Unregistered Carriers on 7/29/2009 - 2823
Unregistered Carriers on 7/30/2009 - 2796
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 30 / $2106 (avg $70)
Picking up on yesterday's theme of registration percentages, it's important to note that our overall national registration percentage is currently at 70%. We've registered 287,000 out of roughly 410,000 UCR-Universe carriers.
Most of the lowest registration percentages are, understandably, in the non-participating states, but in a couple of cases, participating states have a comparable percentage to non-participating states.
We are looking at different ways to address this problem, but we have to start by putting some parameters around performance. If, for example, you have a high registration percentage but you are notably under your cap or have collected very few $$$, what kind of performance is that? What about if the reverse is true - low registration percentage but way above your cap? You may be lousy at registration but great at auditing!
The analysis will turn out to be "grayer" than one might think at first glance.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Calculating Your Registration Percentage
Unregistered Carriers on 7/28/2009 - 2835
Unregistered Carriers on 7/29/2009 - 2823
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 23 / $1935 (avg $84)
I've had several questions lately regarding the way that a State's registration percentage is calculated. As you may know, Iteris assembles and reports on State registration percentages to the Board.
The calculation is as follows:
First, Iteris calculates all of the registrations attributed to carriers domiciled in your state, whether done by you, another state or via carrier self-registration. As of 7/27/09, my number for Illinois is 16,272 registered carriers.
Second, Iteris counts all the carriers domiciled in your state that meet the UCR Universe criteria, but who have not yet registered for UCR in the year in question. My 7/27/09 number is 2,870.
Finally, Iteris divides the number of registered carriers by the sum of the registered carriers plus the unregistered carriers. (16272 / (16,272 + 2870) ) = 85.01%
And there you have it!
Unregistered Carriers on 7/29/2009 - 2823
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 23 / $1935 (avg $84)
I've had several questions lately regarding the way that a State's registration percentage is calculated. As you may know, Iteris assembles and reports on State registration percentages to the Board.
The calculation is as follows:
First, Iteris calculates all of the registrations attributed to carriers domiciled in your state, whether done by you, another state or via carrier self-registration. As of 7/27/09, my number for Illinois is 16,272 registered carriers.
Second, Iteris counts all the carriers domiciled in your state that meet the UCR Universe criteria, but who have not yet registered for UCR in the year in question. My 7/27/09 number is 2,870.
Finally, Iteris divides the number of registered carriers by the sum of the registered carriers plus the unregistered carriers. (16272 / (16,272 + 2870) ) = 85.01%
And there you have it!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Building Your Own UCR System - Part 5
Unregistered Carriers on 7/24/2009 - 2870
Unregistered Carriers on 7/27/2009 - 2835
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 52 / $4795 (avg $92)
So what situations "justify" pursuit of doing your own system?
I can think of at least two: 1) when you're doing "double entry" and 2) when you have a one-stop-shop effort.
"Double entry" is when you are entering stuff into your own computers and then going to the Indiana site to re-enter the information so that it will get forwarded to the Feds.
"One-stop-shop" is when your state provides the carrier with the ability to take care of all of his trucking stuff at one place - usually via the Web - including UCR.
Doing these two things does not mean that you should automatically pursue your own system, but it does, in my opinion, beg the question.
Unregistered Carriers on 7/27/2009 - 2835
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 52 / $4795 (avg $92)
So what situations "justify" pursuit of doing your own system?
I can think of at least two: 1) when you're doing "double entry" and 2) when you have a one-stop-shop effort.
"Double entry" is when you are entering stuff into your own computers and then going to the Indiana site to re-enter the information so that it will get forwarded to the Feds.
"One-stop-shop" is when your state provides the carrier with the ability to take care of all of his trucking stuff at one place - usually via the Web - including UCR.
