Unregistered Carriers on 9/30/2009 - 1945
Unregistered Carriers on 10/1/2009 - 1933
Tool #1 - Unregistered List
---------------------------
When I talk about the "Unregistered List", I am referring to a State's list of all of the carriers in the "UCR Universe" who are heretofore unregistered. Many States don't routinely look at their list either because they don't have access to it or because they only deal with the carriers who walk in their door.
There isn't just one way to get an Unregistered List. An Unregistered List can be generated from CVIEW, SAFESTAT or UCR-Link. Here in Illinois, we use the Unregistered List that's part of the Iteris UCR-Link product. Frankly, I can't imagine running a UCR program without this list.
First thing every morning, we generate the unregistered list and do an electronic comparison with yesterday's list. This gives us the Daily Change List - the carriers who have been added to, deleted from or changed since yesterday's list. We are particularly interested in the "Adds", as they represent our hot new UCR leads. I'll talk more about the Daily Change List tomorrow.
The great thing about the Unregistered List is that it can serve multiple purposes. First, it puts a name, location and phone number to everybody who should be registering in your state. Each name begs the question of why they are not registered yet. Second, it can be sorted by city or zip code to create a target list for an enforcement person working a certain area. Finally, since it has vehicle and trailer information, it can be used to identify the "highest dollar" carriers for maximum revenue collection efficiency. These are just a few of the uses for the Unregistered List. I'm sure many states have additional uses.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Through The UCR Barriers?
Unregistered Carriers on 9/29/2009 - 1955
Unregistered Carriers on 9/30/2009 - 1945
As I write this (3:00 p.m.), we have done 54 registrations today. As you can see, we have now started two mornings in a row below 2,000 unregistered carriers, so maybe we are resuming our "trek toward zero".
According to Iteris, we also started the day 860 registrations behind California. The dream lives! We are registering about 20 more carriers per day than California, so at this pace it should only take 43 more work days to catch them, right? End of November. Can I get an "amen"?!?
Following on yesterday's post, I understand there is a movement afoot in Washington to exempt all farm vehicles under 26K from any kind of FMCSA oversight. For states that are "registering via IRP", it won't affect their registrations at all, but for some states, it could take some carriers away from their registration pool.
Our September in-house registration totals are 985 registrations for $87,300. This has produced, once again, an average of $88 per registration.
Tomorrow, I'm going to talk about the "tools of the trade" that we have adopted. I think you'll find some of them interesting.
Unregistered Carriers on 9/30/2009 - 1945
As I write this (3:00 p.m.), we have done 54 registrations today. As you can see, we have now started two mornings in a row below 2,000 unregistered carriers, so maybe we are resuming our "trek toward zero".
According to Iteris, we also started the day 860 registrations behind California. The dream lives! We are registering about 20 more carriers per day than California, so at this pace it should only take 43 more work days to catch them, right? End of November. Can I get an "amen"?!?
Following on yesterday's post, I understand there is a movement afoot in Washington to exempt all farm vehicles under 26K from any kind of FMCSA oversight. For states that are "registering via IRP", it won't affect their registrations at all, but for some states, it could take some carriers away from their registration pool.
Our September in-house registration totals are 985 registrations for $87,300. This has produced, once again, an average of $88 per registration.
Tomorrow, I'm going to talk about the "tools of the trade" that we have adopted. I think you'll find some of them interesting.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
What About The Under-26K-Pound Guys?
Unregistered Carriers on 9/28/2009 - 2033
Unregistered Carriers on 9/29/2009 - 1955
A senior person at an insurance company asked me this morning what states are doing about the under-26,000-pound carriers if they are relying mostly on IRP and IFTA for their UCR registrations. I had to tell them that I don't know. I'd be interested to hear from some of those States about that.
I guess the other piece of that question is what the Feds are doing about them. And I'm amazed each and every day that we - a PSC - have registered literally thousands of carriers who have been driving around for 20 years without anybody telling them they needed USDOT numbers. What's wrong with that picture?
As I write this (noon), we have registered 916 carriers and collected over $81,000 in our own system during September. To that we need to add about 125 carriers that have registered through the Indiana system. That's a heck of a number considering: 1) it's the second September of the registration season (we've batted around!), 2) we haven't run any special mail campaigns this month and 3) we've already registered 17,000+ other guys. What a country! And we're only trailing CA by 911 registrations as of this morning. Hey, I can dream, can't I???
Unregistered Carriers on 9/29/2009 - 1955
A senior person at an insurance company asked me this morning what states are doing about the under-26,000-pound carriers if they are relying mostly on IRP and IFTA for their UCR registrations. I had to tell them that I don't know. I'd be interested to hear from some of those States about that.
I guess the other piece of that question is what the Feds are doing about them. And I'm amazed each and every day that we - a PSC - have registered literally thousands of carriers who have been driving around for 20 years without anybody telling them they needed USDOT numbers. What's wrong with that picture?
