Texas vehicle inspection stickers going away in 2015

[Renegade]

Oh yeah, I did read the article. Just wondering if I will have to get my vehicle inspected in June, and then again within 90 days of my November registration renewal.

It explains how this works in the article.

 

[NavyVet1959]

When I've worked out of state, I often had a vehicle whose inspection sticker would expire and I could not get back to Texas to get a new Texas inspection sticker. I would just get an inspection sticker from that state instead and it was good enough for the local cops.

On the other hand, I once went a year without a current inspection sticker and never had a cop notice. Of course, when I noticed it was that out of date, I was rather surprised.

 

[benenglish]

On the other hand, I once went a year without a current inspection sticker and never had a cop notice. Of course, when I noticed it was that out of date, I was rather surprised.

Lucky you. Two of the last three tickets I got for expired inspection stickers, IIRC, had expired the previous month.

 

[NavyVet1959]

Lucky you. Two of the last three tickets I got for expired inspection stickers, IIRC, had expired the previous month.

Did they pull you over for the expired inspection sticker or for some other reason initially?

 

[benenglish]

Did they pull you over for the expired inspection sticker or for some other reason initially?

Two of the three were for the expired sticker, only.

 

[TX69]

Plate scanning will have all of your info in your profile from now on citizen.

 

[NavyVet1959]

Two of the three were for the expired sticker, only.

Hmmm.... I guess you drive in areas that are more interested in extracting the most money from each driver than I do.

Personally, I believe that the very act of pulling someone over creates a greater traffic hazard than the supposed infraction does in the first case for most situations. Why should the officer be endangering his life (plus yours) by pulling you over for something minor like an inspection sticker, registration, or even speeding (if it does not blatantly constitute reckless driving)? I think some officers understand this and unless you are doing something else wrong, they don't pull you over just for inspection stickers. Now, *if* they pull you over for something else, they are more than willing to pile on the charges, so you better have everything kosher. It's entirely possible that you *might* get an officer that will use his "officer's discretion" to not write you a speeding ticket as long as everything else is up to date, but if he pulls you over for speeding and then finds that you don't have insurance and your registration & inspection is expired, you're just pushing your luck a bit too much and you should expect a ticket. I've had officers not give me a ticket for not having my insurance papers with me, but as I was trying to find it, I pulled out 10 years worth of insurance papers, so he probably felt that there was a very good chance that I kept my insurance up to date, but just was not diligent about cleaning out my glove box of all the old ones (or anything else for that matter).

 

[NavyVet1959]

Plate scanning will have all of your info in your profile from now on citizen.

I think they already know if registered owner of the vehicle has a CHL. But if you have an out-of-state CHL, it will not necessarily show. Also, the registered owner is not necessarily the driver for the vehicle and in fact, the driver of the vehicle might not even be listed on the insurance policy, so even though they have that information, it doesn't help them all the time.

I just don't like the automated plate scanners. I think that there is a bit too much Big Brother in them and the potential for abuse is rather high.

 

[southtexaspilot]

Two of the three were for the expired sticker, only.

Corpus Christi cops love to sit under overpasses in the u turn lane solely to screen stickers as you slowly drive by. It's like cattle in a chute. There's no getting away.

W

 

[bowserb]

Bummer. I have long practiced sticker creep. Each year, I get my car inspected the month after it expires. I buy new and keep a car a long time. Right now one car has crept all the way from January to October. The other from October to May. The other key is that I have one of the computer code readers--one that will erase the codes.

Nothing good happens when the legislature is in session. The only good new law since 1972 has been the CHL.


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[Bozz10mm]

From the article:


So ... if your inspection expires in June 2015, and your Registration is in November 2015, then in June 2015 you'll have to get the inspection and in November 2015 you won't have to get an inspection done (just registration). June 2016 doesn't matter anymore, but once November 2016 comes around, you will have to get the inspection and registration done then.

I kind of like it to the point that everything is done on the same month. Always hated having the registration and inspection due different months and only way to really fix it was to get the inspection done early ... and I'm not about to give the state free money. HOWEVER, I foresee this being a bigger headache for us.

Thanks for the clarification. It actually works out better for me. One of my June vehicles will change to April, and the other to November.

 

[benenglish]

Hmmm.... I guess you drive in areas that are more interested in extracting the most money from each driver than I do.

That can't be the motivation if the LEOs involved have half a brain. Pulling me over for the sticker results in a waste of his time, the time and resources of the court, etc. All the court gets out of it is the $10 "dismissal fee" that I pay when I show up with the paperwork proving I now have a current sticker. I feel sure that $10 doesn't cover the costs involved in writing and processing the ticket.

