License plate tabs make sure to check them!

[JIPJOBXX]

Just thought I would post this as today I had to pay a heafty fine for out of date tabs.  Up here in Washington State they either send you out a reminder or not.  Well today comming back from my monthly breakfast with all my retirement buddies I got stop for expired tabs.  I tried to talk my way out of it but with the state looking for every dime they can get he issued me a nice little ticket for 124 dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was a little bit flustraded but I made out the check and sent it in.  I'm pretty sure I never got a notice and of course never looked at my plates for the proper date for experation.  So from now on in each viehicle that I own I will post a little small note on my visor when it time to renew the tabs.  Oh kind of funny but the last ticket I got and that was four years ago was at the same location that I got this one at Oh well life goes on!

[greg g]

Our registration and inspection stickers are date punched and right on the windshield in front  of us and I just noticed yesterday my Inspection expired in Sept.

[_shel_ny]

Not uncommon here in NY with the inspection interval at 1 year with 2 year registration interval. Computer kicks out a registration renewal about 2 months ahead of time, but no inspection reminder.

 

Very common the first few days of the months to see a stack of law enforcement folks out blocking the highway in both directions checking all the vehicles.

[Captain Neon]

I guess I've never had a problem knowing when my tabs are due.  Not only are eyes dawn to my own licence plate every time I approach from behind, I tend to notice if the car ahead of me at a stop light has expired tags.  I just find the whole process of renewing my tags to be a hassle.  One thing I miss about Minnesota is how convenient and trouble-free they have made renewing tags.  Out of the five states I have lived in my adult life, Minnesota has the most convenient process for renewing tags.

[JIPJOBXX]

We ust to have them on the frount of the vehicle but to save a dime they just have them on the back.  Yep do I feel dumb "Yes" but sometimes its the little things that just slip by   I kind of wish my wife had gotten the ticket because maybe she could have perswaded the officers to let her go.  Oh well life move on and its a done deal!!!!

[JerseyHarold]

When I lived in Staten  Island, the NYC Parking Violations Bureau "brownies" (brown uniforms and brown cars in those days) would come around on the first of the month between 4-6 AM to catch expired stickers.  They would actually walk from car to car in the dark with a flashlight.  Talk about money-grubbing.....

[busycoupe]

Here in NC they have done away with inspection stickers.  The plate registration has to be renewed each year, but before you are allowed to renew it (which you can do online) you have to have the car inspected.  As soon as the inspector enters your data on the state website you can go online and renew the registration.  One licence plate, on the back, one registration sticker.  Yes, I still have to remind myself to check the date on the licence plate. However, any car over 35 years old does not have to be inspected.  That really makes owning an old car easy.

Dave

[JIPJOBXX]

Yep glad I have two rigs with classic license plates also!  My bus and of course my old Dodge!

[Dan Hiebert]

Of the 6 States I've owned cars in, surprise of surprises, New York has been the easiest to deal with for registrations.  I get my notices at least 3-months before the registration expires.  Although, I don't necessarily like the window stickers.  I hear tell when NY first started using them, they didn't stick well at all (they still don't seem to stick all that great, not for two years, anyway), and owners had to tape them on - which was "illegal", and the po-po would issue tickets left and right.  New Yorkers being who they are, it didn't take long to correct both the ticketing issue, and improve the stickers.  We lived in Texas when that state went from plate stickers to window stickers, mainly because too many plate stickers were being stolen, especially along the border.  I used to slice the sticker with a razor after I put it on, it would still be ruined when someone tried to steal it, but at least the thief wouldn't benefit. 

[JIPJOBXX]

Interesting up here as I was reading the ticket I got for this violation.  If I paid the fine and didn't go to court with it to get it reduced than it was a pure fine but if I took it to court and put it befor a judge and lost my case then instead of being a non-moving in fraction it would be a moving fraction ticket.  Boy you talk about being put over a barrel.  A friend of mine stated to me that I should have gone to court over it but you know what?  It would be just my luck to have the judge that believes in no liancy and my insurance rates would go up.  Well live and learn and the state has a few more bucks to waste away with my donation.  Oh by the way I have ran into a few other folks that never got there notice in the mail about there tabs being due so I don't feel so lonely.  Jon 

PS. I now have in each of my cars a special spot inside that I can view to see what month my yearly tags are in need of renewing.

[Eneto-55]

In Ohio the stickers are annual, and expire on the registrant's birthday (Tags belong to the person, not to the vehicle.).  One year after I got the new stickers I went out to put it on our family car, and realized that the one on the tag was not from the year before, but from two years before.  I found it in the glove compartment....  We had driven all over the place for a whole year with an expired sticker. 

