The number of IRP-registered trucks has dropped by nearly 17,000 since last year in Illinois, and truckers say the drop was caused by large increases in the state’s registration fees.

Last year, a new law added a 36 percent surcharge - called the Commercial Distribution Fee - onto the state's truck registration fees. It also changed the rolling stock exemption.

The law, passed as SB841, was signed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich June 20. Complaints from truckers and concerns about the effect of the fee on the industry began to roll in. But state officials insisted that the fees would not lead to the predicted problems.

Those concerns were apparently justified. According to figures released this week by the Mid-West Truckers Association, The number of trucks registered in Illinois for the current year is the lowest in eight years.

The number of IRP-registered trucks in the state dropped by 16,852 since last year, the group said. In addition, 2,718 trucking companies have either closed their doors or left the state.

“We have been accused of crying ‘wolf,’ but the numbers tell the story,” Don Schaefer, executive vice president of the Mid-West Truckers, said in a statement. “Thousands of lost trucks means lost jobs for the industry and the businesses that support it.”

The loss was not unexpected; Land Line and other media outlets have received numerous reports of truckers and trucking companies that were considering leaving Illinois or just shutting down. Port container haulers, small trucking firms, owner-operators and others have said they would leave if the fee passed, and some went so far as to lease facilities in neighboring states such as Missouri, Iowa and Indiana.

But the figures from the Mid-West Truckers are the first time anyone has put hard numbers to the exodus that occurred after the fee was imposed.

Schaefer’s organization said Illinois was expected to hemorrhage more trucks in the coming weeks as truckers decide whether to renew their Illinois registrations or move to a nearby state.

Figures from across the state line in Missouri, where many truckers said they intended to move, are not as clear.

While numbers are not available for 2004 yet, Missouri did show an increase in IRP truck registrations from 2002 to 2003, Mary Jo Pointer, a Missouri DOT motor carrier manager, said. In 2002, 43,857 tractors were registered in Missouri; however, by 2003, that number had risen to 46,056.

However, Pointer said she did not think the increase was caused by the activity in Illinois.

“I’d say that stems from some of these vehicles coming back from Oklahoma,” she said. A number of out-of-state trucks had registered in Oklahoma in previous years due to lower fees in that state. “I do not believe this is because of Illinois.”

“I have had a couple of situations occur at the beginning of the year where we had two or three people who tried to relocate here saying they had established places in Missouri,” Pointer said. “When we checked those out, they were not accurate. Therefore, we would not register them.”

Pointer did have a number of calls from Illinois residents wanting to register in Missouri, but she told them they would have to move there in order to register in the state. Some may have moved, but her department does not have a record of those who had an established place of business and moved their registrations legally.

In addition, any of those truckers who moved after the start of the calendar year would not show up in the Missouri numbers, since 2004 numbers will not be available until the end of this year.

Meanwhile, legislators in Springfield continue efforts to change Illinois tax structure to eliminate the fee and aid the state’s truckers.

After the fee went into effect, nearly a dozen bills were introduced to eliminate it. Two are still moving forward.

HB412, introduced by Rep. Mary O’Brien, passed the Illinois House by a vote of 90-7 on Feb. 20. The bill has gathered 13 co-sponsors in the Senate, and is now before the upper chamber’s Rules Committee.

HB852, introduced by Rep. Michael J. Madigan, D-Chicago, passed the Senate late last year by a vote of 55-0; the House is now considering the bill.

--by Mark H. Reddig, associate editor

Mark Reddig can be reached at mark_reddig@landlinemag.com.