Legislative Update: New vehicle registration system begins this month

By DAVID FLOYD
50th District State Representative

Tuesday, June 12, 2012 – In 2004 I was knocking on doors on Milton Brown Road, and a man there wanted something done about uninsured motorists. He knew that some people would pay for their auto insurance, take the insurance card down to the county clerk, get a sticker for another year – and then promptly cancel their policy for a refund, but then keep right on driving anyway. Of course, there are at least two problems with this: it’s against the law; and if you cause an accident and hurt someone, all your assets could be used to pay the damages. More often than not, the uninsured’s assets are insufficient to cover actual damages.

We have a new system in place beginning this month that should help this problem. Auto insurance has been mandatory in Kentucky since 1975. You can’t register your vehicle or get an annual sticker for your license plate unless you show proof of insurance. We’ve been taking our insurance cards down to the county clerk for so long, it will be strange to change to this new system, but it should be painless for most everyone.

The new system takes advantage of electronic records that all insurance companies must maintain with the state. It’s been a long time coming. In fact, it was in early 2004 that the General Assembly passed HB 29, which requires these updates on a monthly basis.

So the new system is – you go to the county clerk to pay for another year of vehicle registration, they look on the database to see if you are paid up on insurance, and they process the registration. You shouldn’t need a copy of your updated insurance card, because they just look on the computer screen to verify.

The Transportation Cabinet estimates that this electronic verification will cover 90% of all registrations. But for new car registrations, tag transfers, dealer tags, etc., you’ll need to take in cards. Naturally, there will be errors, because everyone involved in building the database is human. It’s unfortunate, but a Vehicle ID Number (VIN) can be entered incorrectly, and so can a Social Security Number. They’ve tested the system in eight counties (Bullitt County, for example) and discovered glitches that way. They are also able to estimate the uninsured in each county (for Nelson, it’s 366.)

Part of the new process is a monthly county clerk review of insurance coverage and registrations. (Remember the guy who registered his car, then cancelled the insurance?) When the system notes this discrepancy, the clerk will generate a letter to him that says “Hey, we show your insurance expired, you’ve got 30 days to get it corrected; come see us!” If it’s not corrected, the vehicle’s registration will be cancelled. And yes, there will be errors here, too, but you and your county clerk should be able to clear it up quickly.

The purpose of the new system is to encourage insurance coverage on all registered vehicles. When a police officer pulls you over, they will know whether or not you have insurance by the time they walk up to the driver’s door.

You’ll still have those who ignore the law, but the number of those should be greatly reduced. Any time a big change is implemented there will be learning curves and inconveniences. I think the Transportation Cabinet and the County Clerks Association is trying to make this transition as smooth and customer-friendly as possible. In fact, you can get more information at their website (transportation.ky.gov).

Or you can call me, because hearing from you is the best part of my job. My home is 350-0986, or leave a message at 1-800-372-7181. I’m here to help.

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