Moving the business is an FMCSA event, not just a postal one. The agency's registration guidance requires you to update your registration information within 30 days of any change — address included — on top of the regular biennial update cycle. The update is free, takes minutes online, and the cost of skipping it is paid later: missed audit notices and a SAFER record that contradicts your insurance paperwork.
The Two Addresses on Your USDOT Record
The MCS-150 captures two separate address fields, and a move can touch either or both:
- Principal place of business — the physical street address where the operation is run and records are kept. This is where the FMCSA directs audit and investigation activity.
- Mailing address — where correspondence lands. A PO Box is acceptable here, but not as the principal place of business.
Both flow to your public SAFER record, which brokers, shippers, and insurers check against your other paperwork.
How to File the Address Change (Free, Online)
- Sign in to Motus at motus.dot.gov with your Login.gov account. No account yet? The setup path (Login.gov first, then connecting your USDOT record) is covered in our Login.gov sign-in guide.
- Update your registration with the new address — the FMCSA lists “Change of address” among the transactions handled fully online, at no charge.
- Update the changed fields — principal place of business, mailing address, phone, and email as applicable — and submit.
- Verify the record. FMCSA controls when the update shows in its records. Once it does, look up the record in FMCSA's Motus public search by USDOT number or company name.
Does the Address Change Count as Your Biennial Update?
Sometimes. An MCS-150 you file inside your biennial window satisfies that cycle, so an address change filed in your assigned month and year covers the biennial as well. FMCSA does not publish a wider early-filing window, so if the move lands well outside that window, treat it as a separate filing and still update in your assigned month. The schedule itself never moves: your due month and year stay fixed by the last two digits of the USDOT number for the life of the registration.
The MC Authority Record Updates Separately
For-hire carriers and brokers have a second federal record — the operating authority (MC number) docket — with its own address and phone fields. Per the FMCSA, you update it either online through the same FMCSA registration account (Motus) or on paper with a signed Form MCSA-5889 showing the MC number, company name, and the former and current addresses. If the move coincides with a rename or entity change, the sequencing rules in our name-change guide apply on top.
Moved? Get the Update Filed
Address changes and biennial updates are prepared and submitted for you. $175 standard, or $400 once for lifetime updates.
File your MCS-150After the FMCSA: the Downstream Updates
The federal record is the anchor, but four other parties key off your address. Update your insurer (certificates carry the garaging and business address), your IRP and IFTA base-state accounts, your UCR registration, and your factoring or fuel-card providers. The quiet failure mode is mismatched records: a broker's compliance system sees one address on SAFER and another on the insurance certificate, flags the discrepancy, and holds the load while you sort it out. The full walkthrough of the form itself lives in our step-by-step MCS-150 guide.
Bottom line: file the address change through Motus within 30 days of the move — free, and FMCSA controls when the update shows in its records. Update the MC authority record separately, and if the change is filed in your assigned biennial month and year, it counts as the biennial too.