SB 23-012

Senate Bill 23-012 updates the penalties for commercial motor carriers in Colorado who don't follow safety rules, making those penalties similar to federal ones. If a company doesn’t pay these fines or cooperate with safety checks within 30 days, their vehicles can be marked as unsafe on a national system and they might lose the right to register their trucks in Colorado. The bill also allocates money for its implementation, some of which will go towards technology services. Parts of this law start in August 2023, with other parts taking effect in April 2024. Governor Polis signed it into law on May 12, 2023.

Official Summary

The act changes the amount of civil penalties that may be levied on commercial motor carriers for failure to comply with rules for the safe operation of commercial vehicles by tying the amount of civil penalties to the amount of federal civil penalties for interstate commercial motor carriers. If a motor carrier fails to pay civil penalties within 30 days or to cooperate with the completion of a safety compliance review within 30 days, the act authorizes the department of revenue to both enter the noncompliant motor carrier and its vehicles as out-of-service in the federal motor carrier safety administration system of record and cancel or deny registration to the noncompliant motor carrier. For the 2023-24 state fiscal year, the act appropriates $61,110 to the department of revenue from the DRIVES vehicle services account in the highway users tax fund to implement this act, of which $8,910 is reappropriated to the office of the governor for use by the office of information technology to provide services to the department of revenue. APPROVED by Governor May 12, 2023 PORTIONS EFFECTIVE August 7, 2023 PORTIONS EFFECTIVE April 30, 2024 NOTE: This act was passed without a safety clause and takes effect 90 days after sine die; except that, section 42-4-235 (2)(d)(I)(B) and section 42-3-120 (3)(a)(II) take effect April 30, 2024. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

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