(a) Fees and other charges equal as nearly as may be to the cost of the services rendered shall be assessed and collected from applicants in accordance with the following provisions unless otherwise provided in the cooperative agreement under which the services are furnished, or as provided in §54.6. For each calendar year, AMS will calculate the rate for inspection, grading, or certification services, per hour per program employee using the following formulas:

(1) Regular rate. The total AMS grading, inspection, or certification program personnel direct pay divided by direct hours, which is then multiplied by the next year's percentage of cost of living increase, plus the benefits rate, plus the operating rate, plus the allowance for bad debt rate. If applicable, travel expenses may also be added to the cost of providing the service.

(2) Overtime rate. The total AMS grading, inspection, or certification program personnel direct pay divided by direct hours, which is then multiplied by the next year's percentage of cost of living increase and then multiplied by 1.5 plus the benefits rate, plus the operating rate, plus an allowance for bad debt. If applicable, travel expenses may also be added to the cost of providing the service.

(3) Holiday rate. The total AMS grading, inspection, or certification program personnel direct pay divided by direct hours which is then multiplied by the next year's percentage of cost of living increase and then multiplied by 2, plus benefits rate, plus the operating rate, plus an allowance for bad debt. If applicable, travel expenses may also be added to the cost of providing the service.

(b)

(1) For each calendar year, based on previous fiscal year/historical actual costs, AMS will calculate the benefits, operating, and allowance for bad debt components of the regular, overtime and holiday rates as follows:

(i) Benefits rate. The total AMS grading, inspection, or certification program direct benefits costs divided by the total hours (regular, overtime, and holiday) worked, which is then multiplied by the next calendar year's percentage cost of living increase. Some examples of direct benefits are health insurance, retirement, life insurance, and Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) retirement basic and matching contributions.

(ii) Operating rate. The total AMS grading, inspection, or certification program operating costs divided by total hours (regular, overtime, and holiday) worked, which is then multiplied by the percentage of inflation.

(iii) Allowance for bad debt rate. Total AMS grading, inspection, or certification program allowance for bad debt divided by total hours (regular, overtime, and holiday) worked.

(2) The calendar year cost of living expenses and percentage of inflation factors used in the formulas in this section are based on the most recent Office of Management and Budget's Presidential Economic Assumptions.

(c) Fees for service—(1) On a scheduled basis. Minimum fees for service performed under a scheduled agreement or an agreement by memorandum will be based on 8 hours per day, Monday through Friday, excluding observed Federal legal holidays occurring Monday through Friday on which no grading and certification services are performed. The Agency reserves the right to use any grader assigned to the plant under a scheduled agreement to perform service for other applicants and no charge will be assessed to the scheduled applicant for the number of hours charged to the other applicant. Charges to plants are as follows:

(i) The regular hourly rate will be charged for hours worked in accordance with the approved tour of duty on the application for service between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

(ii) The overtime rate will be charged for hours worked in excess of the approved tour of duty on the application for service.

(iii) The holiday hourly rate will be charged for hours worked on observed legal holidays.

(iv) The night differential rate (for regular or overtime hours) will be charged for hours worked between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.

(v) The Sunday differential rate (for regular or overtime hours) will be charged for hours worked on a Sunday.

(2) On an unscheduled basis. Minimum fees for service performed under an unscheduled basis agreement will be based on the time required to render the service, calculated to the nearest 15-minute period, including official grader's travel and certificate, memorandum, and/or report preparation time performed in connection with the performance of service. A minimum charge of one-half hour shall be made for service pursuant to each request notwithstanding that the time required to perform service may be less than 30 minutes. Charges to plants are as follows:

(i) The regular hourly rate will be charged for the first 8 hours worked per grader per day for all days except observed legal holidays.

(ii) The overtime rate will be charged for hours worked in excess of 8 hours per grader per day for all days except observed legal holidays.

(iii) The holiday hourly rate will be charged for hours worked on observed legal holidays.

(d) Fees for appeal service. Fees for appeal service shall be determined on the basis of the time of two official graders required to render the service, including the time required for the preparation of certificates and travel of such graders in connection with the performance of the service. Provided, that when on appeal it is found that there was error in the original determination equal to or exceeding ten percent of the total number of similar units of the products involved, no charge will be made for the appeal service unless a special agreement therefor was made with the applicant in advance.

(e) Fees for extra copies of certificates. In addition to copies of certificates furnished under §54.14, any financially interested person may obtain not to exceed three copies of any such certificate within one year from its date of issuance upon payment of a fee, and not to exceed three copies of any such certificate at any time thereafter, while a copy of such certificate is on file in the Department. The fee for copies of certificates will be determined using the formulas in this section.

[79 FR 67321, Nov. 13, 2014, as amended at 84 FR 49641, Sept. 23, 2019]