One written comment was received on the proposed regulation. The commentator was concerned with the following:

a) the ability of the Department to impose higher than normal limits of financial responsibility when special conditions warrant;

b) uncertainty as to what minimum insurance coverage will be required;

c) the requirement that all individual trip permit holders procure and maintain specified levels of liability insurance coverage and the elimination of the current ability of most individual trip permit holders to satisfy the Department's financial responsibility requirements by payment of a $4.00 per trip fee; and

d) the potentially burdensome requirement of periodically submitting proof of insurance as a routine part of the application process for individual trip permits.

In response to these concerns, the Department makes the following points:

a) The language allowing the Department to impose higher than specified limits of financial responsibility is intended to cover unusually heavy or wide loads or the transportation of hazardous material in situations where the Department already imposes additional financial responsibility requirements;

b) The Department believes that wording of the regulation as it specifies actual minimum coverage limits is unambiguous;

c) Currently the Department requires separate protective liability insurance coverage naming the People of the State of New York as named insured. In almost all cases for individual trip permits, this requirement can be satisfied by the payment of a $4.00 per trip fee, which defrays the cost of the insurance that the Department has already purchased to protect the Department in the event that the State is sued for damages arising out the issuance of a permit; the existing $4.00 fee does not actually purchase any additional insurance coverage for the permit holder. The new regulation eliminates the protective liability coverage requirement for the People of the State of New York and replaces it with the requirement that each permit holder maintain a specified level of motor vehicle insurance. The Department believes, based on previous outreach efforts, that most individual trip permit holders already have insurance coverage that meets the minimum insurance requirements specified in the regulation and would, therefore, not need to purchase additional insurance. The effect of this change would be to relieve those individual trip permit holders from paying the existing $4.00 fee for which they receive no additional liability coverage.

d) The new regulation is intended to allow permit applicants to self-certify that they meet the minimum insurance requirements without the need of filing insurance certificates for each permit. In general, there will be no requirement that each applicant submit a certificate of insurance with each permit application.

The manager of the Department's Overweight/Oversize Permit Program communicated this information to the individual who made these comments. In response, the commentator responded, in writing, thanking the manager for taking the time to discuss and explain the regulation and stating that the commentator now understood the new regulation as a “useful and positive change from the perspective of the permit applicant”.

As a result of the comment and the ensuing discussion, no change has been made in the final regulation.