As I write this (noon), we have registered 916 carriers and collected over $81,000 in our own system during September. To that we need to add about 125 carriers that have registered through the Indiana system. That's a heck of a number considering: 1) it's the second September of the registration season (we've batted around!), 2) we haven't run any special mail campaigns this month and 3) we've already registered 17,000+ other guys. What a country! And we're only trailing CA by 911 registrations as of this morning. Hey, I can dream, can't I???
Monday, September 28, 2009
UCR Is Not For The Faint-Of-Heart
Unregistered Carriers on 9/25/2009 - 1983
Unregistered Carriers on 9/28/2009 - 2033
Two things are fairly certain here in Illinois. 90% compliance and getting below 2,000 unregistered carriers are two milestones that we are proving to be fairly resilient. Not that we're not up to the challenge. It's just that we're issuing so many USDOT numbers over the past couple of weeks that it's hard to get traction!
I need to point out that part of the reason we headed back up to 2033 today is that our Friday registrations still hadn't come off our unregistered list as of this morning owing to the new Fed/Volpe update procedures. And we did another 75+ registrations today, so I'm curious to see if we can stay below 2,000 come tomorrow morning.
Meanwhile, as of this morning, we now trail California by only 990 registrations - remember when it was 1,500 not so long ago? Just to clarify, these are registrations of carriers in our own state. Some states - like New York - are up there with us if you count the non-participating state registrations they have done. Happy, Bill?
It's all good, folks! And the comment period ends today, so it's non-stop action!
Unregistered Carriers on 9/28/2009 - 2033
Two things are fairly certain here in Illinois. 90% compliance and getting below 2,000 unregistered carriers are two milestones that we are proving to be fairly resilient. Not that we're not up to the challenge. It's just that we're issuing so many USDOT numbers over the past couple of weeks that it's hard to get traction!
I need to point out that part of the reason we headed back up to 2033 today is that our Friday registrations still hadn't come off our unregistered list as of this morning owing to the new Fed/Volpe update procedures. And we did another 75+ registrations today, so I'm curious to see if we can stay below 2,000 come tomorrow morning.
Meanwhile, as of this morning, we now trail California by only 990 registrations - remember when it was 1,500 not so long ago? Just to clarify, these are registrations of carriers in our own state. Some states - like New York - are up there with us if you count the non-participating state registrations they have done. Happy, Bill?
It's all good, folks! And the comment period ends today, so it's non-stop action!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
UCR Craziness - Part 2
Unregistered Carriers on 9/24/2009 - 1983
Unregistered Carriers on 9/25/2009 - 1986
Continuing with the theme of the week, we registered 62 carriers yesterday ... and added another 68 carriers to our unregistered list! Now keep in mind, we haven't done any special mailings or anything - this is just the result of our daily mail/email routines with a little enforcement mixed in. It's kind of amazing, really.
Meanwhile, at a meeting yesterday, the Lieutenant in charge of Illinois' MC Safety Officers said that we might inspect 1% - but probably less - of the trucks that pass through Illinois. (See yesterday's post.) Again, vitally important, but certainly not enough.
In a separate conversation, the Director of our IL FMCSA office was remarking about the large number of New Entrant Safety Audits his people have conducted so far this year. I told him that we might have had something to do with that! He agreed. Now if that's not a direct link between UCR and Motor Carrier Safety, I don't know what is.
Unregistered Carriers on 9/25/2009 - 1986
Continuing with the theme of the week, we registered 62 carriers yesterday ... and added another 68 carriers to our unregistered list! Now keep in mind, we haven't done any special mailings or anything - this is just the result of our daily mail/email routines with a little enforcement mixed in. It's kind of amazing, really.
Meanwhile, at a meeting yesterday, the Lieutenant in charge of Illinois' MC Safety Officers said that we might inspect 1% - but probably less - of the trucks that pass through Illinois. (See yesterday's post.) Again, vitally important, but certainly not enough.
In a separate conversation, the Director of our IL FMCSA office was remarking about the large number of New Entrant Safety Audits his people have conducted so far this year. I told him that we might have had something to do with that! He agreed. Now if that's not a direct link between UCR and Motor Carrier Safety, I don't know what is.
UCR Craziness!
Unregistered Carriers on 9/22/2009 - 1968
Unregistered Carriers on 9/24/2009 - 1983
I'll tell you how crazy it's getting in Illinois. So far this week, we have registered about 200 UCR carriers and, as you can see, we are going a little backwards in our unregistered total. Plus, as you can see, I have to write my blog at some insane hour of the morning! Why is this happening? Because we have also been issuing DOT numbers in droves and getting people signed up with FMCSA at a clip of about 60-70 per day! It appears that we are getting a lot of farmers (again, formerly exempt) because it's harvest time ... and the cops have written a few tickets ... and people are calling or coming in and saying "We need to get in compliance!".
