Trucking Grumbles About SSRS

Money is at the heart of the debate over the future of the Single State Registration System.

It seems that trucking companies have come to hate SSRS as much as they detested its predecessor, the system of “bingo stamps” that had to be collected from individual states as proof of operating rights. Back when interstate for-hire motor carriers were regulated, they placed cards in the cab of each of their trucks, bearing the stickers from each state in which they operated. Large fleets had to have entire staffs to buy, lick and stick thousands of bingo stamps each year.

But deregulation, and later the demise of the Interstate Commerce Commission, wiped out operating authorities at the national level. Yet a majority of states still wanted a mechanism to register interstate carriers. That being the case, trucking insisted that it be a far simpler — and cheaper — mechanism to comply with and administer. Thus the Single State Registration System was born — to the initial applause of trucking. It seemed a step forward.

SSRS was supposed to be a stop on the road to construct a federal database containing relevant information about all trucking operations that would be accessible to state governments and motor carriers alike. In 1995, as it was sending the ICC off into the sunset, Congress ordered the Department of Transportation, which would take over residual ICC responsibilities, to build an centralized computer system showing each carrier’s DOT identification number and proof of financial responsibility.

I>For the full story, see the Feb. 21 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.