What Should The Minimum UCR State Effort Be?

Unregistered Carriers on 12/16/2009 - 1382
Unregistered Carriers on 12/17/2009 - 1379

Illinois - 93.58%
Maine - 93.27%

Every once in a while, I like to torture myself by thinking about UCR State Participation Agreements. Specifically, who's keeping their promise and who's not?

One important "rear view mirror" point of clarification is that we didn't REALLY know what we were getting into when we signed up - kind of like getting married ... or working for me. And we naively thought that we were all in this together, if you follow my drift. And who was hammering the table insisting on "performance"? Nobody!

There were no performance measures except for - and I'm paraphrasing here - we had to use an amount of money equal to the revenue we collected for motor carrier safety purposes.

Our actual results have been all over the board. And how do we distinguish a state that has, in fact, dutifully fulfilled its obligation from one that hasn't? Beats me. Maybe it's the old, "I can't spell it out for you, but I'll recognize it when I see it." Heck, even that description is fraught with peril.

I've pretty much come to the conclusion that if you don't commit to anything, it's hard to let people down. It's not that those people won't feel let down, it's just that you never really agreed to all that baggage they hauled in later on.

Think about poor Tiger. A lot of people think he owes the public an apology. For what?? He didn't promise US he would never cheat on his wife. And she never promised him that she wouldn't wrap a golf club around his head if she found out. No specific promise - no foul!

And, just for good measure, let us never forget what basketball great Charles Barkley said when somebody "reminded" him that his behavior was not in keeping with the behavior of a role model, "I'm not a role model! Just because I dunk a basketball doesn't mean I should raise your kids!" I love that one!

So it appears to be with State Participation Agreements - States actually COMMITTED to doing very little ... and they've been faithful to their commitment. If we're disappointed, it might be more our own problem than theirs.

Mea culpa, everyone! (Bill, that's Latin for "Merry Christmas" ...)