Roadside enforcement officers begin Feb. 1 verifying if interstate truck operators have 2011 registration with the Unified Carrier Registration.
Individuals and companies operating commercial motor vehicles in interstate or international commerce must register and pay a fee annually. The revenues generated are used for commercial vehicle safety programs.
States have been advised to enforce fee payment only after an officer has verified online or by phone of failure to register for 2011, according to the Oregon transportation department. The enforcement action should only apply to payment for 2011, unless the officer gets proof the trucker or company operated in a previous year but did not pay fees for that year.
Fees are $76 for the smallest interstate operator to $73,346 for operators of 1,001 or more power units. Trailers are excluded from registration, but the UCR board raised truck fees to make up for the loss in revenue.
Truckers are not required to carry proof of registration, but may want to, according to information from the National Conference of State Transportation Specialists, a membership of state agencies and partners involved in transportation safety, insurance and consumer protection.
States send UCR compliance information to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration daily at minimum, and the FMCSA then updates its system, according to the NCSTS. The online registration contains two years of data. To check registration click here.
The board’s next meeting, which will be by teleconference, is March 3.
The 2005 omnibus transportation funding act established the UCR Agreement, a base-state system administered by federal and state governments and by the motor carrier industry for the collection of fees levied on motor carriers and related entities.
More information is available at www.ucr.in.gov. Also, UCR updates are available here.
