Starting Oct. 1, 2003, carriers will need a physical structure and an employee at that structure to establish a home base for purposes of vehicle registration.
International Registration Plan Inc.,(IRP) which governs the multi-state reciprocity system, has adopted new rules that say there must be a physical structure located within the base jurisdiction that is owned, leased or rented by the fleet registrant.
The structure must be designated by a street number or road location and must be open during normal business hours. A post office box is not sufficient. The office must have a telephone listing in the name of the fleet registrant, and at least one permanent employee conducting the fleet's trucking-related business at that location.
IRP failed to adopt two other proposed changes regarding owner-operators. One would have changed the definition of owner-operator to "a registrant who apportions not more than one power unit or power unit and trailer." Currently an owner-operator is defined as someone who leases his equipment, with driver, to a carrier.
The second would have allowed IRP jurisdictions to let owner-operator registrants use a street address and telephone number to establish a base state, as they do now, but would have required proof that the owner-operator owns, leases or rents a structure (including a residence) within that jurisdiction and would have required a telephone listing in the owner-operator's name.
The change for fleets comes after complaints and threatened sanctions against Oklahoma forced that state to tighten its base state qualifications for carrier registrants.