Hazmat Governing Board meeting conference call, February 10, 2005

Draft

Alliance for Uniform Hazmat Transportation Procedures

Governing Board Meeting

Conference Call
February 10, 2005

Meeting Summary

The Alliance for Uniform Hazmat Transportation Procedures consists of seven states that have implemented uniform forms and procedures for the permitting and registration of motor carriers of hazardous materials pursuant to 49 USC 5119. This approach, called the Uniform Program (UP), has been adopted by Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. A governing board made up of member Alliance states oversees activities related to implementation and operation of the Uniform Program. The Alliance is governed by several documents including the final report of the Alliance working group to the U.S. Secretary of Transportation and the Uniform Program Administrator’s Manual. The Alliance is staffed by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Present on the Conference Call

Illinois--Cindy Bahner
Michigan--Larry AuBuchon
Minnesota-Buzz Danzl
Ohio-John Canty
Oklahoma-Sherri Twidwell, Sherry Soliz
Nevada-Jim Rhode, Donna Redman
West Virginia-Alan Abbott

NCSL-Jim Reed

Board Discussion

The conference call convened at 11:00 EST. Chairman John Canty called the conference call to order. He announced the first order of business was review and approval of Petition #1. Petition #1 was extensively discussed and debated at the previous Governing Board meeting in Florida on January 24-25, 2005. Revisions to the document from that meeting were reviewed. A suggestion by Sherry Soliz to add the exact language from the federal safety permit rule was accepted regarding the definitions of the covered materials. It was also suggested that the federal grounds for revocation and suspension be listed in Petition #1. After further discussion and some minor clarifications, Alan Abbott moved adoption of Petition #1 as amended, with Cindy Bahner seconding. It was approved unanimously.

The second item on the agenda was review of the revised application. Sherry Soliz agreed to make the application revisions and these were discussed extensively at the January meeting. Several clarifications were made and some editorial corrections suggested during the conference call. After the discussion, Alan Abbott moved that the Governing Board adopt the application for use by the Alliance states. Donna Redman seconded the motion. Members approved the motion unanimously. (In a subsequent e-mail vote, it was agreed to begin using the form March 1, 2005.)

The final item the board considered was the draft agreement between the Alliance and FMCSA regarding the Alliance's equivalence with the federal safety permit. The document was reviewed. It included the Alliance's agreement to change it's Uniform Program to be equivalent with the federal program and an Alliance commitment to actively recruit new states to join the Alliance. In turn, FMCSA would agree to recognize the Alliance program as equivalent to the federal program, develop and maintain a database repository for the Alliance and continue to provide funding for centralized Alliance functions and incentive grant for new states to join. Governing Board members found the draft agreement to be acceptable and on motion by Sherry Soliz and a second by Alan Abbott, adopted the draft agreement unanimously.

It was agreed to send these three documents to FMCSA with a cover letter from chairman Canty as soon as all were finalized. (This occurred on February 22, 2005.)

Copies of these documents are available from Jim Reed, NCSL, 303-856-1510, jim.reed@ncsl.org.

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