We would like to alert you that there is a company called “DOT Authority” that the federal government alleges led commercial truck owners to believe they were dealing with the real U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). The company’s operatives tricked commercial vehicle owners into paying extra service fees for help filling out and filing their federal and state motor carrier registrations. They also tried to scare owners into believing that if they didn’t pay “DOT Authority,” they faced a $1,000 fine. Most of the people targeted owned smaller privately run trucking companies with only a few employees and fewer than five trucks.
Trucking company owners who paid “DOT Authority” did get their registration renewed, but they paid up to $550 more than the official government fee to do it.
Please note that:
- A trucking company owner can renew his/her registration through the official Unified Carrier Registration website, https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/faq/what-unified-carrier-registration-ucr-system-and-how-do-i-sign;
- As a commercial truck owner or operator, you have to recertify information about your vehicles every two years or deactivate your USDOT number if you are no longer operating commercial vehicles. This is a free service through the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/.
The government alleges that “DOT Authority” may have started this scam as early as 2012 and has improperly cheated thousands of semi-truck owners out of more than $19 million.
See the original article on the Federal Trade Commission blog at https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/government-imposters-target-commercial-truck-owners.