Doing these two things does not mean that you should automatically pursue your own system, but it does, in my opinion, beg the question.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Building Your Own UCR System - Part 4
Unregistered Carriers on 7/24/2009 - 2894
Unregistered Carriers on 7/27/2009 - 2870
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 37 / $2288 (avg $61)
Some folks have suggested that the reason they need their own system is to get a better handle on their mailings to motor carriers. To that, I would say check out the Mail Merge and Emailer functions of the UCR-Link product. Between those two pieces of UCR-Link, you probably have better mailing capabilities than you are ever going to build into your own system.
The Mail Merge piece creates a spreadsheet of everybody in the UCR Universe that is domiciled in your state according to MCMIS.
The Emailer has the capability to send emails of your own design and content to everybody in that Universe who has an email address.
Unregistered Carriers on 7/27/2009 - 2870
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 37 / $2288 (avg $61)
Some folks have suggested that the reason they need their own system is to get a better handle on their mailings to motor carriers. To that, I would say check out the Mail Merge and Emailer functions of the UCR-Link product. Between those two pieces of UCR-Link, you probably have better mailing capabilities than you are ever going to build into your own system.
The Mail Merge piece creates a spreadsheet of everybody in the UCR Universe that is domiciled in your state according to MCMIS.
The Emailer has the capability to send emails of your own design and content to everybody in that Universe who has an email address.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Building Your Own UCR System - Part 3
Unregistered Carriers on 7/23/2009 - 2922
Unregistered Carriers on 7/24/2009 - 2894
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 28 / $2629 (avg $93)
OK, so you're thinking about building your own UCR system. Can you? Yes. Should you? Well, let's look into that a little bit.
As we explore this topic, remember this:
The Indiana solution costs you nothing. Building your own system will cost you something - probably more than you think.
Even if you personally don't care about that, somebody above you more than likely does - especially in these times of "austerity".
I'm going to throw out a number ... $100,000. That's about what I think you should assume it costs to build your own system. It's probably a lot more than $100K to build and maintain your own system, but that number will get the point across. In other words, the reasons that you come up with for building your own system should at least offset (and preferably exceed) that cost figure of $100,000 or you probably don't have valid reasons for building your own system. If that reasoning doesn't jump up and slap you right in the face, keep reading it until it does. And here's the kicker: for every reason you come up with, I can probably come up with a cheaper, better alternative. There are a couple of exceptions to my claim, which I'll confess to before I'm done here.
Let's start with an unlikely starting point - accounting. Is it better to do your work in the Indiana system and process a check/EFT from them 30 days later --- or process the registrations every hour of every day in your own system and do all the financial reconciliation work necessary to handle the funds? There is no right or wrong answer, but the appropriate process might be to think about all of the people who are required to handle the funds under each scenario and then calculate the difference --- and there will be a difference!
Unregistered Carriers on 7/24/2009 - 2894
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 28 / $2629 (avg $93)
OK, so you're thinking about building your own UCR system. Can you? Yes. Should you? Well, let's look into that a little bit.
As we explore this topic, remember this:
The Indiana solution costs you nothing. Building your own system will cost you something - probably more than you think.
Even if you personally don't care about that, somebody above you more than likely does - especially in these times of "austerity".
I'm going to throw out a number ... $100,000. That's about what I think you should assume it costs to build your own system. It's probably a lot more than $100K to build and maintain your own system, but that number will get the point across. In other words, the reasons that you come up with for building your own system should at least offset (and preferably exceed) that cost figure of $100,000 or you probably don't have valid reasons for building your own system. If that reasoning doesn't jump up and slap you right in the face, keep reading it until it does. And here's the kicker: for every reason you come up with, I can probably come up with a cheaper, better alternative. There are a couple of exceptions to my claim, which I'll confess to before I'm done here.
Let's start with an unlikely starting point - accounting. Is it better to do your work in the Indiana system and process a check/EFT from them 30 days later --- or process the registrations every hour of every day in your own system and do all the financial reconciliation work necessary to handle the funds? There is no right or wrong answer, but the appropriate process might be to think about all of the people who are required to handle the funds under each scenario and then calculate the difference --- and there will be a difference!
