Different UCR Approaches - Part 6

Unregistered Carriers on 10/27/2009 - 1829
Unregistered Carriers on 10/28/2009 - 1828

WE’LL REGISTER EVERYBODY WHO SHOULD BE REGISTERED

This is the last UCR approach I will write about in this series.

Essentially, this approach says that we will not assume that everybody who should be registered under UCR can be found on a current Federal - or even State - list.

Here's an example:

The other day, one of our officers went to a grain elevator right smack dab here in the middle of the state. The officer was told by the elevator owner that virtually all of the grain that was sold to that elevator was loaded on a rail car and shipped out of state. Therefore, anybody who brought grain to that elevator using a "commercial vehicle" - grain truck, semi, etc. - was a candidate for a USDOT # and a UCR registration. The officer went right down the waiting line of grain trucks and tractor-trailers and handed out warnings and UCR packets to everybody in line.

When these farmers subsequently called in to pursue the issue of registration, they pleaded their respective cases for "exemption":

"I don't leave the state"
"I'm not for-hire"
"I've got farm plates"
"I don't own the grain when it leaves the state"
"I only haul the grain about a mile"
"Nobody's every asked me for this before"
"This is taxation without representation"

When they were finished, we got them a DOT# and registered them - all of them!

The point is this: we would have never encountered these "interstate motor carriers" if one of our officers had not gone to the elevator to see who was showing up there. They're not the kind of folks who normally show up on our "radar" - MCMIS, Unregistered List, etc. - because they don't even have a USDOT number.

Let me quickly add that I don't think these folks were trying to skirt the law. I think they genuinely thought that they couldn't possibly qualify for these programs.

The point here is that WE had to go find THEM. And this is an approach that's way over and above "I'll register whoever shows up".

Is it a better or worse approach? I don't know - I'm just discussing approaches. But if people's expectations are set along the lines of the more involved approach, one can certainly understand disenchantment with the other types of approaches.