Folks, that's exactly what UCR is supposed to be doing! I can't say it enough times - we are identifying THOUSANDS of interstate commercial vehicle operators that were never identified or recognized by FMCSA prior to UCR.
Motor carrier safety is not just abot crawling around under trucks --- although that's also vitally important! Let's face it - we inspect some tiny fraction of all the trucks that are operating through our states. That's not an opinion - that's a fact! We also need to know who's out there....and that's exactly what UCR is doing.
Unregistered Carriers on 9/24/2009 - 1983
I'll tell you how crazy it's getting in Illinois. So far this week, we have registered about 200 UCR carriers and, as you can see, we are going a little backwards in our unregistered total. Plus, as you can see, I have to write my blog at some insane hour of the morning! Why is this happening? Because we have also been issuing DOT numbers in droves and getting people signed up with FMCSA at a clip of about 60-70 per day! It appears that we are getting a lot of farmers (again, formerly exempt) because it's harvest time ... and the cops have written a few tickets ... and people are calling or coming in and saying "We need to get in compliance!".
Folks, that's exactly what UCR is supposed to be doing! I can't say it enough times - we are identifying THOUSANDS of interstate commercial vehicle operators that were never identified or recognized by FMCSA prior to UCR.
Motor carrier safety is not just abot crawling around under trucks --- although that's also vitally important! Let's face it - we inspect some tiny fraction of all the trucks that are operating through our states. That's not an opinion - that's a fact! We also need to know who's out there....and that's exactly what UCR is doing.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
What A Day Yesterday Was!
Unregistered Carriers on 9/21/2009 - 2024
Unregistered Carriers on 9/22/2009 - 1968
Yesterday, we did 82 registrations ... and added 50 new USDOT numbers! That's more than some jurisdictions have added all year! It's actually good news, but it really kept us hopping! Which leads me to this: I can't tell you the number of times we have heard the question from farmers (who are, for the most part, exempt from federal authority), "I've been driving this truck for 20 years and nobody has ever told me I needed a DOT number. When in the "h!@#" did that requirement come about?" To the best of my knowledge, the answer to that question is "about the mid-80's!" Over the past three UCR registration years, we have helped literally - and I do mean literally - thousands of farmers get USDOT numbers because that's a requirement of UCR registration. I don't know that answer to why they've never been told they need a USDOT number, but I do know that without UCR, they never would have gotten a USDOT number and the Feds would continue to be clueless about several thousand entities operating commercial vehicles in interstate commerce right here in our own state. And that's a fact!
Unregistered Carriers on 9/22/2009 - 1968
Yesterday, we did 82 registrations ... and added 50 new USDOT numbers! That's more than some jurisdictions have added all year! It's actually good news, but it really kept us hopping! Which leads me to this: I can't tell you the number of times we have heard the question from farmers (who are, for the most part, exempt from federal authority), "I've been driving this truck for 20 years and nobody has ever told me I needed a DOT number. When in the "h!@#" did that requirement come about?" To the best of my knowledge, the answer to that question is "about the mid-80's!" Over the past three UCR registration years, we have helped literally - and I do mean literally - thousands of farmers get USDOT numbers because that's a requirement of UCR registration. I don't know that answer to why they've never been told they need a USDOT number, but I do know that without UCR, they never would have gotten a USDOT number and the Feds would continue to be clueless about several thousand entities operating commercial vehicles in interstate commerce right here in our own state. And that's a fact!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Iteris' New UCR-Link Mail Merge Functionality
Unregistered Carriers on 9/17/2009 - 2000
Unregistered Carriers on 9/18/2009 - 2003
I have to tell you about some modifications we have just made to Iteris' mail merge report/spreadsheet that make it, in my opinion, a killer product!
The idea behind the Mail Merge "report" is to create an on-demand spreadsheet product that has mailing information for all the carriers in your state. But what does that really mean? It could mean 1) all of the carriers in your state who registered last year, 2) all of the carriers that MCMIS shows as active, interstate carriers regardless of whether or not they registered last year or 3) all of the carriers who meet the UCR Universe criteria, whether or not they registered last year. Depending on your perspective - and, perhaps, your resources - any of those answers might be appropriate for the upcoming renewal mailing.
So what did we create? We created a spreadsheet that goes out and gets all of the "active interstate carriers" from MCMIS, regardless of their UCR Universe or 2009 registration status. Then we included columns for 1) whether or not the carrier registered under UCR in 2009 2) whether or not the carrier is in the UCR Universe and 3) whether or not the carrier has an email address.
This report seems like a must-have to me. It gives a state wide latitude and much flexibility as to how they will handle renewal mailing(s). In fact, I may ask Iteris to do some kind of Webinar or phone conference to show it to folks.
