BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 529
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Date of Hearing: May 15, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 529 (Lowenthal) - As Amended: March 19, 2013
Policy Committee:
TransportationVote:15-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill reforms the state's Biennial Inspection of Terminals
(BIT) Program (to be renamed the Basic Inspection of Terminals
Program), effective January 1, 2016, based on a recently
established federal program for motor carrier safety.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Transfers responsibility to collect carrier inspection fees
from CHP to the DMV.
2)Restructures current BIT carrier inspection fees, which are
currently levied based on the number of terminals operated by
a motor carrier, to instead be based upon the size of the
commercial motor vehicle fleet, and aligns fee collection with
the DMV's Motor Carrier Permit (MCP) fee collection process.
3)Imposes a new penalty on motor carriers for failure to pay
safety and carrier inspection fees, with specified escalation
of the penalty based on lateness of the payment.
4)Requires CHP, by January 1, 2016, to promulgate regulations
implementing a performance-based truck terminal inspection
priority system similar to that used by the Federal Motor
Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
5)Requires CHP to place an inspection priority on motor carrier
terminals that have never been previously inspected, as well
as vehicles transporting hazardous materials. Provides that
non-priority terminals would not be required to be inspected
less than six years since their last inspection.
AB 529
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6)Requires motor carriers operating vehicles as specified in
this bill to carry out inspections every 90 days to ensure
safe operation, to maintain records of inspections for two
years, and to make records available for inspection upon
request by the CHP.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)DMV indicates one-time implementation costs of $125,000 to
transition the fee collection from CHP and incorporate into
the MCP process. All other costs are minor and absorbable.
[Motor Vehicle Account]
2)CHP will incur minor absorbable costs to prepare information
bulletins and revisions to its operational manuals. CHP
indicates that adopting a performance-based approach will
permit the department to more efficiently focus its resources
on new carriers, those who have a declining or unsafe level of
compliance, and those who are repeatedly out of compliance.
COMMENTS
1)Background . The BIT Program was established in 1988 to ensure
the safe operation of commercial vehicles by a motor carrier
through the inspection of those vehicles at motor carrier
terminals. Under the program, "terminal" is defined as any
place where a specified trucks and trailers are regularly
garaged, maintained, operated or dispatched. Essentially,
terminal means the locations designated by a motor carrier
where vehicles subject to the BIT Program may be inspected by
the CHP and where vehicle maintenance records and drivers'
records will be made available for inspection. The law
requires that the CHP perform safety inspections every 25
months on every commercial motor carrier terminal operating
within the state, and allows for administrative approval for
additional 25 month periods for those terminals with ongoing
satisfactory safety inspections.
In December 2010, the FMCSA established a new program designed
to improve the safety of large commercial vehicles with
respect to reduced crashes, injuries, and fatalities. The
program uses a performance-based model and parameters to
evaluate and target on-site inspections of interstate motor
carriers. This approach allows FMCSA and those states choosing
to use the model to channel enforcement and compliance efforts
AB 529
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to carriers that are profiled with potential safety problems.
2)Purpose . AB 529 implements a performance-based inspection
program patterned after the FMCSA model. By using
performance-based prioritization, CHP will focus staff
inspection resources where most needed: targeting new motor
carriers and ones that that are non-compliant. Additionally,
this bill seeks to improve the efficiency of the program by
having DMV assume the inspection fee collection using the
existing Motor Carrier Permit fee collection process.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081