The Underground Trucking Authority Black Market Exposed — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Selling MCs for up to 75 grand? Well,
2. 0:03apparently there is a whole underground
3. 0:05network where people sell their MCs and
4. 0:08DOTs. Basically, a marketplace. Hey
5. 0:11guys, welcome back to another video. So,
6. 0:13today we're going to be talking about
7. 0:15this issue, which feels like it's new,
8. 0:17but it really isn't. It's a problem that
9. 0:20has existed for a while now, but the
10. 0:22only difference is now someone decided
11. 0:25to actually dive into this issue and
12. 0:27share their findings. So, let's chat
13. 0:30about it. Ready? Let's go.
14. 0:45So, it was only recently, to be more
15. 0:47specific, March 19th of this year, that
16. 0:49the FMCSA took notice of a problem that
17. 0:52was previously ignored. Quoting, "Upon
18. 0:55discovery of attempts to sell, purchase,
19. 0:57or lease a USDOT number or operating
20. 1:00authority outside a legitimate
21. 1:02transaction, FMCSA will initiate
22. 1:04proceedings to inactivate the USDOT
23. 1:07number and revoke all related
24. 1:09registrations, including the safety
25. 1:11registration." Now, this is according to
26. 1:13the FMCSA, and this is something they
27. 1:15wrote on March 19th, 2026. Now, I want
28. 1:18to make sure that we're all on the same
29. 1:20page. MC and DOT numbers act as a
30. 1:24carrier's permanent identifier. Think of
31. 1:27I mean, the best example I can think of
32. 1:29is like a social security number. This
33. 1:32means that if the MC or DOT number, or
34. 1:35both, are tied to an individual, if it's
35. 1:38a sole proprietor who didn't open an LLC
36. 1:40or a corporation, let's say John Doe
37. 1:43owns the MC and DOT number, it is
38. 1:46registered under his name, that MC and
39. 1:49DOT number can never be transferred
40. 1:51because this is an individual. You
41. 1:53cannot sell this individual. However, if
42. 1:55the MC and DOT number is registered
43. 1:58under an LLC, for example, John Doe's
44. 2:01Trucking LLC, yes, you can transfer the
45. 2:05DOT and MC number as long as you sell
46. 2:09the whole LLC as well. So, just to make
47. 2:12it clear, what is allowed and what is
48. 2:14not allowed. And I'm going to be reading
49. 2:16these off, and we're going to start with
50. 2:18the prohibited. You cannot just sell an
51. 2:21MC and or DOT number without the entity
52. 2:24it's tied to to help the buyer bypass
53. 2:26the waiting and compliance process. So,
54. 2:29it has to be sold with an LLC. You
55. 2:32cannot allow another unassociated
56. 2:34carrier to dispatch loads under your MC
57. 2:37DOT number for a cut of the profit. You
58. 2:40cannot allow a carrier to use your MC or
59. 2:43DOT number as a kind of front to evade
60. 2:46safety ratings and past violations. What
61. 2:49is allowed? Selling the whole entity
62. 2:51together with the MC and DOT. So, if you
63. 2:54have an LLC, this LLC has an MC number,
64. 2:58a DOT number, trucks, emails, and so on
65. 3:01and so forth. You can sell that package
66. 3:04deal all together. But unfortunately,
67. 3:07that rarely happens. So, recently, Alpha
68. 3:10Loops decided to dive into this issue,
69. 3:12and they actually sourced 9,950
70. 3:16Facebook posts, 79,600
71. 3:19Telegram messages, and an entire online
72. 3:21marketplace to see what people are
73. 3:23actually doing. Now, I want you to
74. 3:25remember these numbers. 9,950
75. 3:28Facebook posts and almost 80,000
76. 3:31Telegram messages. Now, this is what
77. 3:33they found, quoting. Facebook has been a
78. 3:36high-volume bizarre for over a year with
79. 3:39at least 100 to 200 posts per month
80. 3:41regarding authorities for sale. And
81. 3:44then, in December of 2025, so less than
82. 3:46a year ago, these folks launched a
83. 3:49public marketplace for authorities. As
84. 3:52Alpha Loop says, "A gray market that
85. 3:54lived in chat back channels now has a
86. 3:57storefront." Now, when they looked at
87. 3:59Telegram, they saw that there were about
88. 4:0137 posts per month, and as of April
89. 4:052026,
90. 4:06or in April 2026,
91. 4:09this peaked to 104 listings per month.
92. 4:12So, let's talk about some dollar
93. 4:13amounts. If you want a cheaper MC, you
94. 4:16go to the storefront where the MC
95. 4:18averages for $11,500.
