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.
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