Last week, IRP, Inc., the repository of the International Registration Plan, posted this year’s proposed amendments to the Plan on its site for a vote of the membership. It takes a three-fourths vote of the states and provinces voting on an amendment for it to be adopted. There are four ballots this year to amend the Plan, and three of them are of importance to the trucking industry. (The fourth represents a housekeeping measure.) First in importance, and in fact the most important proposal to amend IRP in many years, is Ballot 384, the Full Reciprocity Plan. We’ve written about the FRP before in the SLN and will be doing so again – it deserves the very strongest industry support! (See the SLN of 4/19/2013.) But the following two ballots also deserve support. Ballot 385 would allow leasing companies to consolidate their IRP fleets more efficiently. The Truck Renting & Leasing Association supports this ballot, as does ATA. And Ballot 386 would allow the states to substitute an electronic device for the IRP cab card (although not for the license plate itself). If this ballot passes, it would permit states to experiment with new credentials for vehicle registration in place of the old-style paper ones. We don’t know what form this experimentation would take, but industry would be involved in the planning and design, and this amendment too deserves our support. All the current crop of IRP ballots may be seen here: http://www.irponline.org/?page=OpenBallots. Voting ends on all the proposals on October 28, but don’t wait – talk to your IRP administrator today.
