A judge has finally approved a $44 million agreement between New York State and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.
Originally filed back in 2013, the lawsuit took issue with the $15 registration fee and $4 decal fee charged by New York for any commercial motor vehicle operating in the state. A judge sided with OOIDA determining that the fees were an unconstitutional burden on interstate commerce.
“We fought against a number of similar taxes back in the 1980s and 1990s and the states lost in every one of those cases,” said OOIDA President Jim Johnston according to an OOIDA press release. “We were shocked that New York even thought they could get away with this. The amount for the New York HUT decal is $19, which may seem insignificant, but if other states were to do the same thing, it would be huge – collectively and in administrative costs.”
The case finally wrapped up on April 19th when the New York State Supreme Court ordered that New York should pay a total of $44,429,473.
OOIDA also used their press release to issue a warning to any other states that may be thinking of trying to bring back overturned fees.
“If there are other states that think tacking on flat fees to their state truck taxes won’t be noticed as an economic burden to interstate commerce, they need to understand this is not a good idea. We will take them to court in a heartbeat.”
Source: gobytrucknews, truckinginfo, overdrive, ooida, casesummary, casedecision
William Scott Womack says
Thank you OOIDA! God Bless.
Dan the Man says
So I seem to have read this before but the cat came back. Does this mean the HUT fee has ended or just the flat rate fee? I suppose I’ll keep NY millage records for now until something comes in the mail.
Kay says
Soooo… Should I expect a check in the mail??
Dan says
Why can’t OOIDA sue over mileage based pay? GPS technology shows exact mileage address to address.OTR truckers are paid city to city or zip code to zip code. This means OTR truckers are CHEATED out of miles on every load!
Dave Davis says
Averitt Express is one that does this. Good luck winning that argument.
They’ll put out two or three podcasts a month worrying the hell out of ya over your uniform and how as a driver we’re supposed to look a certain way ( not like a scumbag truck driver for instance) but you’ll never see one addressing how you’ll make any real money- yes I’m aware some do so spare me the rebuttal,
On average we ( my co driver ) lost about 150-200 miles a week on cross town moves that paid one mileage but actually ran out a different one.
We all accept the terms when we sign up for the job and there’s a certain amount of trust involved however the last person to be getting cheated should be the driver.