Alliance for Uniform Hazmat Transportation Procedures
Regular Governing Board Meeting
Boston, Massachusetts
June 13-14, 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 (NCSL).
Present
Alliance States:
John Canty, Ohio
Sherry Soliz, Oklahoma
Alan Abbott, West Virginia
Donna Redman, Nevada
Cynthia Bahner, Illinois
Larry AuBuchon, Michigan (by phone)
Jim Reed, NCSL, Staff to the Alliance
Guests:
Kathy Thompson, Groendike Transportation
Loretta Bitner, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)
Opening Business
The meeting was called to order by Chairman John Canty. January 2005 Florida meeting summary approved on motion by Sherry Soliz, seconded by Alan Abbott. February 2005 conference call minutes were approved on motion by Alan Abbott and second by Cindy Bahner.
State Reports
Nevada: 700 carriers, completing renewals. Jim Rhode is still on reassignment. Anticipate compiling with the January 2006 date for equivalence with federal permit.
West Virginia: In process of renewing 330 carriers. Carriers like the new applications. Rule changes underway for compiling with new federal permit.
Oklahoma: Has 42 carriers for hazardous waste. Governor signed bill for adding certain hazardous materials--the federal hazmats will be regulated first. All hazmat will come later. New rules will take about one month to implement. Only one carrier now will fall into this category, but Sherry anticipates more. Loretta Bitner suggested that the state FMCSA district administrator be contacted to find out about additional carriers. Oklahoma anticipates January 2006 compliance with federal equivalency.
Illinois: 89 carriers in the program now. Some history--In 1997, 1212 companies, 16,777 vehicles, $638,540 collected. In 2004, 656 companies, 5,832 vehicles, $280,640, kept $31,000. There has been a significant decrease in state workload since joining the Uniform Program.
Illinois will stay waste only.
Michigan: Has 90 carriers, 350 in liquid waste program. Have found no carriers to date for the federal hazmats. Changes since 1998--focus on vehicles then, focus on companies now. Larry AuBuchon does not see a reduction in administrative burden; in fact it has increased due to a more detailed review of program, with more supervision necessary. More coordination of the program has benefited safety of motor carrier hazmat transportation.
Ohio: 2400 carriers. Smoother administration now at PUCO with a new administrator for the program. Not sure about meeting January 2006 deadline, trying to get the small technical changes done in the legislature could be difficult in terms of trying to get a bill introduced. The program will continue to operate as it has.
NCSL report: Dues invoices sent out and all states had paid by end of July 2005. Beginning development of new cooperative agreement with FMCSA. NCSL has invited FMCSA to speak at annual meeting in Seattle. NCSL contacted the sponsor of the Massachusetts bill to offer assistance.
Missouri: Ben Goodin reported that efforts are still underway to bring Missouri into the program. At Missouri Department of Transportation, Jan Skouby is the division director and Pete Rahn is the department director. With new personnel at the DEQ, efforts at implementing the program at DOT should be easier. Ben Goodin will send out the Missouri statute for members of the Alliance to review.
Sherry Soliz brought up the issue of outreach at upcoming meetings, particularly MHTA and DGAC. Ms. Soliz will seek a speaking invitation at DGAC in November New Orleans and John Canty will do so at MHTA in Denver end of June.
FMCSA Report
After lunch, Loretta Bitner of FMCSA gave an update on FMCSA activities. She said that Bill Quade has moved to the state programs office, with James Simmons as acting hazmat division chief.
Ms. Bitner gave the status of the federal hazardous materials safety permit (HMSP). See handout for details. 246 permits have been issued, 106 temporary permits and 173 denied. Ten of the denials are under appeal. The out of service percentages are catching many of the companies being denied. Discussion ensued about the high number of denials. Larry AuBuchon brought up the Alliance position of allowing companies to continue to transport until the appeal is settled. His concern was about credentialed Alliance carriers that may be denied concerning federal hazmats under federal criteria. Loretta clarified that state administrative review and appeals processes would be allowed to operate. Mr. AuBuchon asked that the history being generated now be captured by FMCSA concerning denials and appeals for future state use in appeals processes. Loretta Bitner said this is available in the docket management system.
