2018 UCR filings delay: A stay-tuned situation

October 27, 2018

Sandi Soendker

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While it is usually time for trucking businesses to pay annual UCR fees, complications have resulted in the 2018 registration being delayed until further notice.

The Unified Carrier Registration program is an annual, federally mandated, state-administered registration program for motor carriers, brokers and freight forwarders. As was recommended by the UCR Board earlier this year, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is mulling the reduction of the fees below the current level to ensure the fee revenues do not exceed the statutory maximum and to account for the excess funds held in the depository.

If the agency approves, the fees for 2018 would be reduced by 9.10 percent and for 2019 by 4.55 percent.

Registration normally opens Oct. 1, and must be paid by Dec. 31. But, filing dates have been delayed by a combination of a slow-moving FMCSA, a failure by the Secretary of Transportation to publish the September meeting of the UCR Board, an ensuing lawsuit and, as one UCR Board member described, general confusion over the matter.

On Thursday, the UCR Board conducted an open meeting by phone and voted to delay the filing date until further notice. When the new date is announced, motor carriers and others who are required to pay will then have 90 days to file.

While the normal enforcement date would begin Jan. 1, 2018, the delay changes that.

OOIDA is telling its members not to pay and be advised it’s very much a stay-tuned situation. Some permitting services are urging motor carriers to pay now anyway. Somewhere at the bottom of the online page you’ll see that orders are non-refundable.  If you have questions, call OOIDA Licensing and Permitting Department at 816-229-5791.