How many for-hire carriers are operating, and how many lose authority each month — the cleanest freely-available read on spot-market tightness and used-truck supply, straight from FMCSA registration data.
FMCSA's census currently lists 696,642 active for-hire carriers with interstate operating authority, alongside 47,009 exempt-for-hire and 1,397,250 private carriers, for 2,225,166 active registrations in total. In 2026-06, FMCSA recorded 1,426 involuntary authority revocations, against a trailing-12-month average of 5,758per month. Sustained months above that average typically precede spot-rate firmness by roughly 60 to 90 days as capacity exits faster than it's replaced; used-truck dealers should watch for trade-in volume to climb 30 to 60 days after a revocation surge as displaced owner-operators liquidate equipment.
FMCSA began migrating operating-authority actions to its new MOTUS system in mid-2026; counts from that transition window are merged across both registers and may understate the most recent months.
Motor-carrier operating authority is the FMCSA registration that allows a for-hire carrier to haul regulated freight in interstate commerce. A carrier whose authority is revoked cannot legally haul for pay, so a revocation removes capacity from the market immediately.
When involuntary authority revocations rise for several consecutive months, marginal carriers are exiting faster than the market can absorb. Historically that pattern precedes spot-rate firming by 60-90 days and a used-truck supply surge — displaced owner-operators liquidating equipment — within 30-60 days.
FMCSA revokes operating authority for lapsed insurance, safety violations, failed audits, and voluntary surrender. Sustained low spot rates, fuel-cost spikes, and insurance-premium surges push marginal owner-operators out, so revocations tend to lag margin pressure by roughly one quarter.
Active-carrier counts come from FMCSA's Company Census File and revocation counts from FMCSA's Licensing & Insurance and MOTUS revocation registers, all published on the U.S. DOT open-data portal (data.transportation.gov). TruckRadar reads these datasets directly — no estimates or modeled figures.
New-grant counts can't be cleanly observed from public data — the census only shows carriers still active, so carriers that registered and then lost authority are invisible. In 2026 FMCSA is also retiring standalone MC authority in favor of USDOT-only registration. We report only what is directly observable: active counts and recorded revocations.