Is your license plate registration sticker your reminder to renew your vehicle registration? If so, starting this year, you will need a new reminder. License plate registration stickers are now a thing of the past. Technology has replaced license plate stickers with the Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) in 2017. The new technology will provide law enforcement officers a better tool to verify expired vehicle registrations or lack of insurance for vehicles. With the use of the ALPR, officers will be able to quickly and reliably check thousands of license plates on a single shift, using the information from PennDOT’s registration database. Not only is the ALPR a more efficient system for monitoring vehicle registration and insurance, it has other advantages over the stickers. Stickers could be counterfeited, sold, or affixed to the wrong plate. The ALPR eliminates these problems. The ALPR will more accurately and efficiently alert officers of a problem with a vehicle’s registration or insurance.
The last Pennsylvania vehicle registration sticker was issued December 30, 2016. Pennsylvania vehicles will still need to be registered and inspected, but are no longer required to display a registration sticker on their license plate. You may now renew your registration online and print your registration card. Future plans include uploading registration cards to smart phones, eliminating the need to print a copy of your registration.
The new ALPR technology will save approximately $3.1 million dollars per year by eliminating more than $2 million per year in mailing costs for the stickers and $1 million a year in production costs. Utilizing the savings, Penn DOT is proposing a grant program for officers to purchase and maintain the ALPR.
Hopefully the new ALPR technology will help officers to crack down on drivers taking to Pennsylvania roads without auto insurance. The only thing worse than a car accident tragedy, is a car accident tragedy with inadequate insurance coverage.