17 April 2009, 04:57
Doc224/375The Department of Transportation's Research and Special Programs Administration said it would lower by millions of dollars the registration fees paid by hazardous materials truckers and shippers.
Shippers and truckers had demanded RSPA lower the fees because the agency has collected more than
$12 million a year more than it spends under the program.
American Trucking Associations and a host of other hazardous materials transportation groups sued DOT July 1 in federal court to force the government to lower the fees.
"ATA considers this to be a huge victory for the trucking industry," said ATA Assistant General Counsel Richard Moskowitz. "It will save our motor carrier members millions of dollars over the next three years.
Moskowitz said RSPA never would have lowered the fees had it not for the lawsuit.
"Even though we had to drag DOT into court, we got them to obey the law," said Clifford J. Harvison, president of the National Tank Truck Carriers, one of the 15 groups that joined ATA in the lawsuit. "That's the big impact, but it will also provide a marginal economic benefit to carriers."
But RSPA spokesman Joe Delcambre said the suit was not the main reason it reduced the fees.
In 2004 June I believe this went down ;
Trucking Experts Call DOT Agency's Rule Harmful
The Research and Special Programs Administration said May 28 it was delaying the effective date for rules that some trucking industry experts said would have hurt the hazardous material-hauling sector.
rule, which would have allowed other government agencies to regulate some aspects of hazmat transportation, was slated to go into effect on Oct. 1, but will now be delayed until Jan. 1, 2005, the Department of Transportation's RSPA said in a Federal Register notice.
"We had to push back the date because we got 14 appeals from when we put out the initial notice," RSPA spokesman Damon Hill told TRANSPORT TOPICS June 2. "We wanted to have sufficient time to address the appeals and coordinate with the appropriate government agencies."
Among the agencies Hill said RSPA would be coordinating with were the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Typical Government bullshit run around as the fees were INCREASED in 2006 !.
The Hazardous Materials Regulations Are Flexible ( ( Yes expect on powder primers and such ) )
The DOT Hazardous Materials Regulations are not as rigid as they initially seem. Many forget that these regulations are filled with options for selecting which regulation should apply to a shipment. The correspondence that DOT receives questioning the rules governing small shipments demonstrates these oversights.
In the workplace, too many shippers search the DOT regulations by simply looking up the product in the Hazardous Materials Table (§ 172.101). Then, by using the section references in this table, they proceed directly to the reference shown for what they believe to be THE requirement. It often is not the only choice.
For example, elsewhere the DOT regulations provide special packaging and shipping alternatives for very small quantities, e.g., 1 ounce or 30 mL of a material (§ 173.4), and for intermediate quantities. They provide relief for materials used in agricultural operations (§ 173.5), for oilfield operations and vehicles (§ 173.5a), and for materials transported to protect the health and safety of operators or passengers, transported for the maintenance or operation of a vehicle, or transported to support a principal business, the so-called Materials of Trade (MOTs) (§§ 171.8 and 173.6). While some of the quantities authorized are limited, some of the alternatives go well beyond small quantities. In other examples, some classifications contain helpful variations for part of the class, e.g., flammable liquids that have a flashpoint of 100°F or above (§§ 173.120 and 173.150). These may be re-classed as combustible liquids, and the typical detailed non-bulk and bulk packaging specification requirements need not be applied.
Found this but follow up info wasn't available as of yet !.
a federal proposal to increase hazmat fees for 2009-2010 and the following years. ... of Transportation (DOT) concerning the situation on hazmat transport and production in ... A proposal to increase hazmat registration fees by $1500 has been made by the ...
It all boils down too a TAX
Do any of you actually know why Haz Mat fees were put in place who collects them and what their
original intended purpose was ??.