Building Your Own UCR System - Part 2
Unregistered Carriers on 7/22/2009 - 2930
Unregistered Carriers on 7/23/2009 - 2922
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 22 / $2778 (avg $126)
Yesterday, I said that the main reason that States might want to build their own UCR registration system is "control". In fact, my own state falls into that category.
But why would we want to build our own system when, in fact, Indiana has provided a darned good basic solution for all of us?
Before you rush to answer the question for your State, remember that building technical solutions requires resources - money, people, and so on - both for construction of the solution and for ongoing operation and maintenance of the solution. Building solutions costs money - usually more than you think - so your answer needs to be justfied in terms of how much your State is going to have to expend to build and support your new home-grown solution as opposed to taking advantage of the "free" solution provided by Indiana.
Let me say this for the record:
If your State is only going to register carriers that carry in or mail in their UCR applications - and if you can handle the 30-day lag each month while Indiana accumulates your money - then I don't think you need to build your own system. That much work is already done for you and appears to be working quite nicely.
So what are the circumstances under which a State might legitimately want to build their own system?
Next time, we'll take a look at some additional State objectives that might - or still might not - warrant building an individual state system.
Unregistered Carriers on 7/23/2009 - 2922
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 22 / $2778 (avg $126)
Yesterday, I said that the main reason that States might want to build their own UCR registration system is "control". In fact, my own state falls into that category.
But why would we want to build our own system when, in fact, Indiana has provided a darned good basic solution for all of us?
Before you rush to answer the question for your State, remember that building technical solutions requires resources - money, people, and so on - both for construction of the solution and for ongoing operation and maintenance of the solution. Building solutions costs money - usually more than you think - so your answer needs to be justfied in terms of how much your State is going to have to expend to build and support your new home-grown solution as opposed to taking advantage of the "free" solution provided by Indiana.
Let me say this for the record:
If your State is only going to register carriers that carry in or mail in their UCR applications - and if you can handle the 30-day lag each month while Indiana accumulates your money - then I don't think you need to build your own system. That much work is already done for you and appears to be working quite nicely.
So what are the circumstances under which a State might legitimately want to build their own system?
Next time, we'll take a look at some additional State objectives that might - or still might not - warrant building an individual state system.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Building Your Own UCR System - Part 1
Unregistered Carriers on 7/21/2009 - 2943
Unregistered Carriers on 7/22/2009 - 2930
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 11 / $1009 (avg $91)
Yesterday, I mentioned that a couple more states are considering building their own UCR system. Many people don't understand why States should even be ALLOWED to do this, let alone WHY they would want to do it. But it makes sense to me ... up to a point.
As for why States should be allowed to build their own system, the simple fact remains that there's no prohibition against it. Indiana has always been considered to be a solution that States could use if they didn't have their own solution. Until the Board has a vendor that is not a generous volunteer state, I don't think that's going to change.
As for why States want to do it, the short answer is "more control".
The good news and the bad news is that most of these States want control over the entire registration process ... and the "back-end processes" ... and the reporting ... and the renewals ... and let's not forget the immediate cash flow.
Some states even "double enter" because they want to register their own carriers in their own system - but they don't have a way to convey the information to the Feds. So, they enter registrations into their own system - and then they turn right around and enter the same information into the Indiana system so that the information will be sent to the Feds.
These kinds of "wants" engender a few responsibilities as well. I'll talk more about those in my next post.
Unregistered Carriers on 7/22/2009 - 2930
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 11 / $1009 (avg $91)
Yesterday, I mentioned that a couple more states are considering building their own UCR system. Many people don't understand why States should even be ALLOWED to do this, let alone WHY they would want to do it. But it makes sense to me ... up to a point.
