Unified Carrier Registration (UCR): All You Need to Know for Compliance
The UCR is a must in all states across the country. There are 41 participating states to be exact that need you to fulfill this requirement without fail.
The 9 states that do not participate are Oregon, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Vermont, New Jersey, Maryland, and Hawaii.
However, if you or your trucking company is based in any of these 9 states which are the non-UCR participating states, and if you plan to drive into any of the other 41 states, you must register for a unified carrier registration program right away. If you do not have a third-party DOT compliance partner, you should get in touch with one right away to get the needful done. The Unified Carrier Registration program has replaced the Single State Registration System. The latter ended on December 31st, 2006.
As you can very well see now that most of the states across the country participate in this system and if your commercial vehicles or trucks pass through these states, you will be required to apply for UCR.
If you have not applied for UCR during any given year, despite your truck being in one of the 41 participating states, you could be fined heavily. The scale master is going to look into the computer display as your vehicle is rolled onto the scales. Whether you are registered for UCR or not will be disclosed immediately.
The UCR system is capable of counting all the vehicles including buses, coaches, tractors, and trucks that are registered in your USDOT number that has been assigned to your fleet.
If you have any intention of crossing state lines with these vehicles, you will be prevented from doing so if you do not have an active UCR.
After paying your annual UCR fee, you will be allowed to drive with your commercial vehicles all across the 50 states in the country.
Under the Unified Carrier Registration program, an individual who operates vehicles, trucks, or any other commercial automobile by themselves and all the companies that have fleets of trucks that operate for commercial purposes in interstate commerce are required to register their vehicles with the participating state. They are also required to pay an annual fee which depends on the size of the feet they operate.
This includes all the carriers and fleets and truck owners that are not leased to any carrier. As a carrier, it will be your responsibility to pay for all the trailers and trucks that are leased to you and cross state lines to haul/pick or drop loads. The UCR registration program also encompasses private commercial carriers that haul their own products. It also applies to for-hire commercial carriers that haul exempt commodities, truck owners and carriers, companies that have their own motor carrier permit or motor carrier number and have registered for an ICC authority or MC number, farmers who are regularly crossing state lines, brokers, freight forwarders, and leasing companies.