Good Corporate Citizen?

You be the judge.

(reprint)

Fact: In 2008 R&L Carriers, a major Clinton County, Ohio trucking company, decided to transfer its vehicle registration from Ohio to Indiana. Among the reasons given by the company for the change was that Ohio did not provide either competitive pricing or electronic registration for its commercial vehicles. A price comparison research by this poster at the time indicated that, for most vehicle categories, Indiana’s registration costs were more or less the same as Ohio’s.

One result of this change was that the Wilmington street maintenance fund that had been completely financed by vehicle registration dollars. For example in the 2007 and 2008 city budgets, no city taxpayer money was allocated to the street fund. After the 2008 R&L action, the 2009 budget required nearly $700,000 of taxpayer money to be transferred to the Streets fund. The county took an even greater hit on its Roads and Bridges budget. Does this information indicate a cause and effect relationship?

A statement issued by R&L on July 3, 2008 rightly claimed that most of the fees collected by Indiana were returned to Ohio but what they did not say was that, according to the BMV, this money was divided into 2,300 Ohio political subdivision shares.

This conclusion was also included in the statement: “If Ohio is someday able to provide the same ease of use [electronic filing] and cost savings as Indiana, R&L is happy to return it’s truck registration to the State of Ohio.

Fast forward to March 30, 2011: “Kasich Signs House Bill 114…..Simplifies the commercial vehicle registration process and increases commerce by allowing companies to renew registration online with a credit card rather than spending a day at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV).”

The bill became effective in January of 2012 and was implemented in July of that year.

To date there has not been any notification to local government officials indicating that R&L is changing registration back to Ohio.

Note: Due to past BMV errors Wilmington was not a legal recipient of R&L fees and will not benefit from the return of registration to Ohio if and when it occurs. The funds the city had received would now go to the county.

Paul Hunter