Unregistered Carriers on 9/18/2009 - 2003
I have to tell you about some modifications we have just made to Iteris' mail merge report/spreadsheet that make it, in my opinion, a killer product!
The idea behind the Mail Merge "report" is to create an on-demand spreadsheet product that has mailing information for all the carriers in your state. But what does that really mean? It could mean 1) all of the carriers in your state who registered last year, 2) all of the carriers that MCMIS shows as active, interstate carriers regardless of whether or not they registered last year or 3) all of the carriers who meet the UCR Universe criteria, whether or not they registered last year. Depending on your perspective - and, perhaps, your resources - any of those answers might be appropriate for the upcoming renewal mailing.
So what did we create? We created a spreadsheet that goes out and gets all of the "active interstate carriers" from MCMIS, regardless of their UCR Universe or 2009 registration status. Then we included columns for 1) whether or not the carrier registered under UCR in 2009 2) whether or not the carrier is in the UCR Universe and 3) whether or not the carrier has an email address.
This report seems like a must-have to me. It gives a state wide latitude and much flexibility as to how they will handle renewal mailing(s). In fact, I may ask Iteris to do some kind of Webinar or phone conference to show it to folks.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
2000 and Beyond (Lower)!
Unregistered Carriers on 9/16/2009 - 2014
Unregistered Carriers on 9/17/2009 - 2000
As of this morning, Iteris shows that we have registered 17,615 Illinois carriers and that we have exactly 2,000 unregistered carriers left for a registration percentage of 89.8%.
Here's how that puts us with regard to a couple of my "stretch goals":
We are now 10.2% from 100% registration
We are now exactly 1,250 registrations behind CA.
We are 2.76% behind Maine for top registration percentage.
And, as long as we are recapping, here are the in-house numbers for September-to-date registrations:
401 registrations / $36,666 / $91.50 per registration
Lest I sound like I'm harping again, new registrations - even at this late date - are still averaging closer to $100 than to $39....and we only had two $806 registrations.
Unregistered Carriers on 9/17/2009 - 2000
As of this morning, Iteris shows that we have registered 17,615 Illinois carriers and that we have exactly 2,000 unregistered carriers left for a registration percentage of 89.8%.
Here's how that puts us with regard to a couple of my "stretch goals":
We are now 10.2% from 100% registration
We are now exactly 1,250 registrations behind CA.
We are 2.76% behind Maine for top registration percentage.
And, as long as we are recapping, here are the in-house numbers for September-to-date registrations:
401 registrations / $36,666 / $91.50 per registration
Lest I sound like I'm harping again, new registrations - even at this late date - are still averaging closer to $100 than to $39....and we only had two $806 registrations.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
An Odd Thing About UCR Registration Percentages
Unregistered Carriers on 9/15/2009 - 2037
Unregistered Carriers on 9/16/2009 - 2014
There's a lot of preoccupation about registration percentages and their significance to the UCR program. As with most issues in life, I think we need a little more perspective about registration percentages before we draw too many conclusions. Here's a little anomaly I noticed today.
Maine is the highest percentage registration state and we are #2. I know, I know, you're going to say that I'm competing with them for the top spot. Why would you even contemplate such a thing??? Anyway, take a look at the numbers below. It's hard to format stuff in this blog, so work with me here.
17,523 17,565
IL 2,037 2,014
89.59% 89.71%
2,773 2,773
ME 221 225
92.62% 92.49%
Yesterday's registration percentage report showed that IL had registered 17,523 carriers in 2009 and had 2,037 unregistered carriers for an 89.59% registration rate. Today's report showed that we registered 42 carriers yesterday and removed 23 from our unregistered list for a new registration percentage of 89.71%, an increase of .12%
Meanwhile, our friends in Maine started the day yesterday with 2,773 carriers registered and 221 unregistered for a registration percentage of 92.62%. This morning, we see that they didn't register anybody yesterday but added four carriers - possibly new USDOT numbers - to their unregistered list for a new registration percentage of 92.49%.
So Maine effectively went down more than we went up, and the activity wasn't even similar. You can be sitting there, minding your own business, and WHAM - your registration percentage can go down! What kind of world are we living in?!?
Anyway, you get the idea. Things aren't always exactly the way they seem.
Unregistered Carriers on 9/16/2009 - 2014
There's a lot of preoccupation about registration percentages and their significance to the UCR program. As with most issues in life, I think we need a little more perspective about registration percentages before we draw too many conclusions. Here's a little anomaly I noticed today.
Maine is the highest percentage registration state and we are #2. I know, I know, you're going to say that I'm competing with them for the top spot. Why would you even contemplate such a thing??? Anyway, take a look at the numbers below. It's hard to format stuff in this blog, so work with me here.
