Trucking lawsuit accuses Indiana Dept. of Revenue of unauthorized fee collection

Attorney Jim Bopp has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Small Business in Transportation Coalition, accusing the state of Indiana of collecting unauthorized fees from hundreds of thousands of truckers.    A lawsuit filed last week in Marion County, Ind. accuses the Indiana Department of Revenue (INDOR) of collecting annual Unified Carrier Registration fees from hundreds of thousands of truckers across the U.S. without authorization under Indiana law, according to reports from multiple news sources.
   Indiana handles 400,000 registrations and over $100 million a year in fees on behalf of 41 states under the federally-authorized Unified Carrier Registration Plan, which allows interstate truckers to register and pay fees just once rather than in multiple states, according to local newspaper the Indianapolis Star. While the fees depend on the size of the fleet, form of payment and location of the truck’s home base, the lawsuit says it begins at $76 per vehicle.
   The accusations come from Small Business in Transportation Coalition, a trucking industry trade group, which is being represented by attorney Jim Bopp, against the administration of Gov. Eric Holcomb, and more specifically the Indiana Department of Revenue.
   “Without such authority under Indiana law, INDOR’s nationwide collection of the UCR-related fees is unlawful, and every trucker since 2008 is entitled to a refund of these illegally collected fees,” Bopp told the Indianapolis Star.
   The office of the governor has yet to comment on the lawsuit.