As for why States should be allowed to build their own system, the simple fact remains that there's no prohibition against it. Indiana has always been considered to be a solution that States could use if they didn't have their own solution. Until the Board has a vendor that is not a generous volunteer state, I don't think that's going to change.
As for why States want to do it, the short answer is "more control".
The good news and the bad news is that most of these States want control over the entire registration process ... and the "back-end processes" ... and the reporting ... and the renewals ... and let's not forget the immediate cash flow.
Some states even "double enter" because they want to register their own carriers in their own system - but they don't have a way to convey the information to the Feds. So, they enter registrations into their own system - and then they turn right around and enter the same information into the Indiana system so that the information will be sent to the Feds.
These kinds of "wants" engender a few responsibilities as well. I'll talk more about those in my next post.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
UCR - July Continues To Be Strong
Unregistered Carriers on 7/20/2009 - 2976
Unregistered Carriers on 7/21/2009 - 2943
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 38 / $3594 (avg $94)
For the month of July - 13 work days - we have registered 377 carriers and collected a total of $38,673, for an average registration amount of $102.60.
I've received word that a couple more states are considering starting up their own UCR registration systems. I'm always interested to learn what motivates States to do that - and I wonder if they understand the ramifications one way or the other.
Probably the most important consideration for a state is to make sure that they have adequate and appropriate technical support for their system.
The beauty of an Indiana system is that the work is all done for you - by a very competent technical team. Since States are considering this, I'll talk more about it in upcoming posts.
Unregistered Carriers on 7/21/2009 - 2943
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 38 / $3594 (avg $94)
For the month of July - 13 work days - we have registered 377 carriers and collected a total of $38,673, for an average registration amount of $102.60.
I've received word that a couple more states are considering starting up their own UCR registration systems. I'm always interested to learn what motivates States to do that - and I wonder if they understand the ramifications one way or the other.
Probably the most important consideration for a state is to make sure that they have adequate and appropriate technical support for their system.
The beauty of an Indiana system is that the work is all done for you - by a very competent technical team. Since States are considering this, I'll talk more about it in upcoming posts.
Monday, July 20, 2009
UCR, IRP and Me
Unregistered Carriers on 7/17/2009 - 3006
Unregistered Carriers on 7/20/2009 - 2976
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 22 / $2395 (avg $108)
Today, I ran my first IRP / UCR Deficiency reports, but ... Chris told me later in the day that they were baselining data from the Feds, so the reports were probably suspect. We'll try again tomorrow. This functionality only works if your state is sending its IRP data to SAFER.
The new UCR-Link email functionality is great. While we sleep, UCR-Link sends emails to our unregistered carriers. We are currently sending two "campaigns": one campaign sends emails every day to 200 carriers on our regular unregistered carrier list and one campaign solicits the new IL USDOT numbers. We chose these campaigns to make the responses manageable.
Gotta love the technology!
Unregistered Carriers on 7/20/2009 - 2976
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 22 / $2395 (avg $108)
Today, I ran my first IRP / UCR Deficiency reports, but ... Chris told me later in the day that they were baselining data from the Feds, so the reports were probably suspect. We'll try again tomorrow. This functionality only works if your state is sending its IRP data to SAFER.
The new UCR-Link email functionality is great. While we sleep, UCR-Link sends emails to our unregistered carriers. We are currently sending two "campaigns": one campaign sends emails every day to 200 carriers on our regular unregistered carrier list and one campaign solicits the new IL USDOT numbers. We chose these campaigns to make the responses manageable.
Gotta love the technology!
Friday, July 17, 2009
My Secret UCR Stretch Goal
Unregistered Carriers on 7/15/2009 - 3036
Unregistered Carriers on 7/17/2009 - 3006
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 50 / $3449 (avg $70)
You may have noticed that I have mentioned California more than once in this blog. That's because I have a secret "stretch goal" that involves California.
What's the goal? I'd like to catch up with California regarding the actual number of UCR registrations for 2009. There, I've said it!
