WASHINGTON — Federal regulators have approved a 25% increase in fees collected by states from motor carriers, brokers and leasing companies that are used to pay for state highway safety programs.
The fee increase in the Unified Carrier Registration (UCR) Plan for the 2025 registration year, announced on Friday by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, amounts to approximately $9 to $9,000 more per year that carriers will pay, depending on the size of their fleet (see table). The fee per entity for a broker or leasing company is $46.
“The agency notes the rare occurrence of this upward adjustment, which has only previously occurred once, over a decade ago,” FMCSA stated in a final rule approving the increase.
“This upward adjustment … follows two years of reductions in fees affecting the 2023 and 2024 registration years, averaging a 37.3 percent decrease in fees, as well as steady, unmodified collections from 2010 to 2017. The agency believes this recalibration of fees is reasonable and in accordance with the structure of, and obligations created by, the statute.”
| Power units | 2024 fee | 2025 fee | $ change | % change |
| 0-2 | $37 | $46 | $9 | +24.3 |
| 3-5 | $111 | $138 | $27 | +24.3 |
| 6-20 | $221 | $276 | $55 | +24.9 |
| 21-100 | $769 | $963 | $194 | +25.2 |
| 101-1,000 | $3,670 | $4,592 | $922 | +25.1 |
| 1,001+ | $35,836 | $44,836 | $9,000 | +25.1 |
The UCR, and the 41 states that participate in the agreement, establish and collect fees that can be used at the discretion of the individual states, but are typically used for truck safety programs, enforcement, and administering the UCR.
After FMCSA proposed the fee increase in January – based on a recommendation from UCR Plan administrators – it received 66 comments, many of whom considered the fees to be unwarranted and believed the UCR Plan should be adjusting its own budget and spending instead.
“To FMCSA’s knowledge, the UCR Plan has operated within its approved budget and in recent years has steadily decreased registration fees,” the agency responded.
“In fact, this is the first upward adjustment since 2010. The UCR Plan’s approved allocation for the costs of administration of the Plan and Agreement over the last several years decreased from $5 million per year and is now at $4.25 million. For these reasons, FMCSA declines to modify the final rule in response to the commenters’ suggested changes.”
The total state funding entitlement under the UCR program has been set at approximately $108 million for 2025. The program collects this amount in the form of UCR fees from transportation businesses and then distributes the respective entitlement to each participating state. Those entitlements range from $7.5 million for Michigan to $372,007 for North Carolina, according to UCR Plan documents.
Related articles:
- FMCSA plans to cut carrier highway safety fees by 27%
- FMCSA approves registration fee reduction for 2020-21
- FMCSA calls out sham towing fees charged to truckers
Click for more FreightWaves articles by John Gallagher.
richard j scott
after all this, this is all the FMCSA BS they can come up with , what about broker transparency so carriers can make a living and afford to buy equipment and keep it insured and running, no wonder OO are going broke its a f***ing joke
Steve
Welcome to the new era of the country where the rich get richer & the poor get poorer tax tax tax tax & where does it go to foreign aid other bs I don’t mind paying for things enough is enough I say time to declare bankruptcy on it all & start over like it was 1776 fuel haulers shut the trucks down then the freight trucks we could get things fixed & figured out in less than 3 months cause people would go insane without there 8 buck Starbucks & other items the next problems are the mega corporations they are in bed with the government & no one I repeat no one has a set of balls like our fore fathers did good day be safe!!
Thomas Moran
The shame of it is that regulation favors, overall, big companies vs small companies. For a small company every new regulation they have to comply with is more paperwork that their staff of one has to deal with; large companies enjoy economies of scale so one staff member takes care of 200 truck registrations in the most efficient manner possible. All these regulations make independent truckers of one to 40 truck units harder.
But that doesn’t mean I am going to vote for a dictator or wanna-be dictator like Trump. I like the American system, where one man one vote still happens. I don’t want to throw out the system our fathers (Korea, Vietnam) and grandfathers (WW1 and WW2) fought for. I am not against ALL taxation. Biden did pass an infrastructure bill that was huge that DOES pay for bridge and highway improvements, I know because we have seen an increase (and our clients tell us) of hauling concrete super-structure for such projects that are from that federal bill. I am not a liberal, (go Israel! and I hate the UCR!) however I believe in the American system nonetheless, and democracy, so all you guys listening to AM radio as you drive and believing what they tell you – don’t be a sucker. Listen to NPR. The Democrats are unfortunately right about the most important thing: A vote for Trump won’t make your life better and is a vote against our precious democracy and for a guy who wants unlimited federal executive powers. That will be the destruction of the small businessman and wage earners, not our salvation.
James
The time has come the taxpayers say to speak of, REPEALING THE 16th AMENDMENT.
Bob Berry
This doesn’t help reduce inflation it contributes to a higher cost of living. Go Biden!!
Mike
What exactly do all these spending bills they keep passing pay for?
StevieJ
I wouldn’t be against these increase in fees if this money was actually used ro fix bridges and roads. Our interstates and bridges are falling apart and NO ONE with the money, power or responsibility to fix them seems to care.
Gary Senecal
I don’t think it is unreasonable for smaller companies but it does tax the bigger companies. It is very easy to tax this industry as we have very few people who will come forward in the defence of the industry. It never ceases to amaze me that regulation fees increase , fuel increases, the cost of repair increases but our rates decrease . The cost per mile continues to rise without any hope in sight for a fair wage . This is truly deplorable.