Commercial Motor Vehicle Marking Requirements

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) vehicle marking regulations in 49 CFR part 390 require freight-carrying motor carriers, intrastate hazardous materials transporting motor carriers, passenger-carrying motor carriers, and intermodal equipment providers (IEPs) engaging in interstate transportation to display certain information on their vehicles or equipment. The USDOT number is used to identify all motor carriers in FMCSA's registration and information systems. It is also used by States as the key identifier in the Performance and Registration Information Systems Management system, a cooperative Federal/State program that makes motor carrier safety a requirement for obtaining and maintaining commercial motor vehicle registration and privileges. The marking requirements are mandatory and apply to freight-carrying commercial motor carriers (i.e., trucking companies), passenger-carrying commercial motor carriers, and intermodal equipment providers (IEPs) engaging in interstate transportation. The Agency provides performance-based requirements for the marking but does not require a specific method of marking as long as the method complies with FMCSA’s regulations. These requirements ensure that FMCSA, NTSB and the States are able to identify motor carriers and correctly assign responsibility for regulatory violations during inspections, investigations, compliance reviews, and crash studies. These requirements will also provide the public with beneficial information that could also assist in identifying carriers for the purposes of commerce, complaints or emergency notification. The appropriate marking of vehicles, owned, leased or rented, assists FMCSA in identifying motor carriers and monitoring the safety performance and crash involvement, thereby helping the Agency identify unsafe, high risk motor carriers. This ICR also greatly assists FMCSA and its State partners in meeting the standard burden of proof for enforcement actions against non-compliant carriers, as well as assists State partners during accident investigations in determining the responsible motor carrier involved in a CMV crash. The regulations include a marking requirement, which depending on the need and method could be permanent or temporary. Only enough information is collected to maintain tracking of intermodal equipment. There are 4 ICs as follows:IC1: Freight-carrying Commercial Motor Carriers; IC2: Intrastate Hazardous Materials Transporting Motor Carriers; IC3: Passenger-carrying Commercial Motor Carriers; and IC4: Intermodal Equipment Providers (IEPs).

The latest form for Commercial Motor Vehicle Marking Requirements expires 2026-07-31 and can be found here.

IC-1: Freight-Carrying Commercial Motor Carriers

Federal Enterprise Architecture: Transportation - Ground Transportation