Texas carriers
DOT compliance in Texas: four agencies, one calendar
Running a truck out of Texas means answering to four agencies, not one.
Most of what a Texas carrier owes is federal and looks the same in every state. The rest is Texas, and it is the part that catches people: a separate state authority, its own hours-of-service numbers, its own driver age, and a definition of commercial motor vehicle that starts 16,000 pounds higher than the federal one.
Updated September 26, 2026 · Citations to 37 TAC Chapter 4, TxDMV and the Texas Comptroller · Written in Houston
Interstate or intrastate is the question that decides everything
Every other answer on this page depends on this one. Interstate means your operation is part of commerce that crosses a state line. Intrastate means every load you touch starts and ends in Texas and is not part of a longer journey.
The trap is that interstate commerce is decided by where the freight is going, not by where the truck turns around. A container you pull from Barbours Cut to a warehouse in Katy, on its way to a store in Oklahoma, is interstate freight for the whole trip, including your leg of it. Carriers who never leave Harris County discover at an audit that they have been an interstate carrier the entire time, with an interstate carrier’s driver-age rule, hours limits and UCR obligation behind them.
If there is any doubt, assume interstate and build the file that way. The federal standard is the stricter one almost everywhere it differs, so a carrier built to it is compliant either way. A carrier built to the Texas intrastate standard and then found to be interstate is not.
Who you answer to
FMCSA
The federal agency. It issues your USDOT number, your interstate operating authority if you haul for hire across a state line, and it runs the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse. It takes the MCS-150 biennial update, and it sends the investigator for the new entrant safety audit in your first year. Texas carriers start here even when they never leave the state, because TxDMV will not issue intrastate authority without a USDOT number first.
TxDMV, Motor Carrier Division
The state side of registration. It issues the TxDMV number, which is the intrastate operating authority and the thing most people mean when they say Texas DOT number. It also issues apportioned plates under IRP for trucks that run out of state, and it is where your insurer files proof of coverage before you are approved.
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
Fuel tax. The Comptroller issues the Texas IFTA license and decals and takes the quarterly return, which reconciles the miles you ran in every jurisdiction against the fuel you bought there. Four returns a year, and a quarter you sat out still needs one.
Texas DPS
Enforcement. Texas adopted the federal safety regulations into state law, so DPS troopers inspect intrastate trucks against essentially the same rulebook an FMCSA investigator uses, and run compliance reviews on intrastate carriers. Every inspection you pass or fail lands on the same record.
What a Texas carrier files
| Filing | Who requires it | How often |
|---|---|---|
| USDOT number | FMCSA, and TxDMV before it will issue intrastate authority | Once, then kept current |
| MCS-150 biennial update | FMCSA | Every two years, on a schedule set by your USDOT number |
| Operating authority (MC number) | FMCSA, for interstate for-hire carriers | Once, then kept active |
| BOC-3 process agent designation | FMCSA, for interstate authority | Once, kept current |
| TxDMV number | TxDMV, for intrastate operation above the thresholds | Seven days, 90 days, one year or two years |
| Unified Carrier Registration | The UCR Plan, for interstate carriers, with Texas as your base state | Every year, window opens October 1 |
| IFTA license and quarterly return | Texas Comptroller | License yearly, return four times a year |
| IRP apportioned plates | TxDMV, over 26,000 pounds or three or more axles across state lines | Every year |
| Form 2290 heavy vehicle use tax | IRS, for trucks at 55,000 pounds and above | Every year, due August 31 for a July start |
| Clearinghouse queries | FMCSA | Before every hire, and once a year for every driver |
Every one of those dates lives on the deadline calendar, and the biennial one has its own due-date calculator.
