What are the UCRA fees based on?
For motor carriers, the UCRA fees are based only on the total number of commercial motor vehicles operated. The fees for brokers, freight forwarders (those, that is, that do not operate motor vehicles – the fees of those that do are based on fleet size), and leasing companies are levied at the same rate as that which applies to the smallest motor carriers. UCRA fees depend not at all on the extent of a carrier’s operations, only on the fact that it is engaged to some extent in interstate commerce. A carrier may, for example, have operations in just a few states, none of which participate in UCRA. Its fees will be the same as a carrier that operates the same number of commercial motor vehicles but whose operations extend to all participating states. Neither will it matter under UCRA which state is acting as a carrier’s base state – the level of fees for a fleet of a given size will stay the same.
