Four ways to sell a trucking company, compared

Someone messages you offering cash for your MC number, or to rent or lease it. FMCSA’s bulletin of March 13, 2026 answers that directly:

“DO NOT Sell, Purchase, or Lease a USDOT Number or Operating Authority (MC Number) online or elsewhere from an unknown person or outside of a legitimate corporate transaction.”

The same bulletin states that “The USDOT Number belongs to the same legal person forever and may not be sold, transferred, rented, or leased.” When FMCSA discovers attempts to sell, purchase or lease a USDOT number or operating authority outside a legitimate corporate transaction, it says it “will initiate proceedings to inactivate the USDOT Number and revoke all related registrations”.

In FMCSA’s terms, the number stays with the legal person it was assigned to. What changes hands in a real sale is that company. If you are not sure which side of the line your situation falls on, the can my MC be sold checker walks through it in six questions.

Quoted from the FMCSA bulletin of March 13, 2026, as reproduced by CDLLife, accessed October 31, 2026. See also FMCSA’s original bulletin page.

You find the new owner through your own network and close the sale privately. That can work, and it puts every step on you:

• Valuation. Putting a price on the company, its authority, its trucks and its contracts.
• Purchase agreement and bill of sale. Usually drafted with a lawyer and signed by both sides.
• FMCSA records. The MCS-150, which 49 CFR 390.19T requires before operations begin and again every 24 months. The BOC-3, because a process agent designation “may be canceled or changed only by a new designation” (49 CFR 366.6T). And the insurance filing on Form BMC-91 or BMC-91X (49 CFR 387.313T) if the insurer changes.
• Payment. Agreeing how and when the money is paid, and making sure it is complete before the company is handed over.

Confidentiality depends on how you search. The cost is your time, plus any lawyer or accountant you hire.

You post the company on a public business-for-sale website and answer the replies yourself.

• Confidentiality. Anyone can read a public listing, including your drivers, customers and competitors. You decide what goes in it, and you can share details only under a nondisclosure agreement you arrange.
• Time. Replies come in on their own schedule, and each one needs checking before you share anything.
• Paperwork. The same as a private sale. The valuation, purchase agreement, bill of sale, FMCSA records and payment are all yours to handle.

The cost is any charges the website sets, plus your time and any help you hire.

Veritor Group LLC coordinates the sale of US trucking companies end to end for owner-operators and small fleets, including carriers running Amazon Relay contracts. We pull the FMCSA record, value the company, come back with a written offer, prepare the purchase agreement and close in person or bank to bank. The seller keeps 100% of the accepted price: no fees, no commission. MC numbers are never sold on their own; every transaction is the sale of the LLC that holds the authority. Ohio LLC, entity #5616277, 1918 Brownell Rd, Dayton, OH 45403.

• Free valuation. Enter your MC or DOT number on the free valuation page.
• Written offer. If the company fits, Veritor Group comes back with a written offer.
• Paperwork handled. The purchase agreement is prepared for you to review with your own lawyer.
• In-person or bank-to-bank closing. You are paid at closing, and the bill of sale sets the order of payment.
• Timing. Typically 3 to 5 business days after an offer is accepted when everything is in order.

Every step is on how it works, and the criteria are on what qualifies.