How to count your vehicles for UCR

The two methods

Option A — your latest MCS-150. Use the number of qualifying vehicles reported on your most recent MCS-150 or MCSA-1 filing. This is the simplest route and the one most carriers take, because the number is already on record.

Option B — the twelve-month measuring period. Use the number of qualifying vehicles you actually operated during the twelve months ending 30 June before the registration year. For UCR 2026 that period is July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025.

Option B is not a loophole. It exists because a fleet that shrank during the year should not pay on a number it no longer runs — and equally, a fleet that grew is measured on what it actually operated.

What counts as a qualifying vehicle

• Power units: trucks, tractors and buses.
• A vehicle counts once, however many trips it made.
• Vehicles operated under a long-term lease count for whoever operated them.
• Trailers are not counted separately. This surprises people with large trailer pools, and counting them would push many fleets into a bracket they do not owe.

Which one should you use?

Use Option A unless your MCS-150 is out of date. If you sold vehicles, added them, or your record simply has not been updated in a while, Option B measures what you really ran. What you cannot do is take the lower of the two without a basis: the method is part of the answer, not a way of shopping for a number.

Our form starts from the registry count and asks for a reason whenever you change it. That reason is stored with the order — it is what makes the filing defensible if a state asks how the figure was reached.

Two edge cases worth naming

New operations. If your USDOT registration is newer than the measuring period, you cannot use that period to report zero vehicles — there was no period to have zero in. Use your MCS-150 count.

Brokers and forwarders with vehicles. The minimum-bracket rule applies to businesses that are only brokers, freight forwarders or leasing companies. If you also operate as a carrier, you count your vehicles like any other carrier.