Proposed reductions in registration fees for hazardous materials haulers have once again been delayed.

In late 2000, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Research and Special Programs Administration proposed to temporarily lower registration fees, citing a surplus in the Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness grant fund.
Final action was delayed last year when the President, in his 2002 budget request, proposed to fund a portion of RSPA’s hazardous materials safety program from fees collected through the registration program. That proposal was not adopted by congress in the fiscal 2002 DOT appropriations, but the President’s fiscal 2003 budget repeats the request. Therefore RSPA has again delayed final action.
For registration year 2002-2003, which begins July 1, the registration fees remain unchanged at $300, including a $25 processing fee, for small businesses and $2,000, including the processing fee, for all other registrants. The proposed reduction would have dropped the fee for small carriers to $250; larger carriers would have paid $475.
The initial proposal also recommended that not-for-profit organizations pay the same fee as small businesses, that the North American Industry Classification System be used to determine whether or not an entity is a small business, and would have expanded the use of credit cards for fee payments. RSPA says it will issue a final rule on those changes later this year.
A copy of the 2002/2003 registration form will be available after May 1 at http://hazmat.dot.gov/register.htm or from the fax-on-demand service at (800) 467-4922 (extension 2, document 700).