Today I recieved a letter from Gary Hinckley, Vehicle Services Director, Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles, that was sent to Eric Fuller of MMPAC. It is the official explanation of the changes we will deal with this year concerning getting our motorcycles registered and inspected. Below is the letter. If you are unsure of what to do this year read this letter. You might even want to print out a copy and take it with you when you go to register your motorcycle.

Please keep in mind that this letter really only pertains to the registration of a motorcycle going forward. The law requiring the display of an inspection sticker on motorcycles will also be phased in over the 2012 year. This means that what ever month you currently have your motorcycle inspected will remain the month of inspection. Unless you decide to change the inspection month by getting the motorcycle inspected early, nothing will change other than the sticker will be affixed to the registration plate in the upper left corner. During the 2012 year it is legal to have the inspection certificate in your pocket OR the sticker displayed on the plate. This means that until the motorcycle comes due for annual inspection you are legal with the current law requiring the certificate of inspection to be carried with the motorcycle registration. Beginning March 1, 2013 all motorcycles will be required to have the inspection sticker displayed on the motorcycle registration plate.

Motorcycle Registration and Inspection Sticker Changes

Garry Hinkley, Vehicle Services Director

Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles

Last session, the legislature passed LD 221, “An Act to Make Changes to the Motorcycle Inspection Program.”  LD 221 changed the law to require the motorcycle inspection sticker to be displayed on the vehicle’s registration plate.  Previously, a law was scheduled to go into effect to require the inspection sticker’s display on a mounting bracket, or on the motorcycle’s rear fender.

The new requirement starts in March, and will be phased in over the next year.  The inspection sticker will be placed in the plate’s upper left corner. In order to accommodate the inspection sticker, all motorcycle registrations (except those classes not required to be inspected) will be changed to a fixed March expiration.  That is, starting in April 2012, when a motorcycle is registered or renewed, the expiration date will be changed to expire in the next March.  The registrant will be issued a combined month/year sticker, which should be placed in the upper right corner. 

In order to transition into a mandatory March expiration, registration fees and excise taxes will be prorated for the correct number of months. BMV has modified and tested our computer system to correctly calculate prorated motorcycle registration fees.  The Bureau has provided our municipal agents and their computer vendors with instructions for the proration of all fees.   However, motorcycle registrants should review their registration fees and taxes at the point of registration.  If it appears fees were not prorated correctly, they can be most easily corrected at the counter. The standard annual motorcycle registration fee is $21.

In the future, when an owner registers a newly acquired motorcycle, the registration fee and excise tax will be prorated to reflect a March expiration.  However, fees for delayed renewal will be calculated in accordance with existing state law, and generally full fees will be charged. That is, after the transition to mandatory March expiration is complete, anyone renewing late will be charged full annual registration fees and excise taxes, as is the case today.

To facilitate fee calculation and to ease the municipal clerks’ workloads, the Bureau encourages motorcycle registrants to use the online service Rapid Renewal to renew whenever possible. Approximately three-quarters of all Maine registrants live in towns participating in Rapid Renewal.  https://www1.maine.gov/online/bmv/rapid-renewal/