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and skip the rest. “It may not be quite so bad if they build the system right,” Pitcher said. Pitcher said the system’s development


will be worth the wait so long as the form is good and it collects the right information. Te information contained in the MCS-150 becomes part of MCMIS, which can be used to help determine a carrier’s CSA scores. Inaccurate scores could lead to bad BASIC scores, resulting in unpleasant enforcement mechanisms directed at carriers. Pitcher said the ATA will be watching


to see that the MCSA-1 form will be user- friendly. He did not know if the association will get an early look. “If the form is hard to use, that probably


means that the carrier information is not going to come out right,” he said. “I think if the URS system is put together right, it should mean a great improvement in the quality of the information that the (Department of Transportation) has.” Carriers must file their MCS-150 when


they first register and then update at least every two years, but that rule hasn’t been enforced by


the FMCSA. Instead, the agency has relied on the Performance and Registration Information Systems Management, or PRISM, program. PRISM is a state-federal enforcement mechanism under which the states keep track of who is responsible for a vehicle’s safety. A carrier’s safety record is tied to its vehicle registration, with states empowered to intervene in cases of poor safety records and ultimately pull a carrier’s plates. According to the FMCSA’s website, 44


states including Tennessee plus Washington, D.C., are participating in PRISM at some level. Oregon, Nevada, Wyoming, Michigan, Maryland and Hawaii are the holdouts. But the FMCSA began enforcing the rule


that carriers register every two years in November because of congressional action. As of that month, FMCSA began sending warning letters to carriers that haven’t updated threatening to deactivate their DOT numbers, making them ineligible to operate across state lines. According to Pitcher, this should not be


a widespread problem because carriers are already reminded to update yearly by their


International Registration Plan base states – provided those states are part of PRISM. “For a carrier that’s a little slow about filling


out the forms, well, he’s got an extra spur now if he’s not in a PRISM state to get it done on time,” Pitcher said. Pitcher said one more federal government


acronym could be affected by these changes: UCRA, the Unified Carrier Registration Agreement. Tis is the system set up by federal statute whereby states collect and manage annual fees set by DOT that vary according to the size of the fleet. Te fees collected from the system, capped at about $100 million a year, pay for highway enforcement and safety at the state level. Te UCRA could be affected because one


way that fleet size is determined is through the carrier’s MCS-150 filing, and the federal statute may or may not need to be amended when the MCS-150 is replaced by the MCSA- 1. Also, states currently use some MCMIS data to administer the UCRA, so problems with the URS system could lead to problems there. Nt


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