FMCSA deputy: Motus registration fixes due within weeks; ELD self-certification to end

FMCSA Deputy Administrator Jesse Elison said on October 1, 2026 that carriers should start to notice improvements to the Motus registration system within weeks. He was speaking at the National Motor Freight Traffic Association's cybersecurity conference, as reported by Truck News. These were remarks about agency priorities, not a formal announcement, and no specific dates or feature list were given.

Motus is the system FMCSA built to manage all registrations in one place. The switch happened in mid-May, and Elison was direct about how it went: "Despite having a high level of confidence when we did launch, those following weeks were really, really tough because what we had built wasn't working, and every time we tried to fix it, it worked less." As the problems continued, FMCSA announced in July that it was suspending the inactivation of USDOT numbers for entities that had not completed their required biennial update.

On where the system is headed, Elison said: "A carrier is not going to need to have a consultant to navigate our system. That's a really big deal, and that should have been delivered years ago. We're going to deliver on that."

He also addressed electronic logging devices. "The self-certification process - I've never heard anybody argue that it has worked. It just hasn't worked," he said. According to the report, FMCSA is working on a rule to end ELD self-certification, but Elison declined to give a timeline, so there is no proposal on the table yet and nothing has changed for carriers today. In the meantime, the agency has removed nearly 100 ELDs from its registry since the start of 2025 and has allowed only one or two new providers to be certified.