August 5, 2023
OVDA’s lobbyist, Darrell Fuller, advocates aggressively for dealers both when the Legislature is in Salem, and directly with DMV all year long. His recently successes include convincing DMV to schedule appointments with dealers and dismantlers for routine inspections, rather than just showing up, and to have DMV send missing information notifications just to dealers, rather than their previous practice of sending notices to purchasers and lienholders. Dealers now have 30 days to cure problems before anyone else in the transaction is notified. These are both huge wins for dealers.
Now, OVDA is focusing on three important areas for dealers:
DEALER VISITS TO FIELD OFFICES / First, while OVDA agrees with DMV that we are partners serving our mutual customers — vehicle purchasers — OVDA also believes dealers are DMV customers. In fact, dealers are DMV’s largest single customer. As such, we advocate for good customer service. This includes permitting dealers the same right to visit DMV field offices as nondealers.
Just because dealers are in the business of selling vehicles doesn’t make them second class citizens. There are times a dealer needs to get paperwork done immediately. But DMV is currently forbidding dealers from taking a number and getting in line for customer service. We are lobbying DMV Field Services staff to change this policy.
We are willing to accept limitations on dealer transactions at the window. Dealers should only be able to do one transaction, not bring 10-15 deals that occupies a window for extended periods. We will even support reasonable restrictions on how often a dealer can visit a field office each week. Let’s face it, if a dealer is going to a field office every day, they need to work on their internal processes. To date, DMV has rebuffed our efforts. We acknowledge they are understaffed, which is why we will agree to reasonable restrictions. But we cannot support a policy that prohibits all dealer activity in field offices. Stay tuned…
DEALER PAYMENTS ON UNDERFUNDED DEALS / Second, during the Legislative Session, DMV agreed to find a process to allow dealers to make payments to underfunded deