October begins the renewal season when talking about interstate truck licensing, permits and fees. Most permits and annual fees must be renewed and paid prior to December 31st. Depending upon the State, some interstate truck registrations expire December 31st.

When it comes to processing individual renewal requests, most State’s give a “must be received by date” and then use a “first come, first served” or “first in, first out” approach. For example, to renew the Oregon Weight Tax Identifier or an Oregon truck registration, Oregon says they must receive the renewal paperwork from the Carrier by October 31st to guarantee the processing is complete by December 31st. Renewals received after the “must be received by date” are worked as rapidly as their man power and systems allow. Should that process take them into January, the Carrier is subject to citation for non-renewal due to the fact that the Carrier failed to turn in their paperwork by deadline.

What an interstate carrier must renew by December 31st varies by which State the trucks are based, where the trucks travel, at what weight they are registered and what they carry. The following are the major programs up for renewal:

All interstate carriers operating trucks over 26,000 lbs must renew their IFTA license.

All interstate carriers must pay their 2012 Unified Carrier Registration fees for each interstate truck registered at over 10,000 lbs. All trucks traveling in Oregon that are registered at over 26,000 lbs must renew their Oregon Weight Tax Identifier (weight/mile tax account).

All trucks traveling in New Mexico that are registered at over 26,000 lbs must renew their New Mexico weight/mile tax account.

Most States use a staggered system when it comes to the date to renew truck registrations. For all Oregon based trucks, December 31st is the deadline for registration.

Many individual State HazMat permits expire December 31st. This year only, the IRS 2011-2012 Heavy Vehicle Use Tax must be paid between November 1 and November 30th for all trucks registered at 55,000 lbs and over.

At Glostone Trucking Solutions, we are the experts when it comes to renewals. We process all types for hundreds of carriers every year. We know what to do, who to talk to, the quickest way to get it done and work with you every step of the way. For Oregon and Washington based Carriers, we have daily appointments at the DOT. For carriers based in other States, when necessary, we coordinate with partners located in the State to get the job done.

Don’t take a chance at getting lost in the renewal paperwork process. Give us a call today!

503-607-1088

Give us a call today!

Keeping your drivers in check!

Glostone Trucking Solutions is proud to have Prodriver Data Solutions, LLC (Prodriver) as its trusted professional partner for drug & alcohol program compliance. Prodriver manages drug & alcohol programs for fleets of all sizes. Its network of over 3,500 collection sites across the country makes it convenient for clients to quickly comply with DOT testing, even if they are on the road.

Prodriver’s core service is providing the required DOT random driver drug and alcohol selections throughout the year, but they go way beyond that. Prodriver also handles all result collection and notification. Pre-employment testing is also managed in the same efficient manner. They can even provide program management for companies wanting to implement testing for employees not covered by DOT regulation. The friendly staff provides consortium data that meets DOT audit standards.

Prodriver negotiates the lowest possible cost of testing for its clients. “We’re continually negotiating with collection sites, labs, and MROs and using our growing volume to get the lowest price possible for our clients,” says Brian Gray, COO and CTO for Prodriver. “We keep our overhead low and pass the savings along to our customers. If you’re paying more than $60 per drug test, you’re paying too much,” he says. “We pride ourselves on being a cost leader in drug & alcohol testing.”

The newest service Prodriver provides is the DOT required reasonable suspicion training for supervisors. All companies that operate more than one truck must have at least one trained staff member with reasonable suspicion training. The Prodriver training consists of a two hour class that meets DOT requirements. In-person training is available at the Clackamas office by appointment for $100. A web-based video training option is also available for $50. Don’t face a DOT audit without having completed this training!

Prodriver plans to launch a website next year to enhance its services. The website will allow clients to login and access test results and consortium data 24/7. It will also allow clients to keep driver lists up-to-date more efficiently.

Call Prodriver today at 503-479-6082!

With the FMCSA’s implementation of CSA, your on the road safety violations are open for public viewing. Shippers, brokers, insurance companies, lawyers, your customers and even the general public all have access to your scores and violation data. 

Managing your CSA scores is critical to the success of your business. Good scores can lead to shippers seeking you out, lower insurance rates, and a proven history of good safety practices.  Bad scores can have the opposite effect. 70% of the violation points that make up your safety score are from “observable” or “driver caused” defecs. To a large degree, the actions of your drivers make up your safety rating. Consistent and effective training is the key to improving your Driver’s actions.

Glostone Trucking Solutions offers an online training and testing system that is inherently designed to effect positive behavioral change in your drivers. It’s easy to use and available 24/7. All that’s needed is a computer with audio and an internet connection! We can completely customize your company’s training – even for individual users – including documented test results. Use any of the dozens of pre-produced modules that come standard, use your own materials, or even utilize licensed content.

Our driver training solution also comes with our acclaimed customer service. We can provide all of the administration efforts or we can work with your designated administrators with step-by-step, comprehensive training that ensures smooth implementation and daily management. Pricing is as low as $3.00 per driver, per month! Start managing your CSA scores by giving us a call today!

States and Canadian Provinces get a great deal of their road construction and repair budgets through charging a fuel use tax for every gallon of fuel purchased. Generally, the price of fuel you see posted at the pump includes the State and Federal Tax. So, as you travel your States roads, putting wear and tear upon the system, you pay for your wear and tear with each gallon of fuel you buy in the state.

Should you purchase fuel for your personal car in one state and then immediately travel through and use that fuel in another state, you have effectively paid tax in one state but put wear and tear on another state’s road system. The states have yet to devise a method voters would tolerate where they could be allowed to collect this lost tax from the general motoring public.