She stated that periodic monitoring of company safety ratings of federal hazmats will be important to ensure equivalence with federal standards.
Loretta Bitner mentioned the several things underway by FMCSA to support the Alliance--March and April memos to field offices, statements of support by the FSCSA administrator and other FMCSA officials, speaking at the NCSL annual meeting, and sessions at the next COHMED meeting. In addition, the draft MOU between FMCSA and the Alliance was reviewed and revised. Progress is being made on the next cooperative agreement with NCSL to support centralized Alliance functions. Longer range projects include development of a database and Alliance access to MCMIS. Much is going on in information technology at FMCSA so outsourcing is likely for the database. The Alliance will want to be involved with the program manager with MCMIS.
She requested that the Alliance give her a "white paper" on our data base needs. Jim Reed agreed to send around the most recent paper for additional review and forward it on to Loretta Bitner. (This has since been included in the Alliance-FMCSA MOU.) She said requests were sent to field and district administrators in Nebraska, Washington, Wisconsin and Missouri asking for their support in Alliance implementation in their states and regions.
She outlined her important next steps for the Alliance including: Implement required changes to individual state programs to accomplish compatibility by January 2006, implement guidelines for incentive grants to new states, and vigorously recruit new states to join the Alliance through strong education and outreach, along with follow-up with interested states, and building relationships with a variety of organizations like CVSA, COHMED, etc. She suggested possibly working again with the National Governors' Association. Approaching the various industry associations both nationally and in states was suggested. Loretta Bitner asked for regular reports from the Alliance on outreach.
Ben Goodin suggested the Alliance get on the agenda of a CVSA meeting. He chairs the program initiatives committee, which is meeting in Biloxi, September 25-29. He suggested combining with the CVSA hazmat committee also.
Alliance-FMCSA MOU
Draft #6 was reviewed again and generally was found to be in good shape. Sherry Soliz moved to approve the MOU, Alan Abbott seconded and it was approved unanimously. Jim Reed will send a signed copy with a cover letter explaining the Board's vote to Loretta Bitner for her to get approval at FMCSA.
Ben Goodin asked several questions about fees and program issues that were discussed.
Sherry Soliz agreed to visit Missouri and give a presentation.
Incentive Grants
The proposal for incentive grants was reviewed. The amount for grants to new states was discussed. Several thought $20,000 was too little.
Criteria were discussed. The requirement of having enacted legislation was discussed. Is this too high a hurdle? The general consensus was that legislation must be enacted prior to receiving a grant. After further discussion, the meeting adjourned for the day.
Alliance Board Meeting--Day Two
June 14, 2005
Discussion continued on the incentive grant proposal. Various changes were proposed. A timeframe for meeting entry requirements will be requested. A new cap of $50,000 was proposed and accepted, requiring justification. $20,000 would be available by meeting the grant criteria. An additional $30,000 would be available with additional justification of costs.
Travel stipends were discussed. It was agreed that these would be useful for helping new states come to Alliance meetings.
The Board directed Jim Reed to revise the proposal in 6 weeks after which the Board will consider in a conference call. (The revised incentive grant procedure was reviewed and approved by a unanimous Board e-mail vote on November 2-3, 2005. The policy and procedure paper and the application can be found at http://www.ncsl.org/programs/transportation/Alliancegrants.htm.)
Outreach
It was proposed and agreed that a spreadsheet be developed to document all contacts and progress with outreach in the states. (This was completed and reviewed at the October 2005 Alliance meeting.)
John Canty made a contact with Alaska, who is pursuing it with his superiors. Cindy Bahner pointed out that our contacts with agency people have not been very productive. Industry needs to be involved. Donna Redman proposed a letter and brochure to the state trucking associations.
To bring focus to these issues, John Canty appointed a subcommittee of Cindy Bahner and Donna Redman to work on outreach issues, working with Jim Reed. Creating a new brochure was proposed for states, trumpeting the new grant program. A second brochure for industry was also proposed. Also it was suggested to get information posted on the CVSA and COHMED web pages. The subcommittee will meet by conference call soon to create an outreach plan.
Contacts with various states were discussed. Charles Teasdale was mentioned as a contact in Wisconsin. Contacts with Illinois, Florida, Nebraska and Washington were discussed.
