By Steve Huffman
shuffman@salisburypost.com
Over the past few months, Mark Sokolowski has seen ’em come rolling back into his station more than once.
“Uh,” they’ll begin, “I think you forgot something.”
Sokolowski, the owner of West Innes Exxon, said the return visits come from those who have had their cars inspected.
Sokolowski said whenever he or one of his employees performs an inspection, they try to explain to the car owner the new laws.
The most obvious sign of change is that a sticker is no longer slapped on the windshield following an inspection.
But business being what it is, Sokolowski and his workers sometimes don’t get a chance to explain those changes to their customers.
And the aforementioned customers will often get home before they notice their car isn’t adorned with a sticker, an observation that prompts the return trip to the station.
“We always make a conscious effort to explain it to them,” Sokolowski said. “But if we forget, they almost always come back. Sometimes we have to explain it to them two or three times to get them to understand.”
Since Nov. 1, North Carolina drivers no longer get a sticker when their vehicles are inspected. Now, the vehicle’s inspection is synchronized to be due the same month each year as the car’s registration renewal.
“It’s basically a simple system,” Sokolowski said. “Once we get through this first year, there won’t be anything to it.”
Getting through this first year is the key.
According to the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles, synchronizing each vehicle’s inspection and registration dates is expected to increase compliance with the state’s inspection program and help benefit North Carolina’s air quality and highway safety.
Over the synchronization period, no vehicle will have to be inspected more than once in a 12-month period. As part of the new program, safety and emissions inspection stations will enter inspection results into the DMV vehicle registration database.
Vehicle owners will be able to renew their registration only after their vehicle has been inspected. From the outset, almost 7,000 safety and emissions inspection stations were connected to the state’s electronic database.
At Safety Check Inspections on East Innes Street, Dale Sheffield, manager, said he’s seen some of the same responses to the new inspection system that his counterparts at West Innes Exxon have witnessed.
“They’ll drive off and 10 minutes later they’ll be back and say, ‘Hey, man, you forgot to put a sticker on there,’ ” Sheffield said.
Charles Sheffield, Dale’s father and an employee of Safety Check Inspections, said some vehicle owners get extra months of driving before their cars must be inspected. That’s because, he said, the inspections are tied into the license renewal dates and no car owner must pay for two inspections within a year.
“Some car owners get up to 11 free months,” Charles Sheffield said.
Marge Howell, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Motor Vehicles, said one of the goals of the new inspection system is to simplify the process.
She admitted some people are confused by it all at the moment, but said that confusion should pass.
“It’ll take about a year to get everybody cycled into the new program,” Howell said.
She said the DMV sent to all inspection stations a poster that explained the new process, and encouraged them to display it.
“We did that so people wouldn’t think the station owners were trying to pull the wool over their eyes,” Howell said.
She said in addition to simplifying the inspections process for vehicle owners, the new method should also make it easier for law enforcement officers.
“If you’ve got a current tag, police officers can see that both are done and both are valid,” Howell said.
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For more information, visit the N.C. Department of Motor Vehicles Web site at: www.ncdmv.dot.org/dmv.