IRP in Michigan: Apportioned Registration, Fees and the Distance Schedule

Michigan administers IRP through the Department of State — the Secretary of State's office that handles all vehicle registration — with IFTA handled separately by the Department of Treasury. A Detroit or Grand Rapids carrier is interjurisdictional by geography: Ohio and Indiana are an hour south, and the Ambassador Bridge and the Blue Water Bridge carry more Canada–US truck traffic than any other crossings, putting Ontario on most Michigan fleets' distance schedules.

The threshold is the Plan's: a power unit over 26,000 pounds gross or registered weight, or with three or more axles, or in a combination over 26,000 pounds, operating in two or more member jurisdictions. Trailers are not apportioned; they carry an ordinary plate and travel on the power unit's cab card.

The fee is the sum of every jurisdiction's registration fee for the vehicle's weight class, each weighted by the fleet's percentage of distance there over the twelve months ending June 30 before the registration year. Registered weight is the largest lever, and the distance split is the second.

That Ontario share is the distinctive line on a Michigan IRP application. Automotive and parts freight runs Windsor–Detroit and Sarnia–Port Huron daily, and a fleet's July-to-June distance can put a quarter or more of its miles in Ontario, reported in miles from a jurisdiction that measures in kilometres. Add Ohio, Indiana and Illinois for the Midwest runs and the schedule has half a dozen consequential entries. Telematics reports distance by jurisdiction for the year, per unit, from continuously logged position, and the same report run quarterly is the Treasury's IFTA return.

Michigan State Police Motor Carrier Division checks cab cards and weights at the weigh stations on I-94, I-75 and I-96, and Ontario's MTO checks the same truck on the other side of the bridge. A fleet running IRP, IFTA and an ELD certified for both countries from one device carries one record through both.

The base jurisdiction can audit the distance behind an application for three years after the registration year closes, and asks for trip-level distance by jurisdiction tied to a unit and a date. GPS trip logs behind a distance report answer that; reconstructed trip sheets get the fee recalculated.