The Indian Business Owner TIBO Magazine - Volume 001 | Page 23

The New
Unified Registration
System & More
Starting September 30, the FMCSA will finally
adopt a new online system which will be the means
of getting a U.S. DOT number, registering your
operating authority, and/or adding or updating your
registration. If you own a trucking business, you’ve
probably been hearing about the URS, or Unified
Registration System, for years. You’ve probably heard
it’s a new registration system that does away with a lot
of paperwork, requires regulated trucking businesses
to register online, and eliminates the old MC number,
FF and MX number. And all of that is true. The URS
will now be your single, online federal information
system that businesses use to register and update their
information with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA).
It’s common to get URS mixed up with another
program called UCR. The URS and the Unified
Carrier Registration (UCR) are not the same thing.

21 |TIBO Magazine - Fall 2016

They sound similar, but they are different. The UCR
is not part of the FMCSA – it is a federally mandated
annual state-administered registration program. The
UCR’s sole purpose is, well, to just collect money
from trucking entities and distribute it to participating
states.
The new URS rule applies to all interstate motor
carriers (including private and for-hire passenger and
property motor carriers), freight forwarders, brokers,
intermodal equipment providers (IEPs), hazardous
materials safety permit (HMSP) applicants/holders,
and cargo tank manufacturing and repair facilities
under the FMCSA’s jurisdiction. Mexican-domiciled
carriers conducting long-haul operations are exempt.
The URS will require online registration for all
filers, will use only the U.S. DOT number as a
sole identifier, will impose a new fee schedule, and
will keep a record of financial responsibility and
your BOC-3. It replaces multiple forms and the
registration functions of several systems including
the Motor Carrier Management Information System
(MCMIS) and the Licensing and Insurance System. It
was designed to simplify the process of registering, to
reduce paperwork and errors, and to make it possible
to electronically screen all applications to identify
high-risk carriers, including reincarnated carriers.

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