Under The Hood
HUNTER TAYLOR

It won't be long until we start seeing cars riding around our area without little yellow stickers affixed to the corner of their windshields. North Carolina has now decided to eliminate stickers in the safety inspection process.

The safety inspection process, as far as you and I are concerned, will remain basically the same; the only difference, other than price, is that the driver will now be entered into the DMV's electronic database, and the vehicle will not be issued a yellow sticker. The price of a passed inspection will rise from $9.10 to $13.60.
The Division of Motor Vehicles is now beginning to provide inspection stations with computers, equipped with bar code scanners, which will require a dedicated telephone line. These computers will be used to perform the inspection, and will send the inspection information directly back to the DMV when a car passes inspection.

How will the owner know that the car needs to be inspected if that little yellow sticker isn't there as a reminder? The answer is that the inspection will expire at the same time that the registration is up for renewal. When an owner applies to renew his/her registration, the DMV will check their database to see that the car has been inspected. If it has, then the registration will be renewed. If not, then they will inform the driver that he/she will have to get the car inspected before a current registration will be issued.

The DMV is planning to begin a marketing campaign to notify to the general public. You will likely start seeing advertisements on television and hearing them on the radio. The new inspection process will begin October 1, 2008. Until then, stations will continue to issue the yellow stickers.

During the transition period, there will be some situations that will allow you to go longer than one year on an inspection. If, this year only, a car is scheduled to be inspected in September, but the license renewal is not scheduled until January, a sticker will be issued this September. However, the owner will not have to turn around 4 months later, in January, and get it inspected again when the registration is up for renewal. Instead, the DMV will allow this inspection to remain current until the next time the registration renews, January 2010. Because of this, the car will be able to ride for 16 months on one inspection. After this one-time transition period though, the car will once again be inspected on a yearly basis.

Inspection station owners will need to get the equipment to perform these inspections. This requires completing a DMW E-Sticker Enrollment form. This form will need to be faxed or mailed back, and the timing of this is critical: If a station enrolls in the stickerless inspection program prior to October 1, 2008, the DMV will issue the equipment to the station . After October 1, however, if a station decides to begin inspections, it will be the station's responsibility to purchase the equipment. I have not heard a definite figure on the price of the equipment, but have heard that it will run in the $3,000-$4,000 range. If you are a station owner and do not have this form, please contact the DMV office and they can provide the form to you.

Hunter Taylor is the automotive department head at Halifax Community College. If you have any questions about this article or other aspects of automotive technology, please contact Hunter at taylorh@halifaxcc.edu.