It is likely that federal regulators will approve a reduction in motor carrier fees collected for registration and safety programs in 2024. However, they may need to increase those fees in 2025 for the first time in at least a decade.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is proposing a reduction of around 9% in fees collected by the Unified Carrier Registration (UCR) Plan and Agreement for the 2024 registration year. This proposal is based on a recommendation made by the UCR Plan and Agreement, which oversees and collects fees for 41 participating states.
The reduction in fees for the 2024 registration year will vary depending on the number of power units owned or operated by the carrier, freight forwarder, or leasing company. The reduction will range from $4 to $3,453, based on the number of units, which can range from 0 to over 1,001. This information is provided in a table.
The FMCSA is planning to publish the 2024 registration fee reduction in the Federal Register on Thursday for public comment. The proposed reduction is 9%, which is lower than the 31% cut made for the 2023 registration year after an initial proposal for a 27% reduction.
The UCR plan is responsible for analyzing the registration fees collected from carriers and distributing them to the states. They also reconcile these fees with state revenue entitlements prescribed by Congress and set by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“If the UCR plan determines that the fees received fall short of or exceed what is needed to meet those revenue entitlements … then the UCR Plan Board of Directors will recommend to [FMCSA] that the fee schedule … be adjusted accordingly,” according to UCR Plan Board Chair Elizabeth Leaman’s 2024 recommendation to FMCSA.
Fee adjustments were not recommended for the registration years from 2010 to 2017. However, reductions in fees have been made for every registration year since then, including a 14.5% cut for the years 2020 and 2021, as well as the 31% cut for 2023 and the proposed 9% cut for 2024.
Leaman, a representative of the UCR board, anticipates that an upward adjustment in fees will be necessary for the 2025 registration year due to the large fee reductions. The UCR plan does not expect to have any excess funds from overcollection that can be applied to meet the total revenue target for 2025, according to Leaman’s recommendation.
The FMCSA noted that the UCR Plan Board has made a slight modification to its methodology for developing the 2024 recommendation, as the previous methodology consistently resulted in an underestimation of collections. In the past, the methodology was based on minimum collections, but for the 2024 recommendation, the UCR Plan Board modified their approach.
“The UCR Plan Board’s recommendation now uses an average of the historical monthly collections over the prior three-year period to determine projected collections, which will yield a more accurate result.”
