Title and Registration made easy

[Dukeman]

I spent two hours at the state run Motor Vehicle department on Monday of this week. I received my SF97 paper work on Friday so with that in hand a plopped myself down an waited in line. Two hours later I walked out with absolutely nothing accomplished. The old guy who went out to do my VIN inspection could barley climb up in to the cab. He didn't like that I did not have any weight numbers on my data tag, its blank, what can I say. He finished looking around then we went back inside and he handed me a form and said I had to go for a higher level inspection through the State Police Office. He said he was looking for a 17 digit VIN number. I asked him how he came to that conclusion when the government documents only show the 9 digit number. Needless to say it wasn't worth the frustration. I remember now why I hate going to the state run MVD.

So I set up an appointment with the State Police, but thought I would try one of the private MVD Express places just to see how they would handle it. Wow, what a difference. First off, cute young women working there, bonus. She looked at the SF97 and knew what it was and what is was for. She looked at the GL transfer form and nodded her head, grabbed a clip board and I followed her outside to check out the truck. We talked about what I was using it for and she smiled. She crawled up in the cab, checked the VIN, checked the mileage then asked if there was anything showing the weight. Oh no, I thought, I'm dead now. I told her I haven't found anything, that I was just going off the weight on the SF97 and from the technical manual. Hey, good enough for her! No questions about weight, she just said its under 26,000lbs so no problem. No questions about air brakes, nothing, sweet.

Walked back in side where she promptly gave me a title, registration and happily sent me on my way. How easy was that. Of course I had to pay their fees which was about $50 extra dollars, but I got a 2 year registration for $71. I was happy to pay the fees instead of jumping through hoops with the state run office. So I'm done and legal. Insurance at $550 a year through State Farm and I'm good to go. Moral of the story is if you have private offices in your state maybe pay the extra money for no hassle.

 

[steelypip]

Capitalism at work. It all comes down to where their interest lies. The state bureaucrat has an incentive to a) do the minimum possible to get the paycheck (because promotion is rare and seniority based), and b) not get an ass-chewing from someone higher in the bureaucracy for titling and licensing a truck that doesn't look just like the sample in the class where they learned how to do titling.

The private business gets paid when (and only when) you get a title and registration. They have a financial incentive to do whatever they can for a customer without getting crossways with the law.

 

[steelandcanvas]

It sure is nice to hear a positive registration/titling story for a change.

 

[1 Patriot-of-many]

Definitely not in MN from my personal experience. I'm the only guy in MN that had to have it inspected to get my title 11 months after I applied for it after countless registration hoops. Hey Dukeman, if you have a bunch of policies with State Farm, insist on getting your deuce reclassified as classic/collector. My insurance went from $660 a year full coverage(they had me as commercial) to less than $200 a year after I threatened to take all my polices elsewhere. They suddenly found a way to reclassify after numerous attempts by me.

 

[fsearls92]

Good to hear they got you through it. Couldn't imagine how it would go with the state police, the air brake issue, and gvwr of that truck.

 

[DeucesWild11]

I'd pay a little extra for the service! I didn't have an issue with my truck I just told them it was an old pickup truck.. Ha! But then again it had already been registered in NY state so that helped. My trailer was another issue as the numbers were only 3 digit. I had to get an pencil etching of the vin#. Then I was OK..

 

[Flyingvan911]

Any pics of the cute woman?

Glad the process was relatively painless. It was a piece of cake when I registered my deuce here in Missouri. I was very lucky that my VIN was already 17 digits.

 

[Madclown]

Glad to hear you got it done man...