IRP Inc. has ordered Oklahoma and Illinois to come up with a plan that would satisfy Illinois’ $15.5 million claim for lost registration fees.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the IRP Dispute Resolution Committee ruled that Oklahoma’s failure to comply with rules of the International Registration Plan inflicted economic harm on Illinois. The committee gave the two states until November to work out a financial settlement on their own or through a third party.
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White said they have been investigating “a pattern of improper IRP registrations” in Oklahoma since 1996. One complaint is that truckers were allowed to use the addresses of third party registration agents to establish Oklahoma as their base registration state. Many do that to avoid higher sales and other vehicle taxes in their own states. New Oklahoma rules, effective this month, prohibit carriers (but not owner-operators) from using third party agents to establish residency in the state.
Illinois and other states also contend that many of those truckers, or their agents, packed first year estimates with mileage from low-fee states. White’s office charged that some service agents used the same statement of estimated mileage for thousands of registrants. The estimates, they said, "had no relationship to the mileage the registrants actually intended to travel" and were "designed solely to reduce the fee paid by the registrant."
Illinois claims that more than 100,000 trucks were fraudulently registered in Oklahoma in 2000, resulting in a loss of $8.2 million. It calculates that the total losses Illinois suffered in 1999, 2000 and 2001 amounted to $15.5 million and contends that other states have incurred "tens of millions of dollars" in losses.
The Oklahoma Tax Commission has tightened rules regarding first year estimating, although state officials dispute charges of widespread fraud. They also told the IRP committee that they can’t collect the money Illinois says it’s owed because estimates can’t be audited.
Oklahoma had asked a U.S. District Court to issue a restraining order to keep the IRP Dispute Resolution Committee from hearing Illinois’ complaint, but the court denied the request, arguing that the state agreed to the dispute resolution process when it petitioned for membership in IRP.
Earlier this month an Oklahoma judge dissolved a temporary restraining order blocking the OTC from implementing its new “established place of business” rules. That suit was brought by ProCert, an Oklahoma transportation consulting firm that offers registration services. ProCert’s attorney said they may appeal.