Does your moving company website need your USDOT number?

Yes, if you move households across state lines. Federal rule 49 CFR 375.207 treats moving companies’ websites and online listings as advertisements, and each must show your registered name and your number in one fixed form: “U.S. DOT No.” and the number. The site also has to carry FMCSA’s Ready to Move brochure, as a prominent link or a true copy. Movers who stay inside one state follow their state’s rules.

Reviewed on October 13, 2026: the federal rules were read in the eCFR, current to October 8, 2026, along with FMCSA’s own pages. Two states were read, Texas and California. Other states were not checked. This explains where the rules put the number on your site. It is not legal advice.

Who needs a USDOT number in the first place?

Every household goods carrier that moves a household from one state to another. FMCSA’s consumer pages say it without conditions: “Interstate movers must be registered with the Federal government and have a U.S. DOT number.” The Part 375 rules apply when you carry household goods for individual shippers “in interstate commerce.”

FMCSA’s definition of interstate includes a trip “between two places in a State through another State.” A job from one end of your state to the other that cuts across a state line is an interstate move. One exception: a move that crosses a state line but stays inside one commercial zone, roughly a city’s metro area, is outside FMCSA’s household goods regulations, including the advertising and brochure rules below. FMCSA’s own example is Brooklyn to Hackensack, inside the New York City zone.

Moves that stay inside one state are a state question. FMCSA lists 38 states plus Puerto Rico that require their intrastate commercial motor vehicle registrants to get a USDOT number, and tells everyone else to check with their state agency. The two states read for this post are both on that list:

One set-up falls outside the federal definition: a company whose containers or trailers are “entirely loaded and unloaded” by someone other than its own crew is not a household goods motor carrier under 375.103. Other set-ups, such as labor-only crews, were not checked here.

Why your website counts as an advertisement

The mover rule doesn’t leave this to argument. It settles it in its definitions. Section 375.103 defines an advertisement as “any communication to the public in connection with an offer or sale of any interstate household goods transportation service,” and goes on: it “includes written or electronic database listings of your name, address, and telephone number in an on-line database or displayed on an Internet website.”

Read plainly, that covers:

• every page of your website, not only the home page
• online directory listings, including a Google Business Profile, which is a listing of your name, address and phone in an online database
• paid search and social ads
• Yellow Pages ads, which the definition names

It leaves out a plain name-address-phone line in a telephone directory. Little else.

The exact wording the rule fixes

Section 375.207 asks for two things “in all advertisements for all services,” including packing and other add-ons:

1. Your name or trade name “as it appears on our document assigning you a U.S. DOT number.”
2. Your U.S. DOT number, in one form only: “U.S. DOT No. (assigned number).”

So “DOT# 1234567”, “USDOT 1234567” or a badge that only shows the digits does not match the rule’s text. “U.S. DOT No. 1234567” does. (That number is made up; use yours.)

The name half matters as much. If you registered as Smith Family Moving LLC and the site says “Smith Movers,” the name in the footer should match the registration. Rule (a) of the same section adds that ads must be “truthful, straightforward, and honest.”

If you are a local agent for a larger carrier, 375.207 lets the ad carry “the name or trade name of the motor carrier under whose operating authority the advertised service will originate.” The carrier must require its agents to follow the rule, so ask the carrier which name and number your pages carry.

The brochure every interstate mover’s website must carry

This is the one requirement written for websites by name. Section 375.213(e): “If you have a website, you are required to display prominently either a link to the DOT publication titled ‘Ready to Move?—Tips for a Successful Interstate Move’… on the FMCSA website or a true and accurate copy of that document on your website.”

The current brochure is FMCSA-ESA-03-005, revised October 2022, and FMCSA’s Protect Your Move page links it as “Get the Brochure.” Link to FMCSA’s copy rather than uploading your own, so it stays current.

The same section covers the paperwork that goes with each estimate. With the written estimate you give the customer Ready to Move and the Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move booklet, either as copies or as links on your website to FMCSA’s pages. If a customer takes them by link, you need “a signed, dated receipt” and you keep it for one year.

FMCSA’s page for the moving industry asks for more than the minimum: tell customers you are registered, “encourage them to search for you,” and “add links” to the consumer materials on your website.

Brokers carry two numbers

If you sell moves and hand them to other carriers, you are a household goods broker and a different section applies. Under 49 CFR 371.107 a broker must “prominently display” on its homepage and in its ads:

That is the answer to the MC number question. A carrier’s rule asks for the DOT number. A broker’s rule asks for both, on the homepage. A company that runs trucks and also brokers overflow should check which rule each page falls under.

Texas and California add a state number

Texas. 43 TAC §218.52(d) covers websites run “by or for” a household goods carrier. On the home page, or for a national carrier on its page for Texas intrastate moves, it wants three things: your name, the Texas DMV’s toll-free consumer help line as listed on the department’s website, and your certificate number written as “TxDMV No.” and the number. Print ads aimed at a local Texas market also carry an in-state street address. Trucks show “TxDMV No.” on both sides in letters at least two inches high. A Texas mover that also crosses state lines puts both numbers on the site, each in its own format.

California. Under 16 CCR §2972(a), a household mover includes “their name and Bureau-issued permit number in all forms of advertising.” The definition in §2800(b) reaches ads “online or in any other electronic medium” and directory listings. Advertising as a household mover without a valid permit is a misdemeanor under Business and Professions Code §19279.3, with a fine of up to $2,500.

The Texas rule for movers sits with the DMV, not with the boards that license plumbers and electricians. The Texas license number post covers those trades.

What customers see when they look you up

FMCSA tells people to check you before they book. Its Steps to Select a Mover page says a U.S. DOT number “is required by FMCSA for interstate moves” and sends them to its mover search, which shows:

• where your headquarters are and how to contact you
• registration status
• whether you are a carrier, broker or freight forwarder
• complaint information
• safety information

FMCSA’s red-flags page lists this warning sign: “The company’s website has no local address and no information about their registration or insurance.” Another: a phone “answered with ‘Movers’ or ‘Moving Company,’ rather than the company’s name.”

The number on your site is what lets a careful customer run that check in a minute. A site without it looks, by FMCSA’s own list, like the company the customer was warned about.

Where each line goes on the page

Here is one placement that meets the federal carrier rule and the two state rules read. It uses a made-up company and numbers.

On the profile, Google says unnecessary information in the name “isn’t permitted,” so the number goes in the description. The description allows no links, so the Ready to Move link lives on your website.

Start with the footer, because it repeats on every page: registered name, “U.S. DOT No.” and your number, address, and the Ready to Move link. Then add any state line. If you’d rather start from a site where that footer is already on every page, LocalBiz pricing shows what’s included, and the LocalBiz home page shows how the builder works.