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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2021 - 2022
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | May 27, 2022 10:48 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Mario M. Scavello |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Motor Vehicle Digital Registration Plates |
| In the very near future, I will be introducing legislation that would provide an option for Motor Vehicle Digital Registration Plates. Currently, registration plates in Pennsylvania are made of metal material and offer slight advantages to either the driver or the state. This measure would allow digital registration plates to be made available as an alternative to the traditional metal plates. Digital license plates allow vehicle owners to have unique features metal plates cannot. Digital registration plates allow owners to change the look of their plates display in many ways, including being able to purchase multiple vanity insignias from the state and alternate between them, indicate an Amber alert, or indicate if the car was stolen. This concept is not new to Pennsylvania. In the summer of 2019, PennDOT launched an 18-month digital license plate pilot program. The license plates have been put on 20 different PennDOT vehicles across the state, including cars and passenger vans used to deliver mail in Harrisburg. District 8 in Harrisburg and District 1 in Erie have them on fleet vehicles like plows and dump trucks to see how the plates work on different vehicles. Digital registration plates have been proven to function in extreme weather and are able to withstand temperatures ranging from -40 to 185°F. Furthermore, digital plates carry technologies that improve the accuracy and effectiveness of tolling. Digital plates are readable by license plate readers. They can also improve the accuracy of tolling applications by digitally displaying registration plates with a built-in Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag. Authorizing digital license plates enables the digitization of the registration renewal process and several other aspects of motor vehicle compliance. It allows vehicle owners to interact with the department through a mobile app that enables them to renew registration on their phone. Once payment has been received and acknowledged by the department, the plate instantaneously updates itself at little to no cost to that state. Building off the momentum of statewide efforts in California, Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, Illinois, and Texas (where similar legislation has already been passed), this measure pushes our state toward codifying the use of digital registration plates. Please join me in co-sponsoring this important legislation. If you have any questions regarding this legislation, please contact Christine Zubeck in my office at 717-787-6123 or czubeck@pasen.gov. Thank you for your consideration. |