Taking your car in every year for its inspection sticker is a familiar ordeal to all Maine drivers, but some lawmakers are looking to make this a less frequent experience.
Under LD 1010, sponsored by Rep. Chad R. Perkins (R-Dover-Foxcroft), drivers would only need to get their inspection stickers updated every other year.
Cosponsoring this bill are Rep. Roger Clarence Albert (R-Madawaska), Rep. Quentin J. Chapman (R-Auburn), Rep. Randall Adam Greenwood (R-Wales), Rep. Michael J. Lance (R-Paris), Rep. Richard G. Mason (R-Lisbon), Rep. James Lee White (R-Guilford), and Sen. Craig Hickman (D-Kennebec).
Click Here for More Information on LD 1010
Among the states that do require regular safety inspections, some mandate that they be conducted annually — as is currently the case in Maine — while others are only every two years.
Supporters of these regular inspections argue that they help to keep poorly maintained and unsafe vehicles off the road, but some evidence suggests that they may not actually have a substantial impact after all.
A 2021 report published by the Maine Policy Institute found that between 2015 and 2019, only three percent of car accidents involved mechanical difficulties.
Under state law, it is already a Class E crime to operate a “defective vehicle,” meaning that inspection stickers are not the only mechanism for deterring drivers from taking unsafe cars on the road.
Despite this, Maine police have previously pushed back against efforts to repeal the law, arguing that the inspections provide a safety net allowing for problems to be identified and corrected in a timely manner.
Some critics, on the other hand, have said that the system opens the door for unscrupulous mechanics to charge drivers for unnecessary repairs.
Several other bills have already been introduced this session that also aim to amend or otherwise do away with Maine’s vehicle inspection program.
Under a bill introduced by Rep. Ann Fredericks (R-Sanford), the mandatory safety inspection requirement would be repealed for the majority of cars that are driven by Mainers on a daily basis.
“Other states have already abolished this antiquated requirement that is an inconvenience,” Rep. Fredericks said.
From Rep. Frederick’s perspective, advancements in safety standards and auto-making technology mean that annual inspections should no longer be necessary for most personal vehicles, as they’ve become more of a nuisance than a guarantor of public safety.
Her bill would not alter inspection rules for commercial vehicles, trailers, semitrailers, and fire trucks, according to the official summary of the legislation.
[RELATED: Maine Considers Repealing Annual Vehicle Inspection Requirement]
One Bangor Democrat, Rep. Amy J. Roeder, has now proposed exempting new cars from Maine’s annual vehicle safety inspections for the first three years after they are manufactured.
That said, this exemption would be nullified if the vehicle were involved in a crash or natural disaster, as well as if the car is sold to another owner.
[RELATED: Maine’s Annual Vehicle Inspection Requirement in the Cross-Hairs of Bipartisan Legislators]
Two Republican-led bills introduced this year seek to allow the Maine State Police to require the use of an electronic inspection program for the annual vehicle safety inspections.
If approved, this would create an electronic surveillance system to track vehicle inspections that mechanics around the state would be required to use, if directed to by the State Police.
More specifically, an “electronic inspection program” is defined in these proposals as a program designated by the Chief of the State Police “that uses electronically generated data as part of an inspection and permits the creation and exchange of an electronic record for maintaining inspection information.”
While one proposal would increase the inspection fee to $20, from the current level of $12.50, while another would cap fees at 2.5 times the state minimum wage.
Based on the current minimum wage of $14.65, this would mean that the cap would be initially set at $36.63.
Public hearings have not yet been scheduled for any of these proposals to amend or repeal Maine’s vehicle inspection system, but it can be expected that ones will be scheduled in the coming weeks.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="36508 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=36508">21 Comments
$60 to register my vehicle in my former state – for 2 years- and we re talking about $20 per year to inspect
Do we need a math lesson here?
There is no proff that inspections reduce accidents, It is just a rip-off by our ellected officals.
I just started 3 weeks ago this web income system that my friend recommended to me and I’ve gotten 2 checks for a total of $9,200… this is the best decision I made in a long time! This extra v541 cash has changed my life in so many ways, thank you!
