Motor carriers will pay between $39 and $37,500, depending on fleet size, under a final fee schedule for the Unified Carrier Registration (UCR) Plan and Agreement. In the Friday, Aug. 24 edition of the Federal Register, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration adopted without change its proposed UCR fee schedule, effective immediately.
In August 2005, Congress ordered that the UCR Plan replace the Single State Registration System (SSRS) Plan by Jan. 1, 2007. Because the SSRS expired on that date, FMCSA expedited its consideration of the UCR fees so states could replace the revenue as soon as possible. Legislation enacted by Congress just before its August recess this year temporarily reinstates the SSRS, but now that FMCSA has adopted the final UCR fee regulations, states participating in the UCR Plan and Agreement likely will adopt the UCR fees instead.
The proposed schedule, which is the total amount to be paid by the company, is as follows:
The fees would raise about $107.3 million in fiscal 2007, all but $5 million of which would go to participating states to replace SSRS revenues. The remaining $5 million goes for administrative expenses of the UCR Plan.
Under the 2005 law, the UCR Plan is an organization that will administer the UCR Agreement – an interstate agreement governing the collection and distribution of registration and financial responsibility information provided and fees paid by motor carriers, motor private carriers, brokers, freight forwarders and leasing companies.
Thirty-eight states participated in the SSRS last year, and all but California and North Carolina will participate in the UCR this year. In addition, Oregon, which did not participate in the SSRS last year, will participate in the UCR.
For a copy of FMCSA’s final rule, visit http://dms.dot.gov/search and search Docket No. 27871.