17,523 17,565
IL 2,037 2,014
89.59% 89.71%
2,773 2,773
ME 221 225
92.62% 92.49%
Yesterday's registration percentage report showed that IL had registered 17,523 carriers in 2009 and had 2,037 unregistered carriers for an 89.59% registration rate. Today's report showed that we registered 42 carriers yesterday and removed 23 from our unregistered list for a new registration percentage of 89.71%, an increase of .12%
Meanwhile, our friends in Maine started the day yesterday with 2,773 carriers registered and 221 unregistered for a registration percentage of 92.62%. This morning, we see that they didn't register anybody yesterday but added four carriers - possibly new USDOT numbers - to their unregistered list for a new registration percentage of 92.49%.
So Maine effectively went down more than we went up, and the activity wasn't even similar. You can be sitting there, minding your own business, and WHAM - your registration percentage can go down! What kind of world are we living in?!?
Anyway, you get the idea. Things aren't always exactly the way they seem.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
What A Day!
Unregistered Carriers on 9/14/2009 - 2068
Unregistered Carriers on 9/15/2009 - 2037
New Adds To Our Unregistered List - A bunch!
New Registrations - 62
Yesterday, we registered 62 carriers here in IL and deactivated quite a few more ... and still only managed to reduce our unregistered list by 31! Why? Because we got a bunch of additions to our unregistered list. And we got them in separate batches, reflecting, I believe, whatever is going on at Volpe regarding uploads / downloads / scheduling.
There's a lot of good news in what I just wrote. First, there's the influx of new carriers, that replenishing stream I'm always harping on. Second, 62 registrations is a nice day by anybody's standards in the middle of September. Third, we now only trail California by 1,291 registrations, which, while virtually insurmountable,is providing us - well, me, anyway - with a lot of amusement trying to catch them!
Two other goals are on the immediate horizon: hitting 90% registration and going below 2,000 unregistered carriers. 2,000 still seems like a ton of unregistered carriers - and it is a ton - but it used to 5,000, so there's much cause for celebration in that number. And we're doing it using only our daily routine, not special large mailings, so it's potentially sustainable.
Anybody who doesn't think we're working hard should come in and take a look. But don't come unless you're ready to pitch in and help!
Unregistered Carriers on 9/15/2009 - 2037
New Adds To Our Unregistered List - A bunch!
New Registrations - 62
Yesterday, we registered 62 carriers here in IL and deactivated quite a few more ... and still only managed to reduce our unregistered list by 31! Why? Because we got a bunch of additions to our unregistered list. And we got them in separate batches, reflecting, I believe, whatever is going on at Volpe regarding uploads / downloads / scheduling.
There's a lot of good news in what I just wrote. First, there's the influx of new carriers, that replenishing stream I'm always harping on. Second, 62 registrations is a nice day by anybody's standards in the middle of September. Third, we now only trail California by 1,291 registrations, which, while virtually insurmountable,is providing us - well, me, anyway - with a lot of amusement trying to catch them!
Two other goals are on the immediate horizon: hitting 90% registration and going below 2,000 unregistered carriers. 2,000 still seems like a ton of unregistered carriers - and it is a ton - but it used to 5,000, so there's much cause for celebration in that number. And we're doing it using only our daily routine, not special large mailings, so it's potentially sustainable.
Anybody who doesn't think we're working hard should come in and take a look. But don't come unless you're ready to pitch in and help!
Monday, September 14, 2009
UCR Enforcement Report
Unregistered Carriers on 9/11/2009 - 2097
Unregistered Carriers on 9/14/2009 - 2068
New Adds To Our Unregistered List - 30
New Registrations - 25
We are working on creating an automatic UCR enforcement report for our officers. The steps are as follows:
1) Run the overall Illinois unregistered carrier report
2) Assign each city to an officer
3) Create each officer's report for that day
I'll keep you posted on our progress.
Unregistered Carriers on 9/14/2009 - 2068
New Adds To Our Unregistered List - 30
New Registrations - 25
We are working on creating an automatic UCR enforcement report for our officers. The steps are as follows:
1) Run the overall Illinois unregistered carrier report
2) Assign each city to an officer
3) Create each officer's report for that day
I'll keep you posted on our progress.
Friday, September 11, 2009
A Few Thoughts About The UCR Program So Far
Unregistered Carriers on 9/10/2009 - 2122
Unregistered Carriers on 9/11/2009 - 2097
New Adds To Our Unregistered List - 32
New Registrations - 27
Today's post is probably going to sound more like an OpEd piece than most of my other posts.
I've been reading some of the articles in the trade mags, and I don't care what anybody says, I'm willing to look them right in the eye and tell them I feel perfectly good about the UCR program, about the way the program has come together, about the way the program is working, about the way we're upholding our commitment to the UCR program, and about the contribution we're making to Motor Carrier regulation and safety. And, since we are a regulatory agency, we understand a little bit about where motor carrier regulation has been, where it is now ... and maybe even a little bit about where it's headed. No apologies will be forthcoming from this corner of the room about UCR.
