Skipping the Line at DMV

Is New Hampshire ready for Electronic Vehicle Registration? Sen. Andy Sanborn (R-Henniker) thinks so. He says it’s long overdue, and he’s gathered 18 co-sponsors for a bill that could dramatically change the car registration routine for New Hampshire residents.

The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a public hearing on Senate Bill 156 Friday. If implemented, the measure would give New Hampshire consumers the choice to electronically register their vehicle at the time of purchase — and bypass the need to register at their town or city hall or at the local Division of Motor Vehicles. The dealer would collect the registration and other fees and electronically transmit them to appropriate towns and cities.

Sanborn, a freshman senator and Commerce Committee member, tells Front Door Politics that the bill includes a year-long pilot program with one vendor and a small number of participating dealerships and municipalities to determine how the program works and what improvements it needs. The voluntary program – for dealers, municipalities and consumers – assumes no cost to the state, as third party vendors will set hardware and software for the Department of Safety, participating municipalities and dealers. Dealers would be charged a fee from the vendor for each registration transaction and dealers will be allowed to charge customers for the convenience.

“This is new, better and more efficient,” Sanborn says. “We want to bring all the players together and take the next year to see if it will work and does what it says it will.”

Peter McNamara, president of the New Hampshire Auto Dealers Association, says his organization supports the bill in part because it allows dealers to provide a service to time-starved customers. The NHADA did a survey that found the average clerk’s office was open 28 hours a week in New Hampshire.

“In nearly all states, consumers can register their vehicle at dealerships and in 27 states, they can register electronically,” McNamara says.

Some New Hampshire communities currently allow residents to electronically renew their vehicles’ registration through a program called E-Reg. Senate Bill 156 would change the process for newly purchased vehicles.

Sanborn has added an amendment to give town and city clerks more input into the program through an EVR advisory committee. He’s also confident that the bill, which is supported by the state DMV, will have a positive vote in committee and also pass the Senate.

>> Friday, March 11, Senate Commerce Committee public hearing on SB 156, Room 100 at the Statehouse, 9:00 a.m.

This Daily Dispatch was written by Michael McCord.

Posted by Hilary Niles on Mar 10 2011. Filed under agencies & departments, auto, Commerce, Government, registration of vehicles, Transportation, Weekly Briefing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry