PUCTRA quarterly fees, explained

PUCTRA is the fee that funds the Commission's oversight of passenger carriers. Every TCP and PSC carrier files a statement each quarter reporting gross revenue from California intrastate passenger service and pays a percentage of it. The rate is set each fiscal year and shown on the statement in the CPUC TCP portal.

What revenue counts

• Counts: fares for trips that start and end in California, including airport transfers, charters, hourly work, and tours, whether you did the run yourself or a subcontractor did it under your authority.
• Does not count: interstate trips (one end outside California), revenue you passed through to another carrier that reports it under its own authority, and non-transportation income.
• Keep the workpaper. Export the trip list you used for the quarter and keep it with the filing. In an audit the Commission asks for exactly that, going back several years.

The four dates every quarter

1. Quarter end. March 31, June 30, September 30, December 31.
2. File-by date. The 15th of the month after the quarter ends: April 15, July 15, October 15, January 15. The statement is filed and paid in the portal under My PUCTRA.
3. Penalty date. Roughly 30 days after the file-by date. Filing after it adds a 25 percent penalty to the fee.
4. Suspension date. Roughly 90 days after the file-by date. An unfiled quarter past this point suspends the authority, and continued non-filing leads to revocation.

How to file

1. Pull gross intrastate revenue for the quarter from your dispatch or accounting system. Exclude interstate trips and farm-outs reported by the other carrier.
2. Sign in to the CPUC TCP portal, open My PUCTRA, choose the quarter, and enter the revenue. The portal computes the fee.
3. Certify the statement. The Commission requires the carrier, not a service or a bookkeeper, to certify it under penalty of perjury.
4. Pay in the portal and save the confirmation number. The filing is not complete until payment posts.

If you inherited a gap

Buying a company means buying its filing history. Quarters the previous owner never filed are still open against the authority. Check the portal's PUCTRA history back to the start of the authority, and if there are gaps, file them, with the penalty, before they turn into a suspension or an audit finding. Your purchase agreement may let you recover the cost from the seller, but the Commission looks only at the authority.