Sherry Soliz has been invited to Missouri and Indiana to present the Alliance program. Jim Reed will work with Colorado in trying to get the Uniform Program going again.
Incorporation
Matt Sundeen of NCSL joined the meeting by telephone. He walked through some of the issues that would be involved in incorporating the Alliance. Issues discussed included deciding whether to incorporate, other examples of multi-state agreements, legal issues, governance issues, and practical issues.
Discussion ensued as to the appropriateness of incorporation. Cindy Bahner mentioned that Illinois favors incorporation as it would give legitimacy to the Alliance. Another benefit would be to create a staff to better take care of the Alliance's needs. Several board members felt that incorporation might be premature as all needs and functions are being met at this time. Incorporation might be more viable option in the future.
Sherry Soliz proposed that we examine what we are doing now to build information to more fully examine this in the future. The Alliance operates somewhat informally now and incorporation would facilitate a more formal operation as the Alliance grows in number of states.
It was proposed to continue to study the topic. Board members would go back home and inquire about the issue. The Board would continue to discuss at future meetings. Cost estimates for incorporation could be obtained. Sherry Soliz moved that the Board authorize NCSL to write a briefing paper on the options for incorporation of the Alliance. It was seconded by Donna Redman and approved unanimously. It will be prepared and presented to the Board meeting in either January or June 2006.
John Canty brought the group up to speed on developments with TEA-21 authorization. Chairman Canty asked each Board member to contact their members on the conference committee for the transportation bill. He will send a letter he used with his Congressional representatives.
Status of HMTA Reauthorization
Rich Moskowitz of the American Trucking Associations (ATA) joined the meeting by telephone. He gave a briefing on pending legislation that affects the Alliance program. Neither the House nor Senate version of TEA-21 reauthorization enacts the current Alliance program as the ATA and Alliance desire. The House version would start over with a new working group, but it authorizes grants. It does away with the preemption standard. The Senate version weakens the preemption standard, based on "consistency." No implementation funding is included.
Language seeking implementation of the Uniform Program was developed by the ATA group with Alliance concurrence and has been submitted to the conference committee. But it has been frustrating to not be able to get attention paid to the hazmat issues. These issues are on the table in the conference committee
He said ATA settled with New Jersey for its high flat fees. It was finalized June 7 and NJ must repay $8.5 million to industry. NJ is still unwilling to join the Alliance. Members agreed to work with the agency and industry in New Jersey. Gail Toth, head of the NJ Motor Truck Association will be contacted as will Noreen Binder with the NJ agency.
He said the Massachusetts bill (HB 2041) on the Uniform Program was given a hearing in the Joint Committee on Transportation today. He expressed pleasure in seeing a state actually moving legislation. Wisconsin is interested as well.
Several cities are considering hazmat bans in the wake of passage of the D.C. ban including Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas and California. Several organizations have filed preemption requests with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. A lawsuit filed by CSX is ongoing against the D.C. ban.
A streamlining modification to the application fee calculation page was agreed to and Sherry Soliz will make the change.
Base State Agreement
The question as to why the Alliance needs a base state agreement was raised. The program is already contained in the Administrator's Manual. States that join send a letter of intent. A base state agreement is referred to in the Administrator's Manual. John Canty expressed that having a base state agreement would be good to help formalize the Alliance. Members agreed to review the draft, send comments to Jim Reed, and a new draft will be circulated prior to the next Board meeting
Peer Reviews
A new peer review schedule was reviewed. Minnesota is the next scheduled peer review. Jim Reed will contact Minnesota to set a date.
Vice Chair
The vice-chair is now vacant due to Jim Rhode's resignation in light of his reassignment in Nevada. Members discussed filling a one-year appointment for vice-chair. On motion by Cindy Bahner and second by Alan Abbott, Donna Redman was elected vice-chair.
The meeting adjourned, subject to meeting by conference call in six to eight weeks.
The next regular meeting of the Governing Board is scheduled for January 23-25, 2006 in San Diego in conjunction with COHMED. In addition, the Alliance will present training to COHMED attendees on the Uniform Program.
 Hazmat Meetings
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