OKLAHOMA CITY – The state Corporation Commission’s Transportation Division issued 7,320 citations in March to motor carriers and commercial motor vehicles, division attorney Darren Ferguson reported recently. It was the highest number of tickets written in one month in at least nine years, records reflect.
Those infractions resulted in $1,395,996 in fines, the most in four years, since February 2018, commission ledgers show.
Failure to carry a vehicle’s registration or a fuel license or decal accounted for 2,562 of the citations (35%) and produced $323,100 in fines. Operating an overweight vehicle on Oklahoma highways or bridges resulted in 1,576 of the tickets (21.5%), which generated $402,050 in fines.
Not having a current fuel license or decal resulted in 521 tickets (7.12%) and $91,550 in fines. Failure to register a commercial vehicle resulted in 520 tickets (7.10%) and $91,075 in fines.
Failure to pay the Unified Carrier Registration fee triggered 425 citations (5.81% of the total) that produced $127,500 in fines. Failure to yield for an inspection produced 431 citations (5.89%) and $64,650 in fines. Transporting a load in excess of 80,000 pounds on an interstate highway without a permit resulted in 169 citations (2.3%) for $48,950 in fines.
Tickets were written in March (the latest month for which statistics have been compiled) to drivers from 47 states (all but Vermont, Alaska and Hawaii) and the District of Columbia. Twenty-eight percent of the violators (2,055 of them) were from Texas, 771 of the drivers (10.5%) were from California, and 588 of the offenders (8%) were from Oklahoma. Citations also were issued to 152 drivers from Canada, primarily Ontario and Alberta, and to three from Mexico.
Responding to a question from Commissioner Bob Anthony last September, Ferguson said the Transportation Division collects most of what’s owed in fines. “Not much is outstanding,” he said. The “vast majority” of all violations are paid by credit card.
According to commission Public Information Manager Matt Skinner, $500,000 of the citation revenue collected each fiscal year is routed to the state Department of Public Safety and $300,000 is sent to the Oklahoma Tax Commission. The balance is earmarked for the Transportation Division’s compliance operations.
The commission’s Transportation Division administers and enforces various federal and state trucking regulations and passenger carrier regulations relating to interstate and intrastate motor carrier licenses, permits, and certificates. In addition, the Transportation Division registers commercial motor vehicles through the International Registration Plan.
The division also issues various permits such as deleterious substance transportation permits, hazardous waste registrations and permits, overweight and over-axle permits, and temporary harvest permits that authorize intrastate operating authority for transportation of farm products in a raw state for commercial purposes.