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The End of Paper Temporary Tags in Texas: What You Need to Know

Will paper temporary tags become a thing of the past? Maybe. Currently, the legislature is debating doing just that. Representative Craig Goldman (R—Fort Worth) this session authored a bill, HB 718, that would replace all paper tags with metal plates.

This bill has already been passed by the House Transportation Committee and Representative Goldman expects it to be passed out of the House. The Senate side has a companion bill being carried by Senator West, and the Senate Transportation Committee is set to meet on the bill next Wednesday. If the bill passes both chambers and is signed by the governor, it will become law, and paper temporary tags will become a thing of the past.

Initially, the bill was slated to be effective on September 1, 2023. Should the bill pass, TIADA will work with the administrative process to ensure dealers' business is not impacted. There are many details to work out and TIADA has already had initial conversations about what the implementation of this bill will look like. First, TIADA was concerned about dealers having an adequate supply of metal plates in such a short time frame. TIADA worked with other stakeholders to express this concern and in response, the sponsor of the bill moved the effective date of the proposed law to make it effective 2 years from now. This should allow time for TxDMV, local tax offices, and others to get ready for the change.

Next, TIADA inquired as to how this process would work, specifically after the initial metal temporary tag was issued and what would happen next. TIADA was told that out-of-state customers would be responsible for destroying the metal tag and that dealers would not have to retrieve them. For Texas customers, TIADA was told the temporary metal plate would be processed and become the permanent tag. TIADA will continue to monitor this bill and is prepared to work with TxDMV to ensure that if it passes, TxDMV will understand the operational challenges this bill presents dealers and that dealers and their customers are minimally impacted.

Comments

 
By: Robert Hernandez
On: 04/20/2023 12:42:45
Dear Board Members: May I suggest to ask members for ideas to mitigate any impact of this imminent change? Let us ensure that smaller dealers don't have to jump through hoops to get adequate assignment of metal tags. Thank you! Robert
 
By: Maria Pericaz
On: 04/20/2023 15:46:16
I can see alot of issues with this. First being the extra expenses of keeping those plates safe and having to hire additional staff to run tags and keep track. Second this person will be fighting toll tag bills everyday because NTTA and TXDMV do not have a very good system and NTTA bills all enternet down tags assigned to the customer, to the selling dealer. NTTA is not very easy to deal with these issues and it is time consuming Third I believe this will cause more dealers especially the smaller ones to be fined and eventual have to close doors because the cost to run all these changes will be to expensive to bare. Fourth if people steal paper tags it is less likely a customer will destroy a metal tag causing way more issues fifth what about the agent/vehicle specific tags? How will this work? I think the doc fee will have to be raised to off set the cost because everyone knows we can only keep raising the prices of inventory so much before people no longer buy from us. Just concerns that I have regarding this idea.
 
By: Eddie Massey
On: 07/17/2023 11:32:52
I decided to be proactive and go ahead and set up to do metal plates at my small used car dealership. I got all of the information that the state and the county has printed out telling how to make this happen. A lazer printer is required and printer requirements are listed plus it states there is an approved list provided by TXDMV or the printer can be approved by your county. NO ONE KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT THIS LIST. I have called Web Dealer, other numbers at DMV, the local DMV office and my local Dealer Room in my county. I checked with a new car dealer that is already doing the inhouse plate distribution and they have a very large expensive printer. The local manager of Office Depot told me that none of their available printers meet the requirements except the very large ones that they use for commercial printing. Does anyone know where this phantom approved list might be obtained?

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