January NEWSLETTER

	JANUARY 2010 NEWSLETTER


	HAPPY NEW YEAR
		The entire staff at TCS extends their Best Wishes for a safe and Happy New Year. We especially hope that 2009 will be a busy and prosperous year for you.

	2010 AZ IFTA LICENSE
		Your 2010 Arizona IFTA license must be processed as soon as possible. If TCS has not invoiced you and/or you have not paid TCS to do this for you, please contact Nancy or Mary Jo in our office to have this taken care of as soon as possible. THERE IS NO IFTA GRACE PERIOD. R E M I N D E R IFTA stickers are numbered and assigned to your company per the number of trucks that you have apportioned in Arizona. If you have received your IFTA license directly from ADOT or another state, please send us a copy of your license for our records. If we sent you your IFTA license, we already have a copy in our files. If you have already received your new 2010 IFTA stickers, they can be put on your truck. An IFTA sticker must be placed on each side of your truck. If you did NOT receive two stickers for each truck, contact Nancy or Mary Jo in our office.

	IRP APRIL 2010 - MARCH 2011 RENEWALS
		Fleet IRP renewals will need to be processed with ADOT for those that expire on March 31, 2010. If your apportioned plates expire in March, there should be an orange renewal sheet included with this newsletter. If your plates expire in March and TCS has failed to provide a renewal sheet, please give our office a call so we can mail or fax one to you. You can also print a renewal sheet from the forms page of our website. It is very important that your renewal request be processed and submitted to ADOT as soon as possible. ADOT WILL NOT EXTEND ANY GRACE PERIOD. All apportioned plates that expire on March 31, 2010 WILL expire on that day. Please submit your orange renewal sheet early to process for a billing amount. If any changes need to be made to the fleet or specific vehicle, this can be dealt with before payment is made and/or plates have expired. Payments made in the final week of expiration have limited processing times and may result in your plates not being renewed before they expire. INSURANCE Please submit a current certificate of insurance for your vehicle(s) registration to TCS. MVD requires TCS to retain the certificate for file purposes. REMINDER IRP’s processing time is a minimum of 3 days. As we get closer to the expiration date, processing time increases significantly.

	COMPREHENSIVE SAFETY ANALYSIS 2010
		The comprehensive safety analysis is a FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) initiative to improve large truck and bus safety, and ultimately reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities. Implementation is expected to begin in the summer of 2010. Every month, SMS (Safety Measure System) will measure the previous two years of roadside violation and crash data and calculate a score in seven safety behavior areas, called BASICs. Recent roadside violations and violations that correlate most with crashes will be weighted more heavily than others. SMS will then rank carriers' scores relative to their peers to determine which entities have specific safety problems. These results will lead to interventions ranging from comprehensive on-site investigations to warning letters that supplement the labor-intensive compliance review to specific safety problems.

	2010 UNIFIED CARRIER REGISTRATION
		At this time, the FMCSA still has not finalized the fees that they will use for the 2010 UCR. As soon as they have been finalized, we will process the billings for the renewal forms that we have received.

	2290 TAX (HVUT)
		Reminder: If you have bought a new truck over 55,000 GVW, you must file and pay your 2290 tax by the end of the month following the date of the purchase. EXAMPLE: You purchased a new truck over 55,000 GVW on December 15th. The 2290 tax is due before January 31st. THIS IS REQUIRED TO RENEW YOUR REGISTRATION FOR 2010! Special Note: If you are having problems filing your 2290 return in a timely matter, it is better to file the return directly to the IRS without payment, than to not file it at all. Penalties and interest accrue on late returns regardless if the return was remitted with payment or not; although, if filed without payment, penalties and interest will be significantly less than if not filed at all. Payment options are available to be set up directly with the IRS if you are not able to pay the 2290 when due. IRS locations for 2290 are 4041 N. Central Ave. Phoenix, AZ 85012 or 7350 W. Camino San Xavier Glendale, AZ 85308. You may also contact the IRS at 1-800-829-4933.

	FUEL TAX SERVICE CUSTOMERS
		R E M I N D E R According to IFTA rules and regulations, your IFTA license may be revoked for not using odometer readings per state. Some of you that are not currently using odometer readings should consider using them as soon as possible. 4th Q u a r t e r F u e l T a x e s Fourth quarter fuel taxes are due this month. Please try to get your trip sheets into our office by January 5 to insure the timely filing of your taxes. Remember, trip sheets are processed as they are received. If you have not operated for any period of time, please be sure to note it on your trip sheets or call Nancy, Mary Jo, Kimberleigh, or Elina and have them file zero or “no operations” for you. IMPORTANT If you stopped running in the middle of the month, or anytime at all during the month, you must write a note on your trip sheet that there will be no more trips for that month. Do not assume your fuel tax preparer will know! EXAMPLE: If your last trip ends on the 20th, your tax preparer will hold your trip sheets waiting for the last week, thus making your taxes late and penalties due! Also, please forward any tax forms to us that you received at your residence well before the tax deadline of January 31.

	TRIP SHEETS vs. THE U.S. MAIL
		Nearly every quarter, we have to call fuel tax customers to ask if they have sent their trip sheets to us and often we will get an answer like this, “We sent them three weeks ago. Didn’t you get them?” The reality is that regular mail can get lost, particularly if there is no return address. These valuable documents (trip sheets) often cannot be duplicated, which is why we suggest that you either make complete copies of your trip sheets and fuel receipts before you mail them or send them certified mail. In either case, make sure your return address is on the envelope.

	NEW MEXICO PERMITS
		Your New Mexico WDT Permit was due to be renewed before 12/31/09. Each truck that operates in New Mexico under this permit is required to be registered with the truck's Unit #, Plate #, VIN #, make, model, gross weight (exceeding 26,000 lbs.), and whether it is leased or owned.

	TRANCEIVERS AND COMDATA
		For those of you who need to go into a state that you currently do not have on your registration and TCS is closed, you can call 1-800-749-6058 or 1-800-669-5014 or go to www.iconnectdata.com They can set you up with a permit until you are able to add the state to your registration and are also quite handy for those quick one time trips.

	TCS PAYMENT OPTIONS
		Due to changes in banking practices, our availability to funds deposited is limited. As we cannot issue payment checks to ADOT or any other agency until the funds are available to us by our bank, there will sometimes be a waiting period for your credentials, depending on your chosen method of payment to TCS. See our website for a guide to any waiting period you may incur between your payment to TCS and the processing of your credentials. This schedule is subject to change as banking practices are adjusted.

	TCS OFFICE HOURS
		Monday - Thursday: 8:00 to 5:00 Friday - 8:00 to noon

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