With the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration last week publishing a concurrent press release and notice in the Federal Register, the next phase of Motus is here.
The name derives from the Latin for motion, FMCSA said in its prepared statement. And the system is already in place to a limited degree.
The next phase is significant enough for a wider swath of the trucking community that it warranted not only the Federal Register notice but also an email blast from the Scopelitis trucking-focused law firm, with the headline “Motus is Almost Here: Are You Ready for It ?”
FMCSA has not announced a firm date for the start of Motus phase II, but it is expected to be before the end of the second quarter. It will be a replacement for the Unified Registration System (URS) that began its rollout in 2015.
“Motus will replace URS as well as the FMCSA Portal which is a web-based system that acts as a single entry point to FMCSA systems for various services and information that is used by motor carriers, their associates, and other authorized account holders to manage registration, to update company information, to access data on crash and inspection history, and to interact with other FMCSA systems,” FMCSA said in its Federal Register announcement.
Among those other systems: the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse.
“Motus will serve as the unified registration system required by statute,” according to the Federal Register notice.
First phase already in use
The first steps toward introducing Motus go back to December, FMCSA said. It was opened then to what the agency called “supporting companies,” which the Department of Transportation defines as “authorized by FMCSA to file process agents on behalf of motor carriers, freight forwarders, and property brokers.” That got those companies in position to be able to offer assistance when phase II opened.
But FMCSA is not pitching Motus as simply a better way to store data on carriers. It is also boasting that it should improve the use of FMCSA data for fighting fraud and taking other security measures.
“Motus will streamline the registration process and put fraud-resistant security features, such as individual identity and business verification, at the forefront,” the agency said in its Federal Register notice.
What to look for
The Scopelitis email spelled out what will be happening in Motus when Phase II launches, possibly as early as May 15, the law firm said. Similar recommendations are in the Federal Register notice.
- Companies that are registered with FMCSA already should log into the current FMCSA portal, confirm that it is active and check that its PIN is working as well. If it isn’t, a new one should be requested. Scopelitis said the PIN might come only by regular mail, so it isn’t an instantaneous process.
- A company’s portal account has a “portal company official” listed. That same person will need to be the registrant into Motus, so the correct email and name needs to be checked.
- There are other pieces of information on a registering company that will need to be updated.
There are identity-proofing features in Motus, FMCSA said, using a system called IDEMIA that is in use in other parts of the federal government.
FMCSA has partnered with IDEMIA in the last year, and the agency said in the Federal Register that it will “perform identity document capture and verification services to verify the legitimacy of an applicant’s identity, to reduce fraudulent activity, to enhance the security of FMCSA systems, and to protect sensitive data in URS.”
Big benefit on fraud fighting predicted
P. Sean Garney, the co-director of Scopelitis Transportation Consulting, which is based in the Washington D.C. area, said he believed the use of IDEMIA in Motus will prove to be “significantly” beneficial in identifying fraudulent players through their data in the FMCSA system.
The use of that system will provide photographic and biometric evidence, Garney said. “Just the realness of the photo to verify that’s a real person, I think that’s huge,” Garney said.
Business verification tools will help identify companies that have a “legitimate physical business address.”
“Most of the low lying fruit that they have found in the system so far has been those types of things where you have one address and 700 DOT numbers,” Garney added.
FMCSA’s Federal Register notice said all new applicants will be required to meet the system’s “identity proofing and verification requirements.”
“This will enhance the Agency’s digital resilience, promote user confidence, and ensure that only
verified entities can register with FMCSA and access their registration information,” FMCSA said in its Federal Register notice. “Based on FMCSA’s latest information, Motus will verify the identity of all new applicants, as well as the approximately 800,000 existing registrants when users access the new system for the first time.”
The Scopelitis email said FMCSA has been studying a change in policy where it would no longer assign Motor Carrier (MC) numbers and instead just use a DOT number as the “sole identifier for FMCSA registrants.”
But the law firm added it is “just a proposal and is not being implemented as part of the initial Motus rollout.”
It said FMCSA has indicated “the change is still under consideration.”
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