UCR will be notifying intrastate carriers

The Unified Carrier Registration Agreement (UCR) will soon begin sending notices to all motor carriers that are registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as solely intrastate carriers. There are a lot of such carriers; the notices to them will go out over a period of months.

UCR is undertaking this initiative to enforce UCR requirements on all those motor carriers who are obliged to register annually with UCR and to pay a fee based on the number of vehicles they operate. The total revenue generated by the UCR program is capped by federal law; to the extent the fees bring in additional revenues during a year, the fees fall in following year – as has been occurring now for several years. Getting unregistered carriers to sign up with UCR and pay the fee therefore lowers the fees for compliant businesses.

HOWEVER, under UCR, only INTERSTATE carriers are required to register and pay the UCR fees. So why this initiative? UCR believes that a great many carriers have designated themselves with FMCSA as solely intrastate when in they are in fact engaged in interstate commerce. Under federal law, a carrier is involved in interstate commerce not only if it regularly crosses state lines, but (1) if it crosses a state line occasionally or even only once, or (2) if it hauls – even within a state – freight that has originated in or is destined for another state. Some cargoes – such as the U.S. mail, or intermodal shipments – are by definition interstate in nature. And hauling any interstate freight makes a carrier an interstate carrier, subject to UCR.

The UCR notices will state that the recipients may be involved in interstate commerce, under the criteria outlined here just above, and that if they are, they must register for UCR and pay the appropriate fee – or face citations and a fine.