96. 4:21If you have money burning a hole in your
97. 4:24pocket, you go to Facebook, where the
98. 4:26median asking price is $20,000. Telegram
99. 4:29is somewhere in the middle with the
100. 4:31average asking price of about $14,000.
101. 4:34Now, here's where it gets interesting.
102. 4:36According to Alpha Loops, when a person,
103. 4:39and this is averages, when a person
104. 4:41decides to sell their MC and DOT number
105. 4:44legitimately together with all the bells
106. 4:47and whistles, trucks, LLC, so on, the
107. 4:50median price is $1.15 million with 96%
108. 4:56being over $150,000.
109. 4:58Yet, the listings we are talking about
110. 5:00from Facebook and Telegram, they sell
111. 5:03for less than 1% of that price. Because
112. 5:06most of them are not selling a
113. 5:07legitimate company, they're selling a
114. 5:09way for people to cheat the system. You
115. 5:12just buy an MC and DOT number, bring
116. 5:15your own trucks, form your own LLC, and
117. 5:18voila, you have an established company,
118. 5:20and you're not subject to the same
119. 5:22scrutiny as those who have a new
120. 5:25authority. So, let's talk about the
121. 5:27scary part here. There are a few scary
122. 5:29parts. Of the 700 MC numbers that were
123. 5:32marked sold, 84.8%
124. 5:35never recorded a single change of
125. 5:38ownership with the FMCSA. Now, this
126. 5:41automatically means that these are
127. 5:42illegitimate because when you sell or
128. 5:45buy an MC, the first thing you must do
129. 5:48is you have to record a transfer of
130. 5:51ownership with the Federal Motor Carrier
131. 5:53Safety Administration. Now, at one
132. 5:55point, another very interesting fact
133. 5:57about this research, the study author,
134. 6:00Matt Fleming, admitted that he saw an
135. 6:02authority for sale that turned up on a
136. 6:05Polish trucking website, and he found
137. 6:07another MC for sale, again, just the
138. 6:09number, no LLC attached, nothing, just
139. 6:12the number itself for 75 grant. Now,
140. 6:16there is another scary part. This one
141. 6:17kind of shocked me.
142. 6:1999%
143. 6:21of the listings on Telegram trace back
144. 6:23to just four emails. So, basically, it
145. 6:26could just be four people selling the
146. 6:28bulk of these MC and DOT numbers. And my
147. 6:31question is, where the heck do they get
148. 6:34them? So, my issue with this MC
149. 6:36marketplace, even though I don't see
150. 6:38anything wrong with legitimately buying
151. 6:40or selling your MC if you're shutting
152. 6:42down your company and you want to sell
153. 6:44the whole company with the fleet and,
154. 6:46you know, all that good stuff. Yeah, of
155. 6:48course, you can. It's a completely
156. 6:50legitimate way to get rid of something
157. 6:52that you have built and no longer serves
158. 6:54you. However, when we talk about the
159. 6:56shady part of this, which is what we're
160. 6:58talking about now, you guys know how I
161. 7:00feel about chameleon carriers who avoid
162. 7:02compliance by just reopening new
163. 7:04companies over and over and over again.
164. 7:06Some of them actually buy established
165. 7:08MCs so that they don't have to start
166. 7:10from zero, right? So, yeah, selling MCs
167. 7:14in an illegitimate way makes me feel the
168. 7:16same way I feel about chameleon carriers
169. 7:18because this is just a way to avoid
170. 7:20compliance that everyone else is subject
171. 7:23to. By the way, I have been called a
172. 7:24Karen for this. I have been called a
173. 7:26Karen for the fact that I think that if
174. 7:28there are rules in the trucking industry
175. 7:30that the majority follows, I do not
176. 7:32support someone just taking their own
177. 7:34route and saying that, well, I am going
178. 7:36to do it my own way because I'll be more
179. 7:38successful that way. And that's fine, if
180. 7:40you think I'm a Karen, what can you do?
181. 7:42But, I do not support the illegitimate
182. 7:44selling and buying of MC numbers just as
183. 7:46much as I do not support chameleon
184. 7:48carriers who do so to avoid compliance.
185. 7:51This is the point of the video where we
186. 7:53are going to look at what I have found
187. 7:55when I was digging through all of these
188. 7:57online marketplaces. I screenshotted
189. 8:00some of these things, and I just want to
190. 8:02share with you some of the posts I have
191. 8:05come across. All right, so we have
192. 8:07exhibit A, and I believe I did show this
193. 8:09one before. It says, "Hello, my name is
194. 8:11Emily, and I represent Topline Transport
195. 8:13LLC. This is an established carrier
196. 8:15already. Right now, we're actively
197. 8:17expanding our company and looking to
198. 8:19acquire an established MC with an active
199. 8:21Amazon account. So,
200. 8:24you want another MC to expand your
201. 8:27company, right? It says here, "We
202. 8:29already operate trucks and drivers, and
203. 8:31we're ready to scale immediately." So,
204. 8:34the reasoning here, Emily's reasoning
205. 8:36here is we want to scale the company, so
206. 8:38we want to acquire another MC. I guess
207. 8:41just adding trucks to your fleet is no
208. 8:44longer a way to expand your company. My
209. 8:46question is, why do you need another MC
210. 8:49in order to expand if that is your goal?
