On August 8, 2018, the Small Business in Transportation Coalition (SBTC) wrote to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) protesting a previously promulgated rule that raises the Unified Carrier Registration ("UCR") fees on independent truckers and carriers from 2018 to 2019, asserting the fee raise was unlawful.

Thereafter, SBTC lobbyists met with FMCSA officials in person on August 10, 2018 expressing the SBTC membership's concerns that FMCSA was unlawfully raising the fees. 

On August 21, 2018, FMCSA announced it decided to reduce the fees instead.

SBTC released this announcement later that day showing the details of how SBTC successfully affected a move toward lower UCR fees for the industry for 2019.

On August 23, 2018, during a public meeting of the Unified Carrier Registration Board of Directors, the Board determined that the fees currently under consideration by FMCSA are still higher than the Board needs to operate by over $1,000,000.

Disturbingly, the Board concluded it should not tell FMCSA this during FMCSA's pubic notice and comment rulemaking so that FMCSA does not further reduce the fees to the benefit of the industry.

This ensures, once again, the Board's depository will have a surplus contrary to the Unified Carrier Registration Act of 2005 (UCR Act - 49 United States Code (USC) section 14504a), which states:

(7) DETERMINATION OF FEES.—
(A) RECOMMENDATION BY BOARD.—The
board shall recommend to the Secretary the
initial annual fees to be assessed carriers,
leasing companies, brokers, and freight forwarders
under the unified carrier registration
agreement. In making its recommendation
to the Secretary for the level of fees to
be assessed in any agreement year, and in
setting the fee level, the board and the Secretary
shall consider—
(i) the administrative costs associated
with the unified carrier registration plan
and the agreement;
(ii) whether the revenues generated in
the previous year and any surplus or short-
age from that or prior years enable the
participating States to achieve the revenue
levels set by the board; and
(iii) the provisions governing fees under
subsection (f)(1) (emhases added).

Accordingly, we the members of the motor carrier industry hereby petition the UCR Board, Secretary of Transportation, and FMCSA to stop unnecessarily taxing the industry by imposing inflated UCR fees and mandate only those fees which are actually necessary to fund motor carrier safety initiatives and enforcement programs.