Just for the record, I think the UCR program is working exactly the way the people who wrote the proposed legislation said it should work --- except for that pesky intrastate vehicle exemption - which, to my recollection, was never contemplated by any of the aforementioned folks - and the inclusion of trailers - who the heck knows where that came from??? And, back when the legislation was being crafted, EVERYBODY around the table - including industry representatives - agreed (or at least paid significant lip service to the idea) that the States should receive every penny they received under SSRS and the intrastate fees levied upon interstate carriers. Nobody at that time seemed to think that $100 MM generated under those programs was excessive. The goal was to get rid of that "awful" SSRS program - which, by the way, I thought we also did a TERRIFIC job on - and get to the Promised Land --- Unified Carrier Registration! And I don't remember a single voice saying that the States weren't "working hard enough" to earn their $100MM.
My concern is that "we" have either forgotten - or are attempting to rewrite - the very context out of which UCR was born ... just because the program is working!! When it comes to the UCR program, we got what we asked for - with a couple of Congressional "tweaks" - and I, for one, like what we've got!
Unregistered Carriers on 9/11/2009 - 2097
New Adds To Our Unregistered List - 32
New Registrations - 27
Today's post is probably going to sound more like an OpEd piece than most of my other posts.
I've been reading some of the articles in the trade mags, and I don't care what anybody says, I'm willing to look them right in the eye and tell them I feel perfectly good about the UCR program, about the way the program has come together, about the way the program is working, about the way we're upholding our commitment to the UCR program, and about the contribution we're making to Motor Carrier regulation and safety. And, since we are a regulatory agency, we understand a little bit about where motor carrier regulation has been, where it is now ... and maybe even a little bit about where it's headed. No apologies will be forthcoming from this corner of the room about UCR.
Just for the record, I think the UCR program is working exactly the way the people who wrote the proposed legislation said it should work --- except for that pesky intrastate vehicle exemption - which, to my recollection, was never contemplated by any of the aforementioned folks - and the inclusion of trailers - who the heck knows where that came from??? And, back when the legislation was being crafted, EVERYBODY around the table - including industry representatives - agreed (or at least paid significant lip service to the idea) that the States should receive every penny they received under SSRS and the intrastate fees levied upon interstate carriers. Nobody at that time seemed to think that $100 MM generated under those programs was excessive. The goal was to get rid of that "awful" SSRS program - which, by the way, I thought we also did a TERRIFIC job on - and get to the Promised Land --- Unified Carrier Registration! And I don't remember a single voice saying that the States weren't "working hard enough" to earn their $100MM.
My concern is that "we" have either forgotten - or are attempting to rewrite - the very context out of which UCR was born ... just because the program is working!! When it comes to the UCR program, we got what we asked for - with a couple of Congressional "tweaks" - and I, for one, like what we've got!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Directed UCR Enforcement
Unregistered Carriers on 9/9/2009 - 2146
Unregistered Carriers on 9/10/2009 - 2122
New Adds To Our Unregistered List - 26
New Registrations - 35
This may not be a new concept everywhere, but it's a new concept for us. We are soon going to be publishing lists of unregistered UCR carriers in particular geographic areas (city, county) where we know police officers are going to be working on a given day. while I don't believe it has to be OUR (Illinois Commerce Commission) officers who get the lists, that's where we are going to start. In some cases, we've noticed that we have two carriers within a couple of blocks of one another. We plan to make sure that the carriers have been notified at least a few days in advance and have had a chance to comply. Then, if they don't register, they have a much narrower range of explanations that will help them avoid penalties.
Unregistered Carriers on 9/10/2009 - 2122
New Adds To Our Unregistered List - 26
New Registrations - 35
This may not be a new concept everywhere, but it's a new concept for us. We are soon going to be publishing lists of unregistered UCR carriers in particular geographic areas (city, county) where we know police officers are going to be working on a given day. while I don't believe it has to be OUR (Illinois Commerce Commission) officers who get the lists, that's where we are going to start. In some cases, we've noticed that we have two carriers within a couple of blocks of one another. We plan to make sure that the carriers have been notified at least a few days in advance and have had a chance to comply. Then, if they don't register, they have a much narrower range of explanations that will help them avoid penalties.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
The Endless Fount of New USDOT Carriers
Unregistered Carriers on 9/8/2009 - 2168
Unregistered Carriers on 9/9/2009 - 2146
New Adds To Our Unregistered List - 25
New Registrations - 53
I thought I'd put the number of new adds into the post today just to show you that we get an incredible number of carriers ADDED to our unregistered list every day. This is pretty typical. Of the 25 new adds, 19 of them were new USDOT numbers and the other six were what I've been referring to as "sideways" additions. This squares pretty well with the fact that so far in 2009, we have added 2121 new USDOT numbers that met the UCR Universe criteria, an average of around 15 per work day. Throw in somewhere between 5 and 15 sideways adds a day, a you get a pretty typical day around here. Before we start reducing our unregistered list, we have a 20-25 carrier "hill" to climb. It's all good!
