds or more, those vehicles are counted.
ucr.gov asks motor carriers, at registration, to declare all commercial motor vehicles they are operating in interstate commerce, because FMCSA has suspended the required filing of biennial MCS-150 updates.
Every entity subject to UCR registers annually with its base state and pays the annual fee to that state.
Source: UCR Plan: Do I need to register?. Checked 2026-10-24.
Source: ucr.gov. Checked 2026-10-24.
Source: UCR Plan fee brackets (base state). Checked 2026-10-24.
Deadline & enforcement
The 2027 registration portal through the National Registration System opened October 1, 2026. To keep operating, an entity subject to UCR completes registration and pays the fee before January 1 of the registration year. For 2027, that date is January 1, 2027.
After January 1, the fee is still due, and a carrier that has not registered may be subject to state enforcement. The fee-brackets page does not publish a dollar penalty. This page does not state one either, because penalties are set state by state.
Source: UCR Plan fee brackets. Checked 2026-10-24.
How to file: yourself on ucr.gov vs. a service
You can register yourself in the National Registration System at ucr.gov. You pay the government fee for your bracket. As of 2026-10-24, the fee-brackets page does not add a portal processing fee on top of that bracket.
A filing service is optional. FastUCR Filing charges the service fee in the table above, on top of the government fee, and the two amounts stay on separate lines. You do not have to use a service to be registered.
A look-alike site is one that does not send you to ucr.gov, does not say it is a private company, or folds the government fee into a single unlabeled charge. The UCR Plan's registration link goes to ucr.gov, and that portal asks for a USDOT number to begin. The registration you file there is the record.
Source: ucr.gov. Checked 2026-10-24.
Source: UCR Plan fee brackets. Checked 2026-10-24.
UCR vs USDOT vs MC vs BOC-3 vs 2290
| Item | What it is | Source, checked 2026-10-24 |
|---|---|---|
| UCR | An annual registration and fee, paid to the base state before January 1 of the registration year. The 2027 portal opened October 1, 2026. | UCR Plan fee brackets |
| USDOT number | FMCSA treats the USDOT number application as separate from operating authority. A company that needs interstate operating authority needs that authority in addition to a DOT number. | FMCSA: Get operating authority |
| MC number | Operating authority is often identified as an MC, FF, or MX number, depending on the type granted. Private carriers that transport their own cargo are on FMCSA's list of carriers that do not need operating authority. That is a different question from UCR. | FMCSA: Get operating authority |
| BOC-3 | A designation of process agents. Only one completed form may be on file. A carrier's form is filed by a process agent. A broker or freight forwarder without CMVs can file on its own behalf. | FMCSA Form BOC-3 |
| Form 2290 | An IRS heavy highway vehicle use tax return. It figures and pays the tax on highway motor vehicles used at a taxable gross weight of 55,000 pounds or more. That tax is separate from UCR. Fast2290Filing, a different site, files Form 2290. | IRS: About Form 2290 |
Form 2290 is filed on Fast2290Filing, a different site, and only in this heavy-vehicle tax context.
These three pages are on FastBOC3Filing, a different site. They are not UCR filings.
FAQ
Who has to register for UCR in 2027?
For-hire and private carriers, brokers, freight forwarders, and leasing companies that operate in interstate commerce register every year. A private carrier of passengers — a church, a school, or a business transporting its own employees — is not required. A business that stays inside one state, and whose goods or passengers never cross a state or national border at any point in the journey, is not required. This is not a requirement for everyone.
When do I register and pay for the 2027 UCR year?
The 2027 registration portal opened October 1, 2026. Register and pay before January 1, 2027. After that date the fee is still due, and a state may take enforcement action. The UCR Plan fee-brackets page does not name a dollar penalty.
What do brokers and leasing companies pay for 2027?
Brokers and leasing companies pay the bracket 1 government fee of $55. That government fee is separate from our service fee of $35 on a bracket 1 filing.
Can I register for UCR myself?
Yes. The UCR Plan's registration system is at ucr.gov, and you can register there without using FastUCR Filing. The fee-brackets page lists the bracket fee and does not list a separate portal processing fee.
Is UCR the same as Form 2290?
No. Form 2290 is the IRS return used to figure and pay the heavy highway vehicle use tax on highway motor vehicles with a taxable gross weight of 55,000 pounds or more. UCR is a separate annual registration fee.
Does a trip inside one state still count as interstate commerce?
It can. The UCR Plan asks whether the property, household goods, or passengers cross a state or national border at any point in the journey, including before you receive them or after you deliver them. Carrying goods to a dock or airport is the example the Plan gives.
Source: UCR Plan: Do I need to register?. Checked 2026-10-24.
Source: UCR Plan fee brackets. Checked 2026-10-24.
Source: IRS: About Form 2290. Checked 2026-10-24.