Minutes of the One Hundred Seventeenth Unified Carrier Registration Plan Board of Directors Meeting
March 14th, 2017
Tele-conference

The One Hundred Seventeenth (117th) Unified Carrier Registration (UCR) Plan Board of Directors (Board) meeting was called to order by Avelino Gutierrez, Chairman at 9:00 am PST.

Attendance – Board of Directors:

Present – Avelino Gutierrez, Adam Anderson, Sandy Bowling, Woody Chambers, Tina Thurman, Daphne Jefferson, Larry Herold, Mike Hoeme, Elizabeth Leaman, Scott Morris, Bob Pitcher, Monte Wiederhold, Chris Burroughs and Rick Schweitzer.

Absent – Carol Fallin.

Avelino Gutierrez conducted a roll call of the States with self-introductions of government and industry representatives made by those in attendance.

Scott Morris moved to accept the meeting agenda, which was seconded by Sandy Bowling (Exhibit B) – motion passed.

Scott Morris moved to accept the minutes for the February 7th 2017 Board meeting, seconded by Elizabeth Leahman, (Exhibit C)

Avelino Gutierrez established the teleconference ground rules.

UCR Legislative Update – No Update

FMCSA Update – Daphne Jefferson, Deputy Administrator FMCSA – None

Report by DSL Transportation Services, Inc. – Dave Lazarides – Reviewed three items:

First – the contingency plan.  Having only 90 days to try get a RFI or RFP out to potential vendors and all the steps to enter a contract, design a system and build it could not happen.  IF the Board could find a vendor and if the Board was free of the constraints of the RFI and RFP and the vendor is already familiar with the UCR, then you could probably do it but it would really cost.  Recommendation is that the Board gets proactive and start working now on a scope for an RFP.  Start now set aside $4 million and decide what is wanted in a registration system and streamline it.  We should move to only have one registration system instead of the 4 to 8 out there.

Second – met with Indiana on the updates and met with the new Indiana Administrator Rex Steffie.  Rex said he was committed to the MOU for the duration. Rex wants to run the Division as a business, look at and recalculate the costs and add a profit margin.

Third – audits and the focused anomaly reviews – it was fair to say that it was determined informally that t some of the carriers looked at owed more money.  Kansas was looking at a second round of letters to the carriers who did not respond to the first letter. (Exhibit D)

 

Audit Subcommittee – Mike Hoeme – By Dave Lazarides – there have been 24 states reply on the audit reports for 2015, the information gleaned was sparse because some states included the amount collected and some only included the number of audits done.

Procedures/Best Practices Subcommittee – Adam Anderson – Reported that there has only been one response on the FAQ update and that the committee has not had a chance to meet.

Indiana System Subcommittee – Scott Morris – continue to work on the various upgrades.  Still have a lot of issues on the depository side.

Indiana Department of Revenue – Sandy Bowling – Sandy reviewed the items that the programmers have completed and tested. She also reviewed some of the issues that are still in progress.

Industry Advisory Subcommittee – Bob Pitcher – let everyone know that he would not be at the Atlanta meeting and added that he had only received feedback from one person and he would start making revisions to the FAQ document and hoped to have it finished before the Atlanta meeting.

Revenue and Fees Subcommittee – Larry Herold – No report.

Requests for Proposals – Scott Morris – reported on the five responses received on the RFI. These responses were used to help formulate the Request for Proposal (Exhibit E). RFP response are due March 31st, 2017.  Review and in-person interviews for finalists will be held on April 27th. The Board will make a decision on April 28th.

Rick Wood will check to see if the review of the RFP’s needs to be a closed session.

Scott Morris moved that Board allow the release of the RFP upon approval of the taskforce (Scott Morris, Avelino Gutierrez, Rick Schweitzer, Adam Anderson), seconded by Larry Herold, motion passed.

Dispute Resolution Subcommittee – Tina Thurman – Tina asked if the Board members had review the procedures document for the dispute resolutions.  It was decided to take a vote in April.

Woody asked about the status of Illinois.  Scott reported that Illinois had cleared up most of their back log.

Administrative Fee’s Subcommittee – Elizabeth Leaman – no report.

Depository Subcommittee – Scott Morris – still working with the accountants on the report for the 2016 calendar year.  Scott gave an update on the RFP and five companies had shown an interest. Scott is working on replies to those companies and will hold an in-person presentation to the potential applicants.  Responses are required to be turned in by March 31st.

Reservations have been set up at the hotel in Buckhead. There are two interviews scheduled for Thursday, to start at 2 pm and then two on Friday morning before the afternoon Board meeting.

Avelino Gutierrez moved to authorize the RFP taskforce to pare down the applicants for the final presentation to four entities, seconded by Scott Morris, motion passed.

Old/New Matters:

Sandy Bowling – asked about the UCR letter that is needed for Mark Bryne, from Nebraska, in regarding the bus issue.  Avelino said he would get the letter out as soon as possible.

Rick Wood – asked if there was any more public comments on the fee reduction.  Avelino indicated that there was not.  Rick said that FMCSA is ready to move forward with the rule making procedure as soon as they get a fee recommendation.

Avelino Gutierrez said he would send a letter with no further comments and the fee recommendation.

Monte Weiderhold brought up about the difference in the cost on the hotel rates in San Diego.  Elizabeth said the reason there was a difference was because the Federal rate changed after it was booked.

Scott Morris moved that the Board recommend to the Secretary of Transportation that the 2018 and the 2019 fee structure be set in accordance to the 2018/2019 fee recommendation document as adjusted for the January and February numbers and directing the Chair to send aletter to FMCSA and USDOT with that recommendation, seconded by Larry Herold, motionpassed.

Future Board Meetings:

April 28th, 2017 27th, 28th in Atlanta Georgia. Board meeting will be at 1:00 PM EDT
May 25th, 2017 12:00 PM EDT
June 3rd thru 7th, 2017, Board Meeting on June 7th, 2017 8:30 AM MDT (Santa Fe, NM)
July 13th, 2017 12:00 PM EDT

Minutes approved by the UCR Board on June 7, 2017.

Adam Anderson,

UCR Board Member/Secretary

Exhibit A – 2018/2019 Fee Recommendation to FMCSA
Exhibit B – Meeting Agenda
Exhibit C – February 2017 Board Meeting Minutes
Exhibit D – Contract Services Report
Exhibit E – Draft RFP