All or almost all of my sticker-only stops (and I've had several over the last 4 decades) have been in low-traffic and/or low speed locations. I assume the officer making the stop figured an expired sticker was a good indicator that other problems would also surface. Back when I was a kid and didn't know any better, I actually consented to a complete search of my vehicle during one of those stops. (In that case, the officer found nothing and was clearly irritated at himself for wasting his own time but wrote me the ticket, anyway.) In my case, though, there are never any other problems. My insurance is in order. There will never be a smell of MJ.

I just need to learn (this was my last ticket) to stop driving by neighborhood Constable sub-stations where the speed limit is 20MPH and the LEOs standing on the sidewalk can see my sticker, have time to read it, and then jump in their car and pull me over before I've gotten a half-block away.

 

[benenglish]

Corpus Christi cops love to sit under overpasses in the u turn lane solely to screen stickers as you slowly drive by. It's like cattle in a chute. There's no getting away.

Happens in Houston, too. I got snared like that. I got written for the sticker and, believe it or not, for having a frame around my rear license plate.

At the time, (I never did find out all the details) there was some sort of pissing contest going on between the Houston PD and the DAs office about plate frames. The law says you can't obscure the plate (reasonable) and the DA was giving up on almost all tickets for obscured plates. Apparently, HPD took offense at that and started writing an extra ticket for an obscured plate every single time they wrote any other ticket for any other thing if you had any sort of frame around the plate, no matter how thin the frame.

It actually made the news here and made both sides look like petulant children. I never really understood all the details but I understand the practice has stopped.

The officer who wrote me that ticket was actually apologetic about it. He told me to take the frame off the plate, take it into the court, show it to them, and they'd dismiss the ticket. I had a weird moment of cognitive dissonance while I was simultaneously receiving a ticket from a police officer and listening to the same officer tell me how to beat that ticket.

Moral of the story: Political infighting makes for bad (or, at least, silly) law enforcement.

 

[TX69]

I think they already know if registered owner of the vehicle has a CHL. But if you have an out-of-state CHL, it will not necessarily show. Also, the registered owner is not necessarily the driver for the vehicle and in fact, the driver of the vehicle might not even be listed on the insurance policy, so even though they have that information, it doesn't help them all the time.

I just don't like the automated plate scanners. I think that there is a bit too much Big Brother in them and the potential for abuse is rather high.

The DPS doesn't care about CHL holders but they do care if they can tag your ass with a state inspection fine. When they link it to the ability to scan it on your plates they can auto scan everybody while sitting or moving instantly. Also they eliminate the need and cost of the stickers and can increase "administrative costs" on to the customer. The DPS coffers will overflowifff with your dollariffs lol. Although I have never been busted for an expired inspection I'll bet they can/will sieze and impound your vehicle racking up thousands in fees as well.

I'll also venture to say that this will be coming to the scanners at the toll roads soon too where these fees can be mailed to you or instantly charged against a card to taken out of your account. Not only that but some SWAT will show up at your door and zip your ass lol.

 

[NavyVet1959]

The DPS doesn't care about CHL holders but they do care if they can tag your ass with a state inspection fine. When they link it to the ability to scan it on your plates they can auto scan everybody while sitting or moving instantly. Also they eliminate the need and cost of the stickers and can increase "administrative costs" on to the customer. The DPS coffers will overflowifff with your dollariffs lol. Although I have never been busted for an expired inspection I'll bet they can/will sieze and impound your vehicle racking up thousands in fees as well.

I'll also venture to say that this will be coming to the scanners at the toll roads soon too where these fees can be mailed to you or instantly charged against a card to taken out of your account. Not only that but some SWAT will show up at your door and zip your ass lol.

I would not be surprised in the least if they weren't thinking about embedding RFID chips in either the license plate or the registration sticker so that they could automatically scan ever car that went by the sensor and automatically send a ticket to the registered owner. I've lived in states that did not require inspection stickers and although I have to wonder some of those vehicles were still on the road, I did not see there being a noticeably greater percentage of accidents involving them than in areas that had inspection stickers. I really believe that it is just another way that they tax you for the use of the roads.

 

[TheDan]

One time I was driving through the access road in my neighborhood; 35mph speed limit with a median. A cop driving the opposite direction (across the median) noticed my expired inspection sticker. He sped up to the next break in the median, made a hard u-turn sliding the ass end of his car out in the process and raced to catch me. I was doing a steady 35mph. Those inspection stickers are farking serious

 

[Southpaw]

^^^ He must have been really, really bored!!

 

[Tazer]

What a rookie. He must of been trying to met some type of quota.

 

[XinTX]

My assumption, for what it's worth, is there will be data sharing between TX DPS who handles the inspections and the tax office/DMV who handles registrations.

Except for when the 18 year old grease monkey doing the inspection makes a typo and the clerks in the tag office treat it as an unpardonable sin. Then you have to get yet another inspection, only for them to now see that you have two inspections, which requires another trip to some other office. What could go wrong?

Last car I bought required no less than five trips to the tag office to deal with those jerks.

 

[cbigclarke]

I think I'm going back to registering my vehicles in Georgia