On another note, September-to-date looks like this:
199 registrations, $17,408 collected for an average of about $87 per registration.
As Bill Leonard pointed out on the UCR Board call the other day, the average is very consistent at $80-100.
Unregistered Carriers on 9/9/2009 - 2146
New Adds To Our Unregistered List - 25
New Registrations - 53
I thought I'd put the number of new adds into the post today just to show you that we get an incredible number of carriers ADDED to our unregistered list every day. This is pretty typical. Of the 25 new adds, 19 of them were new USDOT numbers and the other six were what I've been referring to as "sideways" additions. This squares pretty well with the fact that so far in 2009, we have added 2121 new USDOT numbers that met the UCR Universe criteria, an average of around 15 per work day. Throw in somewhere between 5 and 15 sideways adds a day, a you get a pretty typical day around here. Before we start reducing our unregistered list, we have a 20-25 carrier "hill" to climb. It's all good!
On another note, September-to-date looks like this:
199 registrations, $17,408 collected for an average of about $87 per registration.
As Bill Leonard pointed out on the UCR Board call the other day, the average is very consistent at $80-100.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
It's Good To Have Goals!
Unregistered Carriers on 9/4/2009 - 2186
Unregistered Carriers on 9/8/2009 - 2168
You may recall that I have this "fantasy goal" of catching California for the most UCR registrations in 2009. I doubt that they even know about it ... or that they even care! But it's great fun for me!
Here are the new numbers as of 8/24:
CA --- 18,551 registrations with 9,921 carriers unregistered
IL --- 16,943 registrations with 2,387 carriers unregistered
The differential on 8/24 was 1,608 registrations.
As of this morning, the numbers are:
CA --- 18,736 registrations with 9,899 carriers unregistered
IL --- 17,299 registrations with 2,167 carriers unregistered
The differential is now 1,437. We've made up 10% in 17 days!
Obviously, we're not going to be able to catch them, but we're going to keep plugging away.
Notice one odd thing, however. Even though they've registered 185 carriers since then, their unregistered list total has only shrunk by 22 carriers. Another testament to the ever-replenishing nature of the UCR universe.
Unregistered Carriers on 9/8/2009 - 2168
You may recall that I have this "fantasy goal" of catching California for the most UCR registrations in 2009. I doubt that they even know about it ... or that they even care! But it's great fun for me!
Here are the new numbers as of 8/24:
CA --- 18,551 registrations with 9,921 carriers unregistered
IL --- 16,943 registrations with 2,387 carriers unregistered
The differential on 8/24 was 1,608 registrations.
As of this morning, the numbers are:
CA --- 18,736 registrations with 9,899 carriers unregistered
IL --- 17,299 registrations with 2,167 carriers unregistered
The differential is now 1,437. We've made up 10% in 17 days!
Obviously, we're not going to be able to catch them, but we're going to keep plugging away.
Notice one odd thing, however. Even though they've registered 185 carriers since then, their unregistered list total has only shrunk by 22 carriers. Another testament to the ever-replenishing nature of the UCR universe.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
New USDOT Carriers - Update
Unregistered Carriers on 9/2/2009 - 2231
Unregistered Carriers on 9/3/2009 - 2218
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we (collectively) aren't doing a very good job at registering new USDOT carriers (40%).
We (IL) are registering 80% of these guys, so it's not a particular issue here, but we are still attempting to improve our percentage along three lines: email, contact tracking and monitoring our daily new USDOT carrier listings.
These "lines" overlap, but here are a few observations:
Every day, we make sure that each new USDOT carrier is contacted, either by email or by physical mailing. The emailing part is actually handled by Iteris, although we used to do it ourselves. Any carrier that doesn't have an email gets a letter along with a pre-printed form and instructions. In Illinois, we generally get about 20 new numbers a day. Approximately 40% of these carriers have email addresses. As I said earlier, we register about 80% of them, so we think these methods work.
As I mentioned yesterday, we are just now experimenting with contact tracking. One of our ongoing questions is how soon to contact the carriers by phone after they have been contacted by these other methods. One approach is to wait a couple days after mailing them something in order to answer questions they have, etc. Another approach would be to wait a couple of weeks to allow the carriers to get registered, which is less proactive but also requires less effort.
One problem we encounter is that entities often get USDOT numbers early in the process and don't actually start operating for quite some time after acquiring these numbers. Some carriers don't even need USDOT numbers at all, but they get them because a friend told them they need one, etc.
I'll finish my observations tomorrow.
Unregistered Carriers on 9/3/2009 - 2218
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we (collectively) aren't doing a very good job at registering new USDOT carriers (40%).
