AB 458: Vehicle registration.

Existing law authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles to enter into contracts with qualified private industry partners to provide services that include processing and payment programs for vehicle registration and titling transactions, and services related to reporting vehicle sales and producing temporary license plates. Existing law requires the department to charge a $3 transaction fee for providing those services and that information. Existing law authorizes a private industry partner to pass that fee to the customer, as specified.

This bill would authorize the department to adopt regulations to establish exemptions from the transaction fee for transactions other than an original registration or transfer of ownership.

Existing law authorizes an owner or lessee of a fleet of commercial or passenger vehicles, as specified, to apply for license plates, permanent decals, and registration cards for those vehicles. Existing law requires a fleet to consist of at least 50 motor vehicles to qualify for the program, but also allows the Department of Motor Vehicles to provide permanent fleet registration through an association providing a combination of fleets of motor vehicles of 250 or more vehicles, provided that no individual fleet has fewer than 25 vehicles.

This bill would reduce the size of the fleets eligible for that program to a fleet of at least 25 motor vehicles, or through an association providing a combination of fleets of motor vehicles of 125 or more vehicles, provided that no individual fleet has fewer than 25 vehicles.

Existing law requires a vehicle registered under the fleet program to display in a conspicuous place on both sides of the vehicle the name, trademark, or logo of the company, as specified, and authorizes vehicles weighing less than 6,000 pounds that are owned or leased by a public utility to be registered under the fleet program if the vehicle displays the permanent fleet registration number on both sides of the vehicle, or on the front and rear of the vehicle, as specified.

This bill would delete those display requirements. The bill would make additional technical, nonsubstantive changes.