TIADA Testifies Following Recommendation To Suspend Access To eTag System

• By: Earl Cooke
• On: 01/21/2021 15:32:10
• In: Texas Posts
• Comments: 1

Texas Department of Motor Vehicles recommended “suspend[ing] access to the eTAG system while TxDMV investigates” the misuse of temporary tags to the Consumer Protection Advisory Committee.

First, let me be crystal clear that TIADA, our board, and every one of our members should fully support TxDMV in preventing bad actors from misusing temporary tags if they do so in a way that is not harmful to legitimate car dealers. Also, if you have questions about the right and wrong ways to use buyer's temporary tags, please see the December 2020 issue of Texas Dealer or TxDMV's eTAG Dealer Plate & Tag Usage chart.

Often when we discuss the advocacy work of TIADA, members think of the great work TIADA does under the Golden Dome—if you have any doubts about how valuable TIADA is at the Capitol, I recommend visiting our INDEPAC Calculator and see how it has affected your dealership's bottom line.  Yet sometimes our most valuable contributions occur outside of the Capitol. In fact, TIADA spends more time educating state agencies, county Tax Assessors-Collectors, and advisory committees on the impact proposed changes in laws or regulations will have on car dealerships than it does working with the legislature.

Recently, TIADA's Executive Director Jeff Martin testified at the Consumer Protection Advisory Committee via a telephone conference call. The agenda for that meeting included four options to end temporary tag abuse recommended by TxDMV. Those four options were to:

1. “Create a two-step process that allows TxDMV to suspend access to the eTAG system while TxDMV investigates and pursues enforcement action for the ultimate sanction. . .The suspension would only affect the license holder's access to the eTAG system; the license holder would still be able to issue temporary tags through other means such as through a tax assessor collector office;
2. “Authorize the department by rule to establish the total number of temporary tags that a dealer may issue through the eTAG system based on projected dealer sales volume or other quantifiable metric, with provisions for authorization of additional tags”;
3. “Recommend the department to evaluate the feasibility of a department administered background check process for persons that are assigned eTAG system access by a dealer and have not already met licensing fitness requirements. The process would be based on current licensing fitness requirements, including ID validation and criminal history background checks by rule”; and
4. “Recommend the department evaluate methods to increase monitoring of temporary tag issuance and relationship to actual sales; and review the number of assigned users, removing inactive users and developing reporting to identify tag issuance outside of normal operations.”

 
After TxDMV presented their four options, the public was given a chance to speak. Executive Director Martin took this opportunity to explain the association's concern with option A, suspending a dealer's access to the eTAG system without any due process of law and how it harms both dealers and consumers. While the TxDMV told the Committee there are other methods of obtaining a temp tag, Martin focused on how none of those methods would allow a customer to take their vehicle home right away as most customers if not all prefer. He elaborated further by explaining some customers may tolerate this inconvenience, but most will not and any customer buying on a Friday night that had to return to take home their purchase would be upsetting. He further stated the elimination of access to the eTAG system was essentially a closure of the dealership for 20 days without any requirement for TxDMV to show a dealer misused temporary tags.

Martin explained that TIADA would fully support options B and D if method B had reasonable metrics to determine the number of temporary tags TxDMV issued and there were provisions for authorizing additional tags. He closed his conversation with the Committee by informing the committee that if option D focused on individuals who were clearly misusing temporary tags such as the example TxDMV used of a person with a GDN who issued over 5,000 temporary tags without a single sale of a motor vehicle in a few months that TIADA had no issue with this method of fixing temporary tag abuse.


After comments were made by TIADA and other members of the public, the Consumer Protection Advisory Committee voted against adopting the suspension of access to the eTag system and requiring dealers to have their employees undergo additional background checks to use the eTag system. The committee supported an eTAG system that would allow for an allotment of temporary tags on the frontend. The issue will work its way to the TxDMV board for more input and final approval. As always TIADA will continue to keep you abreast of issues and work diligently to represent your interest throughout the process.