By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

Legislation passed in 2012 moved state appraised and taxed motor carriers to a commercial vehicle registration application that is now performed at the county level.

A lot of “service-oriented” business owners who thought they’ve been operating their vehicles within state and federal Department of Transportation laws, are finding out they’re not.

When it comes time to renew heavy truck and trailer tags with their county treasurer, many owners are told their vehicles are part of the new commercial vehicle system, and must bear the state’s new purple and white “Commercial” license plate.

Penny Fryback is a Special Investigator for the Kansas Corporation Commission Transportation Division.  She offers regular Motor Carrier Safety Regulations seminars in Hays and throughout western Kansas.  Fryback says attendance has begun exploding, from an average of about 25 people to a record 93 carriers in Hays Monday:

Fryback says it’s businesses such as plumbers, painters and landscapers that have been unknowingly “operating under the radar” for years. Gerald Long of Saint John is one of those—he’s operated Long’s Harvesting the past 15 years and custom cuts in Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado.  Long says he thought he “was running legal all these years” and “fully intends to come into compliance with state law:”

The renewal deadline is Friday, although the Kansas Division of Vehicles is waiving late fees for one month.

Ellis County Treasurer Anne Pfeifer says her office workers have been busy learning the new system as well.  The biggest challenge, she says, is “explaining who needs to be registered as a commercial vehicle.”  That can be answered by the free KCC seminars.

The situation will likely continue through the year, predicts Fryback, because some current vehicle tags, which should be the new commercial tags, will come up for renewal each month.

More than 45,700 vehicles have been registered through the new process, according to the Kansas Department of Revenue.