Where Texas wrote its own rule
| Rule | Interstate | Texas intrastate | 37 TAC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum driver age | 21 | 18 | § 4.12(b)(6) |
| Driving limit | 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty | 12 hours after 8 consecutive hours off duty | § 4.12 |
| On-duty limit | 14-hour driving window | 15 hours | § 4.12 |
| Weekly limit | 60 hours in 7 days, or 70 in 8 | 70 hours in any 7 consecutive days | § 4.12 |
| Vehicle covered | 10,001 pounds or more | Over 26,000 pounds | § 4.11(c)(1)(A) |
| Medical certificate | Required | Required, except drivers regularly employed in Texas as commercial drivers before August 28, 1989 | § 4.12(a)(3) |
A truck at 26,000 pounds or less, running only in Texas and carrying nothing placardable, sits outside the Texas commercial vehicle definition entirely. That is a narrower exemption than most people hope: it covers the box truck, not the tractor. What a box truck owes once its freight is interstate is set out in non-CDL box truck requirements.
Texas DOT number (the TxDMV certificate), in plain terms
This is the state authority, applied for through TxMCCS, and it is what an officer means when they ask a Texas intrastate carrier for their certificate. You need one if any of the following is true:
- A commercial motor vehicle, or a combination of vehicles, over 26,000 pounds gross weight, registered weight or gross weight rating
- Hazardous materials in a quantity that requires placarding
- A farm vehicle at 48,000 pounds or more
- A vehicle designed to carry more than 15 passengers, including the driver
- A commercial school bus
- Household goods for compensation, whatever the vehicle weighs
The application fee is $100, once, and stays paid as long as the registration stays active. Vehicles are $10 each a year, or $20 each for a two-year term. You can register for seven calendar days, 90 days, one year or two years, which is what makes the short terms useful for a seasonal or one-off move.
Insurance is the step that stalls most applications. TxDMV will not approve you until your insurer files proof electronically, a Form E for liability and Forms H and I for household goods cargo. Minimums run from $300,000 to $5,000,000 depending on what you haul and what the vehicle weighs. Your agent has to make that filing; you cannot upload a certificate yourself and have it count.
Texas is the second-largest home base in the country
Nationally, 79.5% of active interstate carriers run six trucks or fewer and 46.8% run exactly one. That is the shape of this industry in Texas too: tens of thousands of one-truck and two-truck companies carrying the same regulatory load as a fleet with a compliance department, and almost none of them with anyone whose job it is to watch the dates. The full census analysis, with method.
Texas DOT compliance services
The federal side is the membership: driver qualification files, the drug and alcohol program, Clearinghouse queries, the MCS-150, UCR with Texas as your base state, the BOC-3, and the quarterly IFTA return filed with the Texas Comptroller on the annual plan. The Texas registrations that depend on your routes and weights, the TxDMV number and apportioned plates, are quoted first and billed by the hour, so you see the price before any work starts. It is the same trucking compliance services we run for carriers in every state, with the Texas calendar added.
One published price: $99 a month for the first truck on the annual plan and $59 for each additional truck, every driver included, on the pricing page in full. In the Houston area? See DOT compliance services in Houston. Anywhere else in the state, the fastest way to reach us is a text to (346) 222-1110.
Texas questions
Do I need a TxDMV number if I have a USDOT number?
If you run intrastate above the Texas thresholds, yes. The USDOT number is federal and does not replace the TxDMV number, which is the state's intrastate operating authority; TxDMV will not issue it until you have the USDOT number. A carrier whose every load is interstate commerce operates under its federal registration instead.
What are the DOT requirements in Texas?
The federal ones, for almost everything. Interstate carriers follow the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations directly, and Texas adopted the same parts for intrastate carriers at 37 TAC 4.11(a): driver qualification, the drug and alcohol program, hours of service, inspection and maintenance. On top of that sit the Texas pieces: the TxDMV number for intrastate authority, IFTA through the Comptroller, and a few intrastate exceptions such as the 12-hour driving limit and the minimum driver age of 18.
What is the Texas 70/7 rule?
The weekly hours-of-service limit for Texas intrastate drivers under 37 TAC 4.12: no more than 70 hours on duty in any 7 consecutive days, alongside a 12-hour driving limit after 8 consecutive hours off and a 15-hour on-duty limit. Interstate drivers use the federal limits instead: 60 hours in 7 days or 70 in 8, with 11 hours driving inside a 14-hour window.
Do I need a Texas DOT number?
