Motorcycle Registration and Inspection Sticker Changes for 2012

Today I recieved a letter from Gary Hinckley, Vehicle Services Director, Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles, that was sent to Eric Fuller of MMPAC. It is the official explanation of the changes we will deal with this year concerning getting our motorcycles registered and inspected. Below is the letter. If you are unsure of what to do this year read this letter. You might even want to print out a copy and take it with you when you go to register your motorcycle.

Please keep in mind that this letter really only pertains to the registration of a motorcycle going forward. The law requiring the display of an inspection sticker on motorcycles will also be phased in over the 2012 year. This means that what ever month you currently have your motorcycle inspected will remain the month of inspection. Unless you decide to change the inspection month by getting the motorcycle inspected early, nothing will change other than the sticker will be affixed to the registration plate in the upper left corner. During the 2012 year it is legal to have the inspection certificate in your pocket OR the sticker displayed on the plate. This means that until the motorcycle comes due for annual inspection you are legal with the current law requiring the certificate of inspection to be carried with the motorcycle registration. Beginning March 1, 2013 all motorcycles will be required to have the inspection sticker displayed on the motorcycle registration plate.

 

 

Motorcycle Registration and Inspection Sticker Changes

 

Garry Hinkley, Vehicle Services Director

Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles

 

Last session, the legislature passed LD 221, “An Act to Make Changes to the Motorcycle Inspection Program.”  LD 221 changed the law to require the motorcycle inspection sticker to be displayed on the vehicle’s registration plate.  Previously, a law was scheduled to go into effect to require the inspection sticker’s display on a mounting bracket, or on the motorcycle’s rear fender.

 

The new requirement starts in March, and will be phased in over the next year.  The inspection sticker will be placed in the plate’s upper left corner. In order to accommodate the inspection sticker, all motorcycle registrations (except those classes not required to be inspected) will be changed to a fixed March expiration.  That is, starting in April 2012, when a motorcycle is registered or renewed, the expiration date will be changed to expire in the next March.  The registrant will be issued a combined month/year sticker, which should be placed in the upper right corner. 

 

In order to transition into a mandatory March expiration, registration fees and excise taxes will be prorated for the correct number of months. BMV has modified and tested our computer system to correctly calculate prorated motorcycle registration fees.  The Bureau has provided our municipal agents and their computer vendors with instructions for the proration of all fees.   However, motorcycle registrants should review their registration fees and taxes at the point of registration.  If it appears fees were not prorated correctly, they can be most easily corrected at the counter. The standard annual motorcycle registration fee is $21.

 

In the future, when an owner registers a newly acquired motorcycle, the registration fee and excise tax will be prorated to reflect a March expiration.  However, fees for delayed renewal will be calculated in accordance with existing state law, and generally full fees will be charged. That is, after the transition to mandatory March expiration is complete, anyone renewing late will be charged full annual registration fees and excise taxes, as is the case today.

 

To facilitate fee calculation and to ease the municipal clerks’ workloads, the Bureau encourages motorcycle registrants to use the online service Rapid Renewal to renew whenever possible. Approximately three-quarters of all Maine registrants live in towns participating in Rapid Renewal.  https://www1.maine.gov/online/bmv/rapid-renewal/

 

 

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by D. R. Webb on March 10, 2012 at 1:22pm

Pretty easy to understand, If you watched that show last week.

 

DR

Permalink Reply by Stephen Marois on March 10, 2012 at 1:58pm

Thank you Josh.

Permalink Reply by Dave on March 10, 2012 at 6:40pm

Everyone needs to call state police to get a permit to ride to the inspection station

Permalink Reply by Jeff Neil MBN Founder on March 10, 2012 at 6:55pm

Not if your bike has a current and valid inspection sticker still. Inspection stickers will not expire early.

Everyone needs to call state police to get a permit to ride to the inspection station

Permalink Reply by Joshua Herndon on March 14, 2012 at 3:58pm

Here is a letter that Sgt. Scott of the state vehicle safety inspection unit sent out to all inspectors recently. It explains to the inspectors the process they will use to issue the inspection stickers to the owner of a motorcycle being inspected. There is some confusion and conflicting information coming from several differnet inspection facilities around the state. It might be a good idea to copy the letter to a word document and print it out and carry it with you. That way if you have an inspector that gives you a different explaination you can show them the letter from Sgt. Scott that they should have already gotten from him.

 

STATE OF MAINE

Department of Public Safety

MaineState Police

Traffic Safety

20 State House Station

Augusta, Maine

04333-0020

 

   PAUL R. LePAGE                                                                            BRIAN P. SCOTT                                                                           COL. ROBERT A. WILLIAMS          GOVERNOR                                                                                                    LIEUTENANT                                                                                               CHIEF

   JOHN E. MORRIS                                                       BRUCE G. SCOTT                                          LT. COL. RAY A. BESSETTE

       COMMISSIONER                                                                                                   SERGEANT                                                                                          DEPUTY CHIEF

 

Dear Motorcycle Inspection Station Owners and Employees,

 

The purpose of this memo is to explain the process you will use for inspecting motorcycles from March 1st, 2012 until March 1st, 2013.

All motorcycles are required to be inspected annually and beginning March 1st, 2012, motorcycles will have to display an Inspection Sticker on their registration plates as proof of their inspection. It will take one full year to fully implement this process and therefore the first year will be a “Phase in period.” In other words from March 1st, 2012 until March 1, 2013 motorcyclists can have either an Inspection Sticker on their registration plate or can provide an Inspection Certificate on demand of a law enforcement officer as proof of an inspection.Motorcycles that are properly registered as “Antique Motorcycles” are exempt from the inspection requirement.  Mopeds are also exempt from inspection.

You, the licensed Inspection Technician, will perform a motorcycle inspection in the same manner as before. Once the inspection is completed and the motorcycle passes an inspection you will fill out the two stub sheets for the corresponding sticker. If there is a place on the registration plate for the inspection sticker in the upper left hand corner you can apply the sticker to the plate. Please note that the inspection sticker is slightly too big to fit in the corner without trimming the sticker, so please trim the sticker to fit or slightly lower the sticker.You will cut out the month in which the motorcycle is inspected and will also have to trim out the months 9 and 10 to get the sticker to fit. If the month the motorcycle is inspected in is either 9 or 10, then you will trim what is necessary to get the sticker to fit on the plate(Next year the stickers will be smaller and will not need to be trimmed). If there is no place on the plate to put the sticker due to the month validation sticker still being present then you will give the sticker to the owner along with one of the stub sheets that will serve as their proof of inspection. The owner/operator of the motorcycle should put the sticker and one stub sheet with the registration of the motorcycle to be provided to law enforcement upon their request. The remaining stub sheet shall be retained by the station and then returned to the State Police Inspection Unit as you have been doing in the past.

Please feel free to contact me directly with any questions that you or your staff may have. Thank you in advance for your cooperation with this initiative. Beginning March 1st, 2013, all motorcycles must display an Inspection Sticker, therefore the Inspection Technician will be required to affix the inspection sticker to the registration plate.

 

Respectfully,

Bruce G. Scott

 

Sgt. Bruce G. Scott

Motor Vehicle Inspection Unit

36 Hospital St. Augusta, ME 04333

Office # 624-8949

Fax # 624-8945

 

 

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