The 2027 UCR Fees Are Final. One More Truck Can Add $830.

FMCSA set the 2027 UCR fees on September 1

The final rule landed in the Federal Register on September 1, 2026 at 91 FR 56063, under Docket No. FMCSA-2025-0655. It adds a new section 367.50 to 49 CFR Part 367 and it sets the Unified Carrier Registration fees for registration year 2027 and every year after that until a future rulemaking changes them. The new schedule takes effect October 1, 2026.

The UCR Board recommended the change on September 18, 2025. The increase averages 20 percent over the schedule that was set for 2025 and held for 2026, and it works out to between $9 and $9,329 more per entity depending on which bracket you land in. FMCSA says the money covers a projected $21.79 million shortfall in what the plan owes the 41 participating states. If the program itself is new to you, our UCR registration page walks through what it is and who has to file.

What every bracket pays in 2027

UCR prices by fleet size in six brackets, and the statute caps it at six under 49 U.S.C. 14504a(f)(1)(C). Here is the 2027 schedule with the current 2026 figure next to it.

• 0 to 2 vehicles, $55, up from $46
• 3 to 5 vehicles, $167, up from $138
• 6 to 20 vehicles, $333, up from $276
• 21 to 100 vehicles, $1,163, up from $963
• 101 to 1,000 vehicles, $5,548, up from $4,592
• 1,001 and above, $54,165, up from $44,836

Brokers, freight forwarders with no trucks, and leasing companies all sit in the bottom bracket, so $55 in 2027 regardless of how big the company is. That is not a call FMCSA gets to make. It is written into 49 U.S.C. 14504a(f)(1)(A)(ii), and the agency repeated the point in this rule when a commenter argued that large brokerages should be paying more.

The bracket line costs more than the truck that crosses it

This is the part that catches growing fleets. The fee does not scale per truck, it steps. Add your sixth power unit and the bill goes from $167 to $333. Add your twenty first and it goes from $333 to $1,163, which is $830 for one truck. Cross from 100 to 101 and it is $1,163 to $5,548.

FMCSA acknowledged the effect directly. The agency wrote that carriers at the small end of a bracket pay more per vehicle than carriers at the large end, and called that unavoidable given the six bracket cap Congress wrote into the statute. It also noted that in 2027 the smallest carrier in each bracket pays roughly $54.11 to $55.67 per truck. The practical lesson is to know exactly how many qualifying units you are reporting before you file, because that count is the whole ballgame. Our guide to counting vehicles for UCR covers which units belong in the total and which do not.

The filing window opens the same day the new fees do

The rule spells out the calendar. Collections for a fee year open on October 1 of the prior year so carriers can register in advance, and they close on December 31 of the following year to allow late filings and dispute resolution. That means 2027 registration opens October 1, 2026, the same date the higher fees take effect. There is no discount for filing early, but there is no reason to sit on it either, because state enforcement of the 2027 registration begins January 1.

One more date worth marking. Petitions for reconsideration of this rule have to reach the FMCSA Administrator by October 1, 2026.

Why a filing fee belongs in the same conversation as your insurance

UCR is not insurance and it does not touch your premium. What it shares with your policy is the number underneath it. The power unit count that sets your UCR bracket is the same count that drives how a carrier rates your fleet, so the truck that moves you from five units to six changes two bills in the same month, not one. Owner operators who run that math before they sign for the truck are rarely surprised by either number. For the insurance side of it, see what commercial truck insurance actually costs. If you are still standing up a new operation, the filings a new authority needs puts UCR in line with everything else on the list.

Get a truck insurance quote before you add the truck

We write commercial truck insurance for owner operators and small fleets, and we do it without burying you in paperwork. Tell us what you run and we come back with real numbers. Get a truck insurance quote in under a minute on our quote form, or call or text 423-264-4255 and talk to somebody who knows the difference between a bracket and a bill.