# Operating authority (MC number)

A term used when buying trucking.

The federal permission to haul for hire, held separately from the USDOT number that identifies you.

Two registrations, and they behave differently in a sale. The regulator says plainly that a USDOT number may not be sold or transferred, while operating authority can sometimes be recorded as transferred inside a corporate transaction. That difference is the whole structure question: buy the company and both survive with it, buy the assets into a new entity and that entity needs its own USDOT number, with the authority transferred only where the same safety management carries on. Ask which the asking price assumes before reading a single tax return, because the answer is months of runway.

Part of: Buying a Trucking Company (https://searchspheresource.com/guides/buying-a-trucking-company)

Source: https://searchspheresource.com/guides/buying-a-trucking-company/terms/operating-authority-mc-number
Not dated: The same editorial definitions as the glossary, inside a trade.

Site index for machines: https://searchspheresource.com/llms.txt