The trucking industry is not so lucky. The states and most Canadian Provinces banded together to form the International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA). IFTA is a tax collection agreement whose purpose is the uniform administration of motor fuels use taxation laws for qualified trucks operated in more than one state or Province.

IFTA has devised an equitable but laborious system to collect and distribute fuel use taxes to the jurisdiction where the fuel was used. It’s done by calculating and reporting how many gallons of fuel a fleet uses in each state/province that it travels during a quarter and multiplying those gallons by those states’ fuel use tax rates. When fleets purchase fuel in a State/Province, thereby paying fuel use tax at the pump, that amount of tax paid is used to offset the tax owed.

Even more elaborate than the tax computation is the record keeping that must be collected and maintained to prove you arrived at the correct totals. There must be detailed records for every truck. Failure in your record keeping system can mean large dollar audit assessments that include penalties and interest applied to 3 years of operations. As states grapple with funding, audits are a proven source of revenue and the numbers are expected to increase.

In a nutshell, you are either going to pay each state’s fuel use tax at the pump or through IFTA. To truly evaluate which station’s fuel price is cheapest, always subtract the state’s per gallon tax rate and then compare the prices. A posted price of $3.75 a gallon in Wyoming looks great compared to a price of $3.85 in Nebraska but after subtracting the State Tax that’s handled through IFTA, you find Wyoming’s price is $3.61 (.14 cent tax rate) compared to Nebraska’s $3.59 (.26 cent tax).

Glostone Trucking Solutions is a fuel use tax reporting and audit expert. If you need help with tax rates, what records to keep, calculating IFTA Tax reports, Mileage Tax reports or with preparing for an audit, give us a call! We’re here to help!

503-607-1088

June 30th marks the end of the 2010-2011, Heavy Vehicle Use Tax year. For non-exempt commercial trucks operating in July at a weight of 55,000 lbs or greater, you are required to file the Federal IRS Form 2290 for the 2011-2012 tax year and pay the appropriate fees by August 31, 2011.

Failure to file and pay the fees to the IRS by the deadline will result in a substantial penalty and interest charges being added to the cost. Each state is required to see a copy of your paid Heavy Vehicle Use Tax before they are allowed to renew your license plate tag so failure to pay these IRS fees can also delay the licensing of your trucks.

The amount of fee that you pay per truck is on a graduated scale, in 1000 lbs increments, from 55000 lbs up to 75,000 lbs. All trucks operating at more than 75,000 lbs are all grouped together and pay the highest, $550 per truck, annual fee.

The fee for the entire year is paid in advance on each truck even if you know the truck will be sold later in the tax year. If a truck is sold, stolen or destroyed during the tax year, the remaining unused portion of the tax paid can be used towards paying the Heavy Vehicle Use Tax on a new truck purchased in the tax year or used the following year to offset the tax on remaining vehicles. Make sure you keep accurate records to document the date a truck leaves your ownership as these may be required to justify any credits taken.

For trucks that travel under 5,000 miles per year, you are required to file the 2290 HVUT form but the truck is exempt from any fees. If you file the truck as exempt from fees because of the expectation of it traveling less than 5,000 miles but then, during the tax year, your needs change and the truck exceeds 5,000 miles, you are required to file an amended return and back-pay the appropriate fee for the entire year.

Truck chassis’ that are 100% exclusively used as a platform and attached to equipment involved in a job other than hauling a load are exempt and are not required to file a HVUT return. Examples of this type of equipment would be Cement Pumper, Crane, or Mobile Drilling Rig.

For fleets of 25 trucks and larger, the IRS requires that you electronically file your return through an approved 3rd party electronic filer.

Glostone Trucking Solutions can complete 2290 forms, file and provide proof of payment for all size fleets. Give us a call! 503-607-1088

Whether you are a Private or a For Hire Carrier, with 1 truck or 1000 trucks, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations require you to perform specified functions in the hiring and on-going performance monitoring of each driver. Complete and organized records must be kept for each step in the process. This even includes Owner Operators where the driver is the owner. Yes, an Owner Operator is required to have an employment application and more on file for himself!

The FMCSR Driver Qualifications (DQ) are the start of a driver’s personnel file. DQ record keeping should be considered the minimum file requirements. Failure to institute and maintain these very basics can lead to DOT fines, CSA violations, Unsatisfactory Safety Rating and even Out of Service Orders.

Audit proof DQ record keeping and maintenance requires that you have the right systems in place and spend the time necessary to complete each process. For those who are looking towards technology to improve their DQ compliance and minimize its costs, there is now a system available that can provide a platform that takes you beyond basic FMCSA DQ compliance. The system uses the web to provide a paperless personnel file system that:

• Measures and tracks Driver Qualification compliance.
• Goes beyond basic DQ tracking to provide a customizable information portal.
• Notifies, communicates and documents at all user levels.
• Accumulates CSA violation data as its downloaded from the FMCSA.
• Measures CSA performance over time.
• Provides training options and maintains proof of training.
• Manages documents and
• Is customizable to contain company specific needs.

Best of all, no special software needs to be purchased and it’s available 24/7 from any computer with internet access. You just log in.

Glostone Trucking Solutions offers this comprehensive system as a starting point, helps you customize it to fit your needs, and then uploads and manages the ongoing data for you for a low, monthly per driver subscription. We do the work. You just use the information to manage your company. We can even “certify” to your customers, insurance company, shippers and brokers that your company is CSA DQ Compliant! Give us a call today for more details!

Are you looking to improve your driver training presentation skills? Attend the Fundamentals of Driver Training Workshop, hosted by Skip Nash of Standard and Best, LLC, on May 24th. Click here for more details.