211. 8:52All right, then we have exhibit B, and I
212. 8:54have to say that yes, this one actually
213. 8:57offers the LLC, the bank account, phone
214. 9:00number. It doesn't say anything about
215. 9:01the trucks. They might not have trucks
216. 9:03in their fleet. They might have been
217. 9:05rented or leased, but okay, that works.
218. 9:08But, why multiple MC and DOT numbers for
219. 9:12sale? Now, I am very, very self-aware,
220. 9:15and I don't want to call someone out for
221. 9:17being shady when they might not be
222. 9:19because there is a possibility, right?
223. 9:21There's a difference between a chameleon
224. 9:23carrier and just a carrier who has
225. 9:25multiple MCs, and those companies
226. 9:27operate completely separately. Perhaps
227. 9:30this is a person who had that situation
228. 9:33where they own several carrier companies
229. 9:36and therefore have several MCs for sales
230. 9:38because they're done with the industry.
231. 9:40But yeah, it raises a question for sure
232. 9:42because something I have learned is that
233. 9:44fraud is unfortunately very prevalent in
234. 9:46this industry. Again, not talking about
235. 9:48this posting specifically, but
236. 9:50it could be fraud, it could be
237. 9:52legitimate. But yeah, multiple MCs for
238. 9:54sale. Exhibit C. Exhibit C shows an MC
239. 9:58company for sale, cheap price. It says
240. 10:01that bank account is included, personal
241. 10:03email is included, domain included,
242. 10:05complete business package. Now
243. 10:07thankfully there's no price because the
244. 10:08current out of service rate is 71%. I
245. 10:11don't know what kind of price someone
246. 10:13can get for an MC number with an out of
247. 10:16service rate of 71%.
248. 10:19But it says it's budget friendly with
249. 10:22Amazon. So there is that. Then we have
250. 10:24this one. This one is misspelled, so it
251. 10:27sounds very lopsided, but this is the
252. 10:29translation. Don't miss the opportunity
253. 10:32to sell your MC or DOT for the best
254. 10:34price. We will provide a fast deal. Now
255. 10:36this is a trucking consulting company.
256. 10:39So basically we now have a middleman
257. 10:41between the buyer and seller of the MC
258. 10:44and DOT numbers. I guess this is one of
259. 10:46the four emails they found on Telegram
260. 10:48selling those authorities. So then at
261. 10:50this point I started digging deeper and
262. 10:53kind of went down a rabbit hole and I
263. 10:55want to share this with you. So last
264. 10:57exhibit. I know it's in Russian, so I'm
265. 10:59going to translate it. So what's missing
266. 11:01here is the first sentence which says
267. 11:03opening a trucking company in the US
268. 11:05while living abroad, it's not so simple.
269. 11:08And then it goes to say, if you're
270. 11:10planning to open a trucking company or
271. 11:13already are the owner of a US trucking
272. 11:15company, but you're living in a
273. 11:16different country, it's better to avoid
274. 11:18making mistakes. We can help. So yes,
275. 11:21considering that this is a post that
276. 11:23exists and there is a business for that.
277. 11:25Yeah, there are some people from
278. 11:27overseas that are also buying up these
279. 11:29MC numbers. And I'm wondering why are
280. 11:31they then operating trucks or trucking
281. 11:34companies in the US from overseas? Are
282. 11:37they buying them to resell them? Like,
283. 11:39what is going on there? Anyway, the
284. 11:41point is there's a legal and illegal way
285. 11:43to do things, right? Selling your MC and
286. 11:46DOT number inherently is not an illegal
287. 11:48practice. This is something that can be
288. 11:50done legitimately if done in the correct
289. 11:53way. Just like it is not inherently
290. 11:55illegal to own multiple MC and DOT
291. 11:58numbers if done the right way. And I
292. 11:59think that is the biggest problem is
293. 12:01because these legitimate practices
294. 12:03become fraudulent as people become more
295. 12:06creative. But, I am interested in
296. 12:08hearing your thoughts, what you think
297. 12:10about this issue, whether you knew about
298. 12:13this. Let me know. Wishing you all a
299. 12:15fantastic Tuesday. Stay safe, stay
300. 12:18healthy, and keep learning.