Unlike the "getting to zero" goal for Unregistered Carriers, however, this second goal is more of a "fun goal" and may not even be mathematically possible. Here's why.
California has registered 18,023 carriers as of this morning's Iteris report. We have registered 16,074 - so we're 1,949 registrations behind them. But they still have a pool of 10, 165 unregistered carriers, while we only have 3,006. You can see the problem. Even I register all of my unregistered guys - my "getting to zero" goal - I'll only have a total of 19,000 UCR registrations. CA only has to register another 1,000 guys to beat me. As I said, it's just a fun goal anyway. The more carriers we all register, the better.
It's all good!
Unregistered Carriers on 7/17/2009 - 3006
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 50 / $3449 (avg $70)
You may have noticed that I have mentioned California more than once in this blog. That's because I have a secret "stretch goal" that involves California.
What's the goal? I'd like to catch up with California regarding the actual number of UCR registrations for 2009. There, I've said it!
Unlike the "getting to zero" goal for Unregistered Carriers, however, this second goal is more of a "fun goal" and may not even be mathematically possible. Here's why.
California has registered 18,023 carriers as of this morning's Iteris report. We have registered 16,074 - so we're 1,949 registrations behind them. But they still have a pool of 10, 165 unregistered carriers, while we only have 3,006. You can see the problem. Even I register all of my unregistered guys - my "getting to zero" goal - I'll only have a total of 19,000 UCR registrations. CA only has to register another 1,000 guys to beat me. As I said, it's just a fun goal anyway. The more carriers we all register, the better.
It's all good!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
IRP and UCR
Unregistered Carriers on 7/14/2009 - 3052
Unregistered Carriers on 7/15/2009 - 3036
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 27 / $2053 (avg $81)
I mentioned the other day that Iteris is going to provide us with a report that identifies IRP carriers who are not Registrants, do not show up on our Unregistered List and who haven't registered under UCR for the current year. This, in turn, led me to think about why we don't use IRP registration as another filter for our "UCR universe criteria".
The new Universe criteria would be an active, interstate carrier who has had an inspection, a crash, an MCS-150 update, a UCR registration OR an IRP registration in the past year. So what's wrong with that idea? Nothing, except ... the IRP information is coming from SAFER, and SAFER isn't updated by every state when it comes to IRP. So, we would be "unbalanced" in the sense that some states would have the IRP carriers in their Unregistered List and some would not. Is that a problem? I don't think so, but it does seem wrong somehow. I've go to think about it some more.
Unregistered Carriers on 7/15/2009 - 3036
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 27 / $2053 (avg $81)
I mentioned the other day that Iteris is going to provide us with a report that identifies IRP carriers who are not Registrants, do not show up on our Unregistered List and who haven't registered under UCR for the current year. This, in turn, led me to think about why we don't use IRP registration as another filter for our "UCR universe criteria".
The new Universe criteria would be an active, interstate carrier who has had an inspection, a crash, an MCS-150 update, a UCR registration OR an IRP registration in the past year. So what's wrong with that idea? Nothing, except ... the IRP information is coming from SAFER, and SAFER isn't updated by every state when it comes to IRP. So, we would be "unbalanced" in the sense that some states would have the IRP carriers in their Unregistered List and some would not. Is that a problem? I don't think so, but it does seem wrong somehow. I've go to think about it some more.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Two UCR "Milestones"
Unregistered Carriers on 7/13/2009 - 3086
Unregistered Carriers on 7/13/2009 - 3052
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 43 / $4788 (avg $111)
Today, according to the Iteris reports, we registered our 16,000 carrier! The amazing thing is that we have registered about 3,500 of those carriers since 2/1/09 - a period of time when we normally would have considered the registration season pretty well finished. Which brings me to our other "milestone" --- we're about to reach the 3,000 mark on our Unregistered List. I hope to get there by the end of the week. As you know, we have plotted the course and then worked at it slow and steady --- and, so far, on schedule! We've learned a lot in the process that will not only help us with UCR, but with our other programs and processes as well.
