New Entrants: Additional Filings

A Guide to Your First Year in Trucking

There is a lot that goes into running a trucking company. By staying organized and compliant with all the new entrant rules, you can get your permanent operating authority and run a successful trucking business.

We’ve put together a series of short videos to explain some of the regulations and important topics to know the year after you start your trucking company. You can also download the free white paper below.

Once you get your permanent operating authority, there are several forms and filings that must be kept up to date. Learn more about the ongoing requirements for your FMCSA records, Unified Carrier Registration, taxes and business records.

Read the Transcript

This video series, What to Expect as a New Entrant, A Guide to Running Your Trucking Company during the First Year has been developed by Apex Capital to help you understand the policies and procedures that you must have in place in order to pass your safety audit and receive your permanent operating authority.

Today we are talking to Reghan Orman about Alcohol & Drug Testing Programs. Reghan is Associate General Counsel at Apex Capital and she also leads the Apex Startup Program. A program that’s designed to help those interested in starting a trucking company get their operating authority.

Once I have been given permanent operating authority, can I expect safety audits in the future?

The trucking industry is one of the most regulated industries in the country. So, every motor carrier is gonna have lots of annual/biannual filings that they’re gonna need to keep up with, but first of all is a filing related to your authority and that’s called the Biennial Update and that’s a forum through the FMCSA that’s used essentially just to update contact information. So, things like your company’s address, phone numbers, things like that and it can be done online through the FMCSA’s website through an MCSA-1 form it’s free and it has to be filed every two years. Your D-O-T number is gonna help you determine when you need to file your Biennial Update the month in the year and all you have to do is look at the last two digits the last digit will tell you the month. So, if the last digit is a 1 its January if it’s – its February all the way till if it’s a 9 that’s September and if it’s a 0 that’s October. Then the second to the last digit is going to tell you the year you need to file in. So, if it’s an odd digit you’ll be filing in an odd number year if it’s an even digit you’ll be filing in an even-numbered year.

Annual Service of Process Agent Designation (BOC-3)

Another filing that you need to keep up with that’s related to your authority is the Annual Service of Process Agent Designation which is also known as the BOC-3 form. Whenever a motor carrier initially applies for authority they have to file a BOC-3 form and that form basically designates a process agent in every state so that in case your company got sued in a different state there’d be somebody there to accept process and that’s called a blanket filing form typically motor carriers file the BOC-3 through a third-party company and that third party company can help with the renewal every year it typically is gonna cost around 100 to 200 dollars and yes that’s an annual filing that the motor carrier needs to make.

Unified Carrier Registration (UCR)

You need to test your drivers according to your drug and alcohol policy at five different points in time. So, the first one is before they’re even hired, you have to put them through drug and alcohol testing. Second, you have to test them after a driver has been involved in any sort of accident. Third, you need to test your drivers if you suspect they are under the influence of alcohol or other controlled substances. Fourth, you’re going to have to test your drivers upon their return to duty after they have had a positive alcohol or drug test result as well as if they have refused testing in the first place. And finally, fifth, you’re going to have to conduct random testing of your drivers.

International Registration Plan (IRP)

Another annual form that needs to be filed by every single motor carrier is the International Registration Plan filing that’s the IRP and what the IRP is a mechanism that is used to issue a portion license plate to all motor carriers that are engaged in interstate commerce again the IRP form is filed through your state’s Department of Transportation or Department of Motor Vehicles when you first file it there’s an initial fee and then for every subsequent years the filing fee is based upon the mileage that that motor carrier had for that year this is also an annual form that must be filed.

IFTA

IFTA is a filing that you’re motor carrier company needs to keep in mind if does stands for the International Fuel Tax Agreement and if you like more information on calculating IFTA taxes please see our IFTA video, but this system is used to appropriately apportion the fuel tax that a motor carrier has among each state that it travels in for that time period and the time period is quarterly so if the taxes need to be filed every three months and they’re filed through your state’s agency that’s in charge of
processing fuel taxes.

The state that your Motor Carrier company is based out of probably also has some sort of annual filings that you need to keep up to date it may be as simple as the biennial update where you’re just updating your contact information what more B might be a little bit more detailed so please see the state agency that you use to form your company on what type of filings it requires.