[LAKOTA169]

In Ohio the stickers are annual, and expire on the registrant's birthday (Tags belong to the person, not to the vehicle.).  One year after I got the new stickers I went out to put it on our family car, and realized that the one on the tag was not from the year before, but from two years before.  I found it in the glove compartment....  We had driven all over the place for a whole year with an expired sticker. 

One year while I was working with the sheriff department, during the Woodward Dream Cruise, we stopped a car with April tags (this was mid-August). Same thing, he had them in his glovebox. We just had him pull into a parking lot and put it on.

[TodFitch]

One year while I was working with the sheriff department, during the Woodward Dream Cruise, we stopped a car with April tags (this was mid-August). Same thing, he had them in his glovebox. We just had him pull into a parking lot and put it on.

I've never understood this. Why not just put the tags on the car when you get them? Putting them in the glove box need not be part of the process. Near as I can tell the enforcement people don't care if you have next year's stickers on the car.

 

Routine in my house is:

1. California mails the registration renewal form about 3 months before its due.

2. My wife mails the check almost immediately.

3. We get the sticker and new registration about 2 months before the old one expires.

4. I put it on the car, usually the same day as it arrives. So for a while my tag shows renewal expiring over a year later, no big deal. In fact two of our three vehicles show a November 2014 expiration at the moment.

[Dan Hiebert]

...anyone out there remember when you'd get a whole shiny new license plate every time you renewed your registration?  Some states did that up until fairly recently (as in, I remember, and I aint all that old).  Up until mid '80's in Texas.  And a few states didn't even adopt a window or plate sticker until the 90's.  Johnny Law had to run your plates to know if it was expired, or ask for the registration.  I've always found it "interesting" how different all the States can be with that sort of stuff.  

[Don Coatney]

 I've always found it "interesting" how different all the States can be with that sort of stuff.  

 

I do wonder how much longer all the states will maintain there individual status as far as vehicle Registration & Titling procedures. For a long time it has been the trend of federal government to cut monitary support to the States unless federal guidelines are followed. I do expect the federal government to step in some day and homognize the entire process so all States will do things the same way.Some day (and that day may never come) all tags will look the same and be made off shore.

 

I will now step down from the soap box.

 

[LAKOTA169]

In Michigan, the tabs expire on your birthday. Some people still think you have until the end of the month to put the tabs on. Tabs change color each year and only show the month it expires. I always change mine on the last day of the month it expires (of course, my birthday is the last day).

[Captain Neon]

Oh, Don, after living in 5 states, I am nervous about having to have Colorado-style emissions testing, Kansas-style titling, Arkansas-style vehicle taxes, Missouri-style vehicle inspections, and Minnesota-style driver licencing.  We all know that the federal government will adopt "best practices" of the 50 states when developing a federal vehicle registration process.

[Scruffy49]

Huh, the plate on my Pilot House expired in 1974, I drove it for months on them in 1994, never so much as a second glance from the WA State patrol or Whitman County Sheriff's Dept. Plate on my motorcycle is an old white on burgundy MO unit, with no stickers at all. Plan to see how long it takes the local police to figure out it is a bogus plate... I'll have the real one in the saddlebag for when they catch on... TN motorcycle plates are boring, the old MO one is rather neat...

[TodFitch]

Huh, the plate on my Pilot House expired in 1974, I drove it for months on them in 1994, . . .

California yearly registration stickers are color coded for the year. I think that is so enforcement officers can just glance and see what year the sticker is for without having to actually read it. Anyway, they recycle the sticker colors. Not sure of the cycle, I guess I could look in the folder in the file cabinet some day to refresh my memory. I kept my car registered for all the years it was disassembled and simply put the unused stickers in a folder. Seeing them all in one place was what made me aware of the cycle.

 

I'm guessing that you could go without being caught if the sticker color for your old registration happened to be the color for the current year.

 

But a number of police departments around here, Palo Alto and San Jose for sure, are now mounting automatic license plate readers on some patrol cars. It is my understanding that the readers communicate directly with the a computer with a DMV database. Apparently they sound an alert for the officer if a car with an issue (reported stolen, too many tickets, registered to "a person of interest", etc.) is spotted.

 

As the technology gets cheaper and all police departments clammer to get into the act, probably promoting it as a way to find terrorists, I can imagine that the yearly stickers might become obsolete as the automated stuff is looking at the actual plate numbers and running them through the database, not picking out the color of a sticker.

[Captain Neon]

No one will need to convince the politicians or law enforcement that plate scanners are a good cheap way to build revenue.  That's why the increased enforcement.  Missouri tried to go to a single plate on the back like their neighbours (KS, AR, and OK), but it was quickly shot down because it would require expensive upgrades to the red light camera systems already in place, or abandon the investment all together.