Here is I started_______ tinyurl.com/homestar2?/v541
Of course the police wouldn’t support it, they wouldn’t support anything that takes away their discretion to pull over a vehicle on the basis of a bad inspection sticker but they actually don’t like or approve of the looks of the people in the vehicle and now they get to run names and information on everyone in the vehicle to check for warrants to arrest them on. Lol..of course they’re not going to support this.
I moved here from the province of Ontario where we never had inspections on vehicles and we never had issues related to accidents due to severe vehicle defects. The Ontario Provincial Police can pull over any vehicle and demand an inspection that must be shown to the OPP within 30 days. This is a completely unnecessary requirement
just eliminate the program
In our one-party (Public Sector Workers’) state EVERYTHINg is about revenue to Augusta.
OK, here I go again. The “staties” use inspection stickers for an excuse to pull you over. It leads to other things such as DUI, drugs, etc. The philosophy being that drunks and stoners usually aren’t on the ball when it comes to attention to detail. However, what “they” miss is the drunks and stoners driving Auntie’s car. Auntie is a stand up citizen who goes to church suppers, votes conservative and so on.
Bottom line. Get the government off our backs. If you don’t feel “safe” take a gun safety class or driver awareness course. In other words, take responsibility for yourself and quit voting for a nannie state. I will add that auto repair associations, insurance lobbies, and police associations throw a lot of money around to have these laws passed. Wink Wink 2026 is just around the corner. There, I said it.
I have a better way….it’s called “Civil Disobedience”. If no one submits to ruthless, greedy mechanics, and just flat out refuses to put that sticker on their car, the inspections will quietly stop forever. It’s been 7 years for me, and I still have the last valid one on the vehicle. I refuse to be robbed by shady mechanics, with State permission to decide who drives, and who doesn’t. I’ve been fined twice, at a total cost of $400, which is MUCH less than 7 years of being robbed by greedy mechanics. There are cars on the road right now with literal holes in the fenders that have bright shiny new stickers, because they “know someone”. Pure corruption !!!
Get rid of the inspection program completely
The COVID time we just went through gave us data on no inspections on cars. Where is it?
I can’t even get a mech to inspect my stuff, even with an appointment. They get 100 an hour maybe more. If you do your own work, they don’t want to inspect you as there is a loss for their time. It would be around a $100 bill for their time if the truth was told.
Junk this law.
This will never pass. It would decrease lawbreakers.
I highly doubted this will pass, annual revenue for the state from vehicle inspection is too much to lose.
My opinion would be to abolish inspection all together! To me annual inspections are used by shady auto shops and police to make added $$$ off of the citizens of Maine. About 30% of states have limited or no inspections after initial registration. A vehicle in Maine is a necessity and the state government makes ownership extremely expensive. Excise tax, registration fees to the state, municipal registration tax etc etc.
In your article you claim that police have pushed back against ending annual inspections, but that’s not completely true. Senior high ranking members of the state police have done so but many of my former colleagues in local and county agencies would not. As you correctly noted the defective vehicle law already gives us means to take unsafe defective vehicles off the road. I would also note from experience that a vehicle could pass a state safety inspection today and fail a day or two later.
NH just voted on eliminating passenger car sticker and is in favor to stop passenger car sticker now goes to senate for final say, commercial vehicles will still require stickers
To all of those that are calling for a complete removal of the inspection system – I agree, but I tried that lat session. It was a complete no-go and it will not pass through the Transportation Committee. By moving to a every other year inspection system I am trying to chip away at the inspection system so that I can get enough support to eventually remove it completely.
Representative Perkins
Time to just end inspection entirely
If you drive a new car with one mile on it you must have a good inspection sticker on it BUT if you drive a car that is twenty-five years old you can register as an antique and you don’t need an inspection sticker. I have seen some really JUNK autos on the road with antique plates and never get bothered. At today’s prices inspection garages must be losing money. DO AWAY WITH INSPECTION STICKERS
screw that, i want ld 320 to pass.
if you support ld320 like i do (to eliminate it) contact your elected ppl including DOT comity and ask the to support it also as they are the ones voting on it. i have. do not wait.
for ld 320 [Hearing: Apr 17 @ 1:05 pm] dot comity state house.