Unregistered Carriers on 7/13/2009 - 3052
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 43 / $4788 (avg $111)
Today, according to the Iteris reports, we registered our 16,000 carrier! The amazing thing is that we have registered about 3,500 of those carriers since 2/1/09 - a period of time when we normally would have considered the registration season pretty well finished. Which brings me to our other "milestone" --- we're about to reach the 3,000 mark on our Unregistered List. I hope to get there by the end of the week. As you know, we have plotted the course and then worked at it slow and steady --- and, so far, on schedule! We've learned a lot in the process that will not only help us with UCR, but with our other programs and processes as well.
Monday, July 13, 2009
IL UCR July-To-Date
Unregistered Carriers on 7/10/2009 - 3104
Unregistered Carriers on 7/13/2009 - 3086
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 31 / $3245 (avg $104)
I'm not sure what everybody else's experience is, but I continue to be amazed at the level of registrations we're doing considering where we are in the registration year.
To date in July, we have registered 231 carriers and collected $26,331. That's an average of $114 per registration! I've already explained in earlier posts that the cost of acquiring each registration - at least as I calculate it using the "Dave-math" worst-case approach - as no more than $36. This $36 includes the cost of soliciting all of the carriers who haven't registered yet!
Nobody can convince me that this isn't a highly productive program effort!
Unregistered Carriers on 7/13/2009 - 3086
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 31 / $3245 (avg $104)
I'm not sure what everybody else's experience is, but I continue to be amazed at the level of registrations we're doing considering where we are in the registration year.
To date in July, we have registered 231 carriers and collected $26,331. That's an average of $114 per registration! I've already explained in earlier posts that the cost of acquiring each registration - at least as I calculate it using the "Dave-math" worst-case approach - as no more than $36. This $36 includes the cost of soliciting all of the carriers who haven't registered yet!
Nobody can convince me that this isn't a highly productive program effort!
Friday, July 10, 2009
IRP and UCR ... and PUC's
Unregistered Carriers on 7/9/2009 - 3146
Unregistered Carriers on 7/10/2009 - 3104
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 25 / $2780 (avg $111)
For those of us in PUC's who don't have the IRP program in a different set of cubicles in the same general floor space, we have to rely on data flowing back and forth between agencies to identify carriers who have registered under IRP, but not under UCR. As I mentioned yesterday, Iteris is helping us filter IRP information flowing out of our Secretary of State' IRP section to our CVIEW to accomplish this purpose. Our preliminary read is that there are several hundred carriers (not Registrants) who have registered under IRP this year but who are not currently part of the UCR universe. I've asked Chris to make this a "canned" report under either our CVIEW or UCR-Link. I think it's a report that anybody in a PUC, for example, would find beneficial.
Unregistered Carriers on 7/10/2009 - 3104
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 25 / $2780 (avg $111)
For those of us in PUC's who don't have the IRP program in a different set of cubicles in the same general floor space, we have to rely on data flowing back and forth between agencies to identify carriers who have registered under IRP, but not under UCR. As I mentioned yesterday, Iteris is helping us filter IRP information flowing out of our Secretary of State' IRP section to our CVIEW to accomplish this purpose. Our preliminary read is that there are several hundred carriers (not Registrants) who have registered under IRP this year but who are not currently part of the UCR universe. I've asked Chris to make this a "canned" report under either our CVIEW or UCR-Link. I think it's a report that anybody in a PUC, for example, would find beneficial.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Unregistered Carriers on 7/8/2009 - 3119
Unregistered Carriers on 7/9/2009 - 3146
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 27 / $3550 (avg $131)
As anticipated, we got a BUNCH of additions in today, overwhelming our registrations and deactivations from yesterday and raising our unregistered total for the day. As I indicated earlier, it all comes in the wash, but we hate to see our unregistered total going back up - ever!
