WASHINGTON — Regulators are moving ahead with plans for a new registration system that will help the government keep better track of motor carriers and freight brokers.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will be asking the White House Office of Management and Budget to review and approve a request to collect new information that will inform the FMCSA Registration System (FRS). FRS will replace the current Unified Registration System (URS), according to a Federal Register notice scheduled for Friday.
FMCSA and the states use operating-authority registration information to track motor carriers, freight forwarders and brokers, as well as the companies that insure them.
“Registering motor carriers is essential to being able to identify carriers so that their safety performance can be tracked and evaluated,” FMCSA stated in the notice.
“The data makes it possible to link individual trucks to the responsible motor carrier … ensuring that commercial motor vehicles are maintained and operated safely. In general, registration information collected informs prioritization of the agency’s activities and aids in assessing and statistically analyzing the safety outcomes of those activities.”
The information collection — and ultimately the FRS — will apply to:
- New registrants applying for safety and/or operating authority registration for the first time from FMCSA.
- Existing registrants (i.e., entities that already have a U.S. Department of Transportation number and/or operating authority) subject to FMCSA’s registration and certification regulations that want to apply for additional authorities.
- Registrants seeking to process name changes, address changes and reinstatements of operating authority for motor carriers, freight forwarders and brokers.
- Registrants requesting to voluntarily suspend their safety and/or operating authority registration with FMCSA.
- Motor carriers, brokers and freight forwarders that must designate an agent on whom service of notices in proceedings before the secretary of transportation may be made.
- Designated agents and entities providing proof of financial responsibility requirements, such as insurance companies and bond agents.
- Mexico-based carriers that want to operate beyond the U.S. municipalities on the U.S.-Mexico border and their commercial zones.
10 years in the making
FMCSA envisioned transitioning URS to a more streamlined online registration system when URS was finalized in 2013.
But due to suspensions and delays, the agency still separately collects different types of information — including voluntary and involuntary operating authority revocations, and the designation of brokers and freight forwarders — and compiles them into URS.
Initially, FMCSA estimates 650,000 entities — motor carriers, freight brokers, insurers and others — will be using the new system.
“FMCSA is developing FRS in such a way as to save users as much time as possible,” it noted in the Federal Register document. “However, FMCSA expects that, at worst, the time and effort required to complete an application, update, or process agent designation in FRS will be the same as it is to complete in the URS or using a paper form.
“In the future, during routine renewals and/or revisions for this new collection, and as FMCSA gathers information on average time per transaction in FRS, FMCSA expects to be able to refine these estimates.”
Public meeting May 29
FMCSA held a public meeting in January to get URS users’ perspectives on improving their registration experience and plans a second virtual meeting, “FMCSA Registration Modernization Stakeholder Day II,” on May 29.
Motor carriers, brokers, insurance companies and other third-party service providers are encouraged to attend and provide feedback “as we develop a more user-friendly registration system that manages the registration life cycle of regulated entities.”
