Vermonters won’t be getting a reprieve from annual vehicle inspections, but they might have an easier time getting a fresh sticker on their windshield the next time they bring their car or truck to the shop.
At the beginning of the legislative session, many lawmakers had high hopes for a bill that would have reduced the frequency with which motorists have to get their vehicles inspected.
State Sen. Becca White, D-Hartford, said switching to a two-year inspection cycle would address a key cost driver in Vermont, which is one of eight states that still require annual inspections.
The average routine inspection fee statewide is $73, including the $8 sticker, according to a survey by the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles. But White said the price of repairs needed to obtain that sticker can sometimes shoot into the thousands.
“I was hearing from constituents that they could no longer afford the high cost of an every-year vehicle safety inspection,” White said. “And when … they were failing the vehicle safety inspection, it felt like it wasn’t based off real safety concerns but potentially used as a tool to generate more work for the shop themselves.”
Opposition from the automotive industry and the Scott administration ultimately torpedoed the legislation. But White and other lawmakers hope a provision in a separate bill, which Republican Gov. Phil Scott is expected to sign, will provide some financial relief to beleaguered car owners.
The legislation directs the Department of Motor Vehicles to fast-track changes to Vermont’s inspection manual. Lawmakers want the DMV to ensure the manual “only requires failure of an inspection” when a condition “constitutes an immediate safety risk.”
Rep. Dan Noyes, D-Wolcott, who’s previously introduced legislation to eliminate inspections altogether, said he hopes the revisions will begin to deliver the relief his constituents are asking for.
“I just think that it seems like it’s kind of gotten out of control over the years in terms of the burden it puts on people,” he said.
Wade Cochran, director of the DMV’s enforcement and safety division, said the department has already drafted the proposed changes, which relate to tires, brakes, headlights and, critically, rust.
“The big one that everybody obviously cares about, especially in the state of Vermont, is rust on the vehicle,” Cochran said.
The current manual directs inspection stations to fail vehicles for rust that doesn’t necessarily compromise a vehicle’s structural integrity. The new guidelines, according to Secretary of Transportation Joe Flynn, will offer more leniency.
“If you have a 2-inch hole in the back panel of a pickup truck, say above the wheel well, that really shouldn’t stop you from inspecting an otherwise perfectly good vehicle,” Flynn said.
The DMV hopes to have the revised manual approved by Aug. 1.
White, Noyes and other lawmakers say they’ll resume the push for two-year inspections when the Legislature convenes next year. Rep. Matt Walker, R-Swanton, the chair of the House Transportation Committee, said the state has several issues to resolve before it can make the transition.
Vermont’s compliance with the federal Clean Air Act currently requires the state to conduct vehicle emissions testing annually, and those tests are performed when a car or truck goes in for an inspection. A new mileage-based user fee for electric vehicles, which takes effect at the beginning of next year, relies on odometer readings from inspections.
Walker said highway safety is also a consideration.
“It’s never as simple as we would like to hope,” Walker said.
White said she agrees that Vermont needs to resolve emissions compliance issues before moving to a two-year inspection cycle. She said she has yet to see a study that demonstrates states with more frequent inspection requirements enjoy better safety outcomes than states that don’t require inspections at all.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to have a bureaucratic checkpoint that costs Vermonters money if we can’t show that the outcome of that bureaucratic checkpoint is Vermonters being safer,” White said. “And we have not been able to get data that shows us that.”