We (IL) are registering 80% of these guys, so it's not a particular issue here, but we are still attempting to improve our percentage along three lines: email, contact tracking and monitoring our daily new USDOT carrier listings.
These "lines" overlap, but here are a few observations:
Every day, we make sure that each new USDOT carrier is contacted, either by email or by physical mailing. The emailing part is actually handled by Iteris, although we used to do it ourselves. Any carrier that doesn't have an email gets a letter along with a pre-printed form and instructions. In Illinois, we generally get about 20 new numbers a day. Approximately 40% of these carriers have email addresses. As I said earlier, we register about 80% of them, so we think these methods work.
As I mentioned yesterday, we are just now experimenting with contact tracking. One of our ongoing questions is how soon to contact the carriers by phone after they have been contacted by these other methods. One approach is to wait a couple days after mailing them something in order to answer questions they have, etc. Another approach would be to wait a couple of weeks to allow the carriers to get registered, which is less proactive but also requires less effort.
One problem we encounter is that entities often get USDOT numbers early in the process and don't actually start operating for quite some time after acquiring these numbers. Some carriers don't even need USDOT numbers at all, but they get them because a friend told them they need one, etc.
I'll finish my observations tomorrow.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Contact Tracking - Part 2
Unregistered Carriers on 8/31/2009 - 2273
Unregistered Carriers on 9/01/2009 - 2231
An interesting aspect of follow-up calls and tracking is that you get a little bit of insight into the way different businesses operate.
Today, I heard the following:
1) After mailing the form three times, over the past couple of months, one guy said, "Unified Carrier Registration --- never heard of it. Could you send me the form? You've sent it three times??? Could you send it again?".
2) Another said, "Is that the form I keep passing off to my bookkeeper?"
3) Another said, "I'm only the bookkeeper - you have to talk to the boss about that."
4) My personal favorite of the day - "You want to talk to the fleet manager??? Ha-ha-ha! That's a good one!"
Unregistered Carriers on 9/01/2009 - 2231
An interesting aspect of follow-up calls and tracking is that you get a little bit of insight into the way different businesses operate.
Today, I heard the following:
1) After mailing the form three times, over the past couple of months, one guy said, "Unified Carrier Registration --- never heard of it. Could you send me the form? You've sent it three times??? Could you send it again?".
2) Another said, "Is that the form I keep passing off to my bookkeeper?"
3) Another said, "I'm only the bookkeeper - you have to talk to the boss about that."
4) My personal favorite of the day - "You want to talk to the fleet manager??? Ha-ha-ha! That's a good one!"
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
New UCR Tool - Contact Tracking
Unregistered Carriers on 8/31/2009 - 2287
Unregistered Carriers on 9/01/2009 - 2273
We are experimenting with contact tracking in conjunction with our UCR Unregistered List. For those of you unfamiliar with contact tracking, it's a method of keeping track of who you called, when you called them, making notes about the calls, scheduling follow-up calls, etc. What I find interesting about contact tracking is that you can say to the person, "Now the last time we talked, Jane, you said you were mailing the form" or "Jane, I've left you three messages and you haven't returned any of them. Would you rather hear from the cops?" It can be used to refute the excuse, "I've never heard of UCR before today". It can also guide staff and focus them on a set of contacts that need to be made on a given day. In case you've never used contact tracking before, we use Sharepoint because it's already in place, but contact tracking software can be had for free at various places on the internet - or you can just use Excel. I'll keep you posted as we figure out what works.
I feel pretty good about our August numbers - 628 carriers registered and $61,566 collected for an average of $98 per registration. Those numbers included only one $3840 registration and nine $806 registrations. 398 of them were for $39. It pays to keep on playing --- and it averages right around $100 per!
Later!
Unregistered Carriers on 9/01/2009 - 2273
We are experimenting with contact tracking in conjunction with our UCR Unregistered List. For those of you unfamiliar with contact tracking, it's a method of keeping track of who you called, when you called them, making notes about the calls, scheduling follow-up calls, etc. What I find interesting about contact tracking is that you can say to the person, "Now the last time we talked, Jane, you said you were mailing the form" or "Jane, I've left you three messages and you haven't returned any of them. Would you rather hear from the cops?" It can be used to refute the excuse, "I've never heard of UCR before today". It can also guide staff and focus them on a set of contacts that need to be made on a given day. In case you've never used contact tracking before, we use Sharepoint because it's already in place, but contact tracking software can be had for free at various places on the internet - or you can just use Excel. I'll keep you posted as we figure out what works.
I feel pretty good about our August numbers - 628 carriers registered and $61,566 collected for an average of $98 per registration. Those numbers included only one $3840 registration and nine $806 registrations. 398 of them were for $39. It pays to keep on playing --- and it averages right around $100 per!
Later!
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