There is no separate Texas DOT number any more. What people mean by it is the TxDMV number, the intrastate operating authority issued by the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles and formerly called a TxDOT number. You need one if you run intrastate above the thresholds: over 26,000 pounds, placarded hazardous materials, a farm vehicle at 48,000 pounds or more, more than 15 passengers, a commercial school bus, or household goods for compensation at any weight. You also need a federal USDOT number, because TxDMV will not issue the certificate without one.
Do intrastate Texas carriers have to follow the federal safety rules?
Yes. Texas adopted 49 CFR Parts 40, 380, 382, 385 through 387, 390 through 393 and 395 through 397 into state law at 37 TAC 4.11(a), with Part 380 limited to Subpart E for intrastate operations. Texas DPS enforces them on any vehicle over 26,000 pounds operating inside the state. Driver qualification files, the drug and alcohol program, hours of service, inspection and maintenance records: all of it applies whether or not you ever cross a state line.
What are the Texas intrastate hours of service limits?
Twelve hours driving after 8 consecutive hours off duty, a 15-hour on-duty limit, and 70 hours in any 7 consecutive days, under 37 TAC 4.12. That is more room than the interstate rule, which allows 11 hours driving inside a 14-hour window. The moment a load crosses a state line, or is part of a journey that does, the federal limits apply instead.
Can an 18-year-old drive a truck in Texas?
Intrastate, yes. The minimum age for an intrastate driver in Texas is 18 under 37 TAC 4.12(b)(6). Interstate, the federal minimum is 21. A Texas carrier running young drivers has to be certain every load those drivers take stays inside the state and is not part of interstate commerce, which is a harder line to hold than it looks at the Port of Houston.
Who do I file IFTA with in Texas?
The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts issues the Texas IFTA license and takes the quarterly return, due April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31. A qualified motor vehicle is one with three or more axles regardless of weight, or one at 26,000 pounds or more, operating in more than one jurisdiction. A quarter with no miles still needs a return, and the penalty for a late or missing one is $50 or 10 percent of the tax due, whichever is greater.
Is Texas a UCR state?
Yes. Texas participates in the Unified Carrier Registration Plan, so a Texas-based interstate carrier registers with Texas as its base state. Intrastate-only carriers are not required to register, with narrow exceptions for hazardous materials and household goods. Operating without a required UCR registration in Texas is an offense under Texas Transportation Code section 645.004, a Class C misdemeanor.
I run out of the Port of Houston but never leave Texas. Am I interstate or intrastate?
Very often interstate, and this is the single most expensive thing Texas drayage carriers get wrong. Interstate commerce is decided by where the freight is going, not by where your truck turns around. A container moving from the port to a Houston warehouse on its way to Oklahoma is interstate freight for its whole journey, including your leg of it. If that describes your work, the federal rules, the federal driver age and UCR all apply to you.
Do you only work with carriers in Houston?
No. TenFour is based in Houston and works with carriers anywhere in Texas and anywhere in the country. Nothing about the work needs an office visit: records move electronically, filings are made with the agencies directly, and we text. The Houston metro is where we are based and where our local service area is.
Sources
- Texas DPS: A Texas Motor Carrier’s Guide to Highway Safety (MCS-9) (adopted CFR parts, intrastate age and hours of service)
- 37 Texas Administrative Code § 4.12, Exemptions and Exceptions
- TxDMV: TxDMV Number (who must register, fees and registration terms)
- TxDMV: Becoming a Texas Motor Carrier (Intrastate) (USDOT prerequisite, TxMCCS, insurance filings)
- Texas Comptroller: International Fuel Tax Agreement (quarterly due dates and penalty)
- Texas Transportation Code § 645.004 (UCR offense and penalty)
Related: UCR 2027 fees · the full deadline calendar · for owner-operators · for small fleets
A Texas carrier has enough to watch without watching this too.
$99/month for the first truck on the annual plan, $59/month for each additional truck, every driver included. The federal filings and the Texas ones, on one calendar, handled from Houston.
$99/month is the annual plan for one truck, billed $1,188 up front, about two months free against $119 month to month. Each additional truck is $59/month ($69 month to month), every driver included, up to six trucks. Cancel any month; remaining full months refunded.