WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has hiked the fees that states collect from motor carriers, brokers and leasing companies.
According to a posting from Monday, June 17, on the Federal Register, the increase will be 25% above the fees collected in 2024 and will vary “between $9 and $9,000 per entity, depending on the applicable fee bracket.”
States use these funds to pay for state highway safety programs.
“FMCSA believes this upward adjustment is within a reasonable range,” the Federal Register notice states. “This adjustment to the 2025 registration year provides the required $13 million in revenue allocations to the participating States and the UCR (United Carrier Registration) Plan.”
FMCSA officials called the fee increase “a rare occurrence … which has only previously occurred once, over a decade ago.”
This upward adjustment follows two years of reductions in fees affecting the 2023 and 2024 registration years, averaging a 37.3% decrease in fees, as well as steady, unmodified collections from 2010 to 2017.
Many commenters viewed the increase in fees as unwarranted and unexpected, and explained the UCR Plan should be adjusting its own budget and spending instead.
An anonymous commenter expressed confusion over the increase, claiming that the fees were intended to be eliminated “after full reciprocity.”
A different anonymous commenter connected this increase to the UCR Plan’s poor budgeting, while another suggested the UCR Plan’s spending should be cut instead.
In response, FMCSA officials said they disagreed the commenters’ statements that the fee increase was unwarranted, unpredictable and sudden.
“FMCSA stated it anticipated the UCR Plan would recommend an upward adjustment in the fees for the 2025 registration year to comply with the statutory provisions discussed herein,” the Federal Register posting states. “By statute, the UCR fee is authorized for annual adjustment by FMCSA, either to increase or decrease the fee to ensure adequate funds to provide participating states with their revenue entitlement.”
FMCSA also disagreed that the UCR Plan has not been operating within its budget.
“To FMCSA’s knowledge, the UCR Plan has operated within its approved budget and in recent years has steadily decreased registration fees,” according to the Federal Register post. “In fact, this is the first upward adjustment since 2010. The UCR Plan’s approved allocation for the costs of administration of the Plan and Agreement over the last several years decreased from $5 million per year and is now at $4.25 million. For these reasons, FMCSA declines to modify the final rule in response to the commenters’ suggested changes.”
The chart below, provided by the FMCSA, notes the coming fee changes.
Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and raised in East Texas, John Worthen returned to his home state to attend college in 1998 and decided to make his life in The Natural State. Worthen is a 20-year veteran of the journalism industry and has covered just about every topic there is. He has a passion for writing and telling stories. He has worked as a beat reporter and bureau chief for a statewide newspaper and as managing editor of a regional newspaper in Arkansas. Additionally, Worthen has been a prolific freelance journalist for two decades, and has been published in several travel magazines and on travel websites.
A violation of the Constitution! These rules are essentially used as laws that are not constitutional . These departments of the government always do this. If it doesn’t go through Congress, It’s in valid under the Constitution of the United States of America. That is true for the BLM, FMCSA, ATF and all other little power hungry departments.