BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 529 Page 1 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 Page 2 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 Page 3 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