WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has published a notice of "regulatory guidance" allowing states to collect fees for 2010 under the Unified Carrier Registration Agreement program if they choose to do so.

Even though the agency has yet to finalize the fee structure for 2010, states can "assess and collect fees" under the 2009 rate structure.

However, according to a communiqué by the American Trucking Association and distributed by the Canadian Trucking Alliance, the notice may be a non-starter because "FMCSA is involved in a regular federal rulemaking to set new fees for 2010, which was needed because of the amendment to the underlying law that removed trailers from the UCRA."

FMCSA shares authority to administer the UCRA with the UCRA Board, which has not formally discussed the issue, and may not favor it.

The Board’s chair and vice chair have asked the states not to act on the FMCSA notice until after the Board can consider it.

Finally, there could be some legal issues with the substance of FMCSA’s notice that make it unclear whether states can actually do what FMCSA insists they are permitted to.

Despite what FMCSA believes, it’s possible that if a carrier were somehow to pay UCRA fees under the current fee schedule, it could not be assessed any additional fees when the new 2010 fees are finally set later this year.

Proposals have the 2010 fee more than doubling for virtually all companies, regardless of size – much to the chagrin of motor carriers.

For some large carriers, the change would push the annual levy from $37,500 to $83,412.