Legislative Bulletin - December 17, 2009

TRALA Arguing Against Excessive Odometer Registration Fee in San Diego County

TRALA is opposing efforts by the County of San Diego, California, to impose fees of $120 per vehicle in order to verify that odometers in rental trucks are accurate. This is the first time TRALA members have been asked to pay these fees in San Diego County. TRALA members operating in the County were contacted by Robert Atkins, Commissioner/Sealer of Weights and Measures for the Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures in August 2009 and asked to pay the fees for that year, as well being told to expect to pay fees again in early 2010. Subsequently, TRALA negotiated an agreement with the County to postpone any imposition of fees until January 2010. In the meantime, TRALA is still opposing certain aspects of the fee that it considers excessive.

Correspondence from Commissioner Atkins references the California Business and Profession Code 12240(a) and Local Ordinance 9514, which requires registration fees be paid for each business location and measuring device used commercially in the County of San Diego. TRALA’s President & CEO Tom James has spoken with Commissioner Atkins and his staff a number of times in attempts to clear up some of the confusion surrounding payment of this fee. Commissioner Atkins wrote in a letter to TRALA that each rental truck operating in the County of San Diego is considered a business location, and requires a $100 registration fee, plus a $20 registration fee for each vehicle’s odometer for a total of $120 per vehicle. He added that, “These fees are not unique to the rental truck industry as we have been charging these fees to the taxicab industry for many years and more recently to ambulances.” The entire letter from Commissioner Atkins can be seen here.

TRALA argues that business locations in the truck rental industry are the physical buildings and lots with street addresses where transactions occur and management of business operations takes place. This is unlike the taxicab industry in that transactions involving exchanges of money take place inside taxicabs that operate exclusively in the County. TRALA is pushing for the application of this odometer registration fee to rental trucks to be limited to $100 per physical location, plus $20 per odometer. The legislative history of the fee supports TRALA’s contention that this was the intent of the County when authorizing the fee to be imposed. A letter sent December 14 from TRALA to Commissioner Atkins and the County of San Diego Board of Supervisors can be seen here.

For more information, please contact TRALA’s Tom James at tjames@trala.org or Joe Sculley at jsculley@trala.org or by calling (703) 299-9120.