Through this morning, we have done 151 UCR registrations (5 work days) and generated around $20,000 in the month of July. I don't think anybody else is close to that number (CA=71). Is that a big deal? Only if you're trying to generate cash!
Yesterday, we met with the acting director of IRP in Illinois. As you may recall, we don't have any direct UCR relationship with IRP, in part because they are in a different agency. We discussed the possibility of making UCR a prerequisite to getting plates, but I don't see that happening anytime soon due to statutory authority (or lack thereof). We are also trying to generate some IRP/UCR reports through our CVIEW which gives us the information but no "hammer". I've indicated before that I don't think we need that connection to "get to zero", but it may point us to some guys who are NOT in the universe who need to register anyway.
Unregistered Carriers on 7/9/2009 - 3146
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 27 / $3550 (avg $131)
As anticipated, we got a BUNCH of additions in today, overwhelming our registrations and deactivations from yesterday and raising our unregistered total for the day. As I indicated earlier, it all comes in the wash, but we hate to see our unregistered total going back up - ever!
Through this morning, we have done 151 UCR registrations (5 work days) and generated around $20,000 in the month of July. I don't think anybody else is close to that number (CA=71). Is that a big deal? Only if you're trying to generate cash!
Yesterday, we met with the acting director of IRP in Illinois. As you may recall, we don't have any direct UCR relationship with IRP, in part because they are in a different agency. We discussed the possibility of making UCR a prerequisite to getting plates, but I don't see that happening anytime soon due to statutory authority (or lack thereof). We are also trying to generate some IRP/UCR reports through our CVIEW which gives us the information but no "hammer". I've indicated before that I don't think we need that connection to "get to zero", but it may point us to some guys who are NOT in the universe who need to register anyway.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The Art of Reconciliation - Part 4
Unregistered Carriers on 7/7/2009 - 3157
Unregistered Carriers on 7/8/2009 - 3119
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 24 / $2089 (avg $87)
As long as we're talking about reconciliation, I'd like to talk about a situation that's happening right now. Over the last couple of days, we have removed almost 100 carriers from our Unregistered List - mostly through registrations - but we're not getting any "new additions", which would normally mitigate that number. So, one of these days, I expect that we will get a barrage of new additions that will jack the unregistered total back up. On the one hand, it all comes out in the wash, but, on the other hand, it creates irregularities in the work flow caused by inconsistent flow of data. What do we do in a case like that? We work harder on the other carriers on our Unregistered List! And we still have plenty of those!
Unregistered Carriers on 7/8/2009 - 3119
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 24 / $2089 (avg $87)
As long as we're talking about reconciliation, I'd like to talk about a situation that's happening right now. Over the last couple of days, we have removed almost 100 carriers from our Unregistered List - mostly through registrations - but we're not getting any "new additions", which would normally mitigate that number. So, one of these days, I expect that we will get a barrage of new additions that will jack the unregistered total back up. On the one hand, it all comes out in the wash, but, on the other hand, it creates irregularities in the work flow caused by inconsistent flow of data. What do we do in a case like that? We work harder on the other carriers on our Unregistered List! And we still have plenty of those!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
The Beauty of Enforcement
Unregistered Carriers on 7/6/2009 - 3209
Unregistered Carriers on 7/7/2009 - 3157
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 45 / $6,440 (avg $144)
We've been dealing with a carrier who has continually put us off on UCR registration, so, on Monday, one of our enforcement officers walked into the establishment, handed the person we've been dealing with a $300 citation, and, miraculously, they registered that afternoon!
I want to emphasize that we have talked with this company many times and done our best to get them to register without "coersion". The citation was a last resort - but it obviously got their attention. Chances are good that we are going to be doing more of this kind of thing with carriers who put us off.
