UCR Registration Will NOT Open 10/1!
Annual registration for the Unified Carrier Registration program by motor carriers and other businesses subject to it commonly begins on October 1 for the following year. Not this time!
Like the 2018 UCR registration season last year, the 2019 registration has been delayed. And for the same reason: the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is in the process of adjusting the UCR fees downwards and has not yet issued the necessary final rule to accomplish that change. The reduction in fees for 2018 was on the order of 9 percent; this year’s decrease – for 2019 -- will be somewhat larger, more than 10 percent.
The reason for the lower fees is the same, however; UCR is collecting more money than the federal law authorizing the program allows, and the overage must be returned to the industry in lower charges. The UCR Board of Directors is cautiously predicting that the FMCSA rulemaking will be published and effective in November, allowing registration to proceed at that time. State enforcement will not begin until 90 days after the rule is made final.
In the meantime -- and despite invitations being sent out by various third parties – UCR registration for 2019 is NOT open, and carriers should hold off until it is. When the time comes, the easiest way to register will be through UCR’s national on-line system.
That too, however, has changed. As of September 28, the UCR registration system operated for UCR for some years by the Indiana Department of Revenue is closing down, and will be replaced immediately by a system run by the UCR program itself. You can get to it at www.ucr.gov.
ATA contact: Bob Pitcher, rpitcher@trucking.org.
