What is an MC number?
Researched and written by Daniel Novak · Reviewed by Brittany Evans · Last reviewed August 2026
An MC number is a motor carrier docket number: the file the federal government opens when it grants a company authority to operate for hire. Where the USDOT number identifies the entity, the MC docket records the permission. The two are issued separately, live in separate public records, and answer different questions about the company you are about to hire.
On a household goods move the docket is the record that matters most, because it carries the property and household goods authority and its current status. This page covers the difference between the two numbers as well, so there is one place to settle it.
How is an MC number different from a USDOT number?
The USDOT number answers who the company is. The MC number answers what it is allowed to do. A company holds one USDOT number and may hold more than one docket, for example a carrier docket and a broker docket, and each docket carries its own status. Registration can be active while a docket is pending, and a docket can be revoked while the registration stays open. Reading only one of the two records is how a lapsed authority gets missed.
There is a second practical difference. A USDOT number is assigned to a great many operators, including private fleets that never sell transport to anyone. A docket exists only where the company operates for hire.
Which one does a household goods mover need?
Both. A company moving your household goods across a state line needs an active federal registration and granted authority covering household goods, not general freight. Household goods authority is a specific category, and a carrier with general freight authority alone is not authorised to take your furniture interstate. The distinction is invisible in advertising and plain in the record.
Ask for the USDOT number, then read the authority record for the docket attached to it. What you are looking for is the word granted next to household goods, and no revocation date.
What does a broker's MC docket mean?
A broker docket means the company arranges transport rather than performing it. That is a legitimate business and half the industry runs on it, but it changes who holds your goods and who answers for them. A property broker must maintain a surety bond or trust fund of at least $75,000 to hold its registration, under 49 CFR 387.307. That bond is not cargo insurance, and it does not pay for a broken table. It exists so that carriers and shippers have a financial instrument to claim against.
If the docket you were given is a broker docket, the operative question is which registered carrier will perform the move, and what that carrier's own record says. A broker that will not name the carrier before the truck arrives is telling you something.
Where the two records live
The company snapshot shows the registration and the census fields. The licensing and insurance record shows the dockets, the authority types, their status and the insurance filed against them. Both are public and free, and a company that objects to you reading them has an odd view of its own paperwork.
Official sources
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Frequently asked questions
Is an MC number the same as a USDOT number?
Does a household goods mover need an MC number?
What does a broker MC docket mean for my move?
Can a company hold both a carrier and a broker docket?
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