Unregistered Carriers on 7/7/2009 - 3157
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 45 / $6,440 (avg $144)
We've been dealing with a carrier who has continually put us off on UCR registration, so, on Monday, one of our enforcement officers walked into the establishment, handed the person we've been dealing with a $300 citation, and, miraculously, they registered that afternoon!
I want to emphasize that we have talked with this company many times and done our best to get them to register without "coersion". The citation was a last resort - but it obviously got their attention. Chances are good that we are going to be doing more of this kind of thing with carriers who put us off.
Monday, July 6, 2009
The Art of Reconciliation - Part 3
Unregistered Carriers on 7/3/2009 - 3222
Unregistered Carriers on 7/2/2009 - 3209
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 17 / $1,201 (avg $77)
Unregistered Carriers on 7/2/2009 - 3209
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 17 / $1,201 (avg $77)
If your head's finished spinning from my last post describing the "resend", I'd like to move on to the next aspect of reconciliation - our own registrations in the IL system.
At first blush, one might think that one registration here in IL equates to one carrier being taken off our unregistered list. But could it possibly be that simple? Heck, no!
One registration here in the IL system only equates to one carrier being removed from our unregistered list when the carrier was on the list to begin with! "Wait a minute!", you say. "Why wouldn't that carrier be on your list? He wasn't registered yet."
There are several possible explanations, but the most likely explanation is that the carrier's MCMIS record doesn't fit the filter criteria. Maybe he is listed as "intrastate-only" or as a "registrant" or as "inactive" or as "private passenger". Or maybe he hasn't had an inspection, a crash, a UCR registration or an MCS-150 update in the last year. Any of these situations would keep him off the list.
So ... part of reconciliation is figuring out how many of our registrations actually correlate with an appearance on our unregistered list.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
The Art of Reconciliation - Part 2
Unregistered Carriers on 7/1/2009 - 3204
Unregistered Carriers on 7/2/2009 - 3234
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 25 / $2,703 (avg $108)
In yesterday's post, I started describing the reconciliation process we're currently conducting. I'll pick up where I left off yesterday.
The next part of reconciliation is what we call "resends", which come about when a UCR registration update is initially rejected by the Feds because the update violates one or more business rules the Feds have about MCMIS updates.
For example, if we help a farmer get a USDOT number, turn right around and register the farmer under UCR and then send an update to the Feds, that update will usually be rejected because the Feds have not had time to process the new USDOT number internally yet.
The rejected record gets bounced back to us and lands in the "reject bucket". The registration is valid, but MCMIS - and, therefore, SAFER - are not updated for enforcement yet because our update to the Feds was rejected.
The trick is to find the right timeframe for resending the update. We can't just put it on "auto-dial" because that apparently creates havoc for the Feds. So, we send updates one at a time whenever we think the record has been processed internally by the Feds. It's an inexact process, but there's some urgency to the process because of the potential for enforcement issues at the road - which are no fault of the carrier.
Unregistered Carriers on 7/2/2009 - 3234
Yesterday's Registrations (IL system) - 25 / $2,703 (avg $108)
In yesterday's post, I started describing the reconciliation process we're currently conducting. I'll pick up where I left off yesterday.
The next part of reconciliation is what we call "resends", which come about when a UCR registration update is initially rejected by the Feds because the update violates one or more business rules the Feds have about MCMIS updates.
For example, if we help a farmer get a USDOT number, turn right around and register the farmer under UCR and then send an update to the Feds, that update will usually be rejected because the Feds have not had time to process the new USDOT number internally yet.
The rejected record gets bounced back to us and lands in the "reject bucket". The registration is valid, but MCMIS - and, therefore, SAFER - are not updated for enforcement yet because our update to the Feds was rejected.
The trick is to find the right timeframe for resending the update. We can't just put it on "auto-dial" because that apparently creates havoc for the Feds. So, we send updates one at a time whenever we think the record has been processed internally by the Feds. It's an inexact process, but there's some urgency to the process because of the potential for enforcement issues at the road - which are no fault of the carrier.
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