Permitting for general freight

By putting a state on your apportioned registration, you are licensing your truck to operate on that state's roads. Some states like OR, KY, NM, and NY have additional weight distance taxes that must be paid by single trip permit or having an account and filing quarterly tax returns when you file your IFTA. OR is a stickler as they don't charge fuel tax on their diesel, and collect all of their revenue from the weight tax. Every state has it's own regulations, for example, KS and AR have Ad Valorem taxes and you must pay them on an annual tax return. NJ has an annual fee to do business in the state, and the minimum is $500. To run in KY or NY you must have a quarterly account set up as far as I know.

Every year when you renew your registration, you write down your driven miles or estimated miles for the states you want to run in, as well as the GVW you want to be rated at. For example running a Landstar IL plate at 80,000lbs for all of the US and Canada (besides AK and Yukon and I think NWT(they aren't members of IFTA or IRP)) it will run about $1,600. The same plate at max weight (different for each state, but going up to 150,000+ lbs in some)it's 1900. If you were to register for a lower GVW like say 54,000, your tag cost would be less than the 80,000.

 

No it's based on past performance. If you are a new licensee, then you will use the state's estimated mileage sheet for the first year or two. If you are renewing plates and you had no mileage in a state, yet want it on your plate, you'll use the same estimated mileage sheet. For example, I had OR and WA on my plate for three years without running in them at all, I used the estimated mileage sheet to keep them on my plate. Some states are very easy to add additional states to your IRP if you decide not to do 48 at first, and some are difficult. FL falls into the difficult category, so I just had all 47 on my plate.
If you are getting a plate from a carrier, you will use their mileage history for the plate.

 

If you have miles in some states and not in others and you want to continue leaving the non traveled states on your IRP, then you will need to use estimated miles for those states and actual miles on states where you had miles. If you go a couple of years without having miles in states, you will be penalized for keeping them on your cabcard. The way the IRP is calculated is a formula which includes the actual miles traveled and they factor in the base plate cost for each state. Based upon the percentage of miles that you have in those states your final cost will be calculated. If you use estimated miles for some states then those miles will be used for those states. If you go a few years without having miles in some states it might be best to drop them from your IRP account due to the increased premium you pay for not having any miles in those states. When you lease to another carrier they use miles from then entire fleet to calculate your IRP costs. Although you may not have had miles in some states, others may. That can reduce the cost you pay on your base plate.

You will also need to pay your UCR (Unified Carrier Registration). The cost varies according to the size of your fleet. I believe the cost for 1-2 trucks is $39/year. When they started the UCR they counted trucks and trailers when putting their pricing together. I think that if you owned a couple of trucks and trailers you would pay $116 under the old system. When they went to the power only tax it helped the smaller operator. When you lease to a carrier they will probably average it for their entire fleet and bill each owner operator for their share of the bill.

 

The fees are easy to swallow, it's the fines when you are ignorant of a law or fee that get you. For example, if you have KS or AR on your IRP, you have to file an annual return. If you fail to file AR, it's a $100 fine. Fail to file KS, and they automatically bill you for the tax on 5 brand new tractors and 5 brand new reefers. You have to appeal KS and it's a pain. If you fail to file the NJ tax and they catch you, they shut you down on the spot, and fine you for every year you haven't paid and require payment before you can proceed.

 

Got to love NJ. Couple of weeks ago a carrier we use got nailed there. They said that they were not a corp so they didn't have to register. Kept telling them it didn't matter. Well 5 trucks,200.00 per truck assessment for five years,couldn't come up with the money fast enough so they had impound fees on top of it. At least NJ waited untill our load was off before they nailed them.

 

Yep, that sounds about right, sole proprietor are the only ones exempt.

 

Then after playing with all that, you get to play the game of which states require permits for hazmat, hazardous waste. beer, liquor, etc, etc. It can drive a person completely crazy.
This is one of the reasons why I don't mind splitting percentages with my carrier. They have a whole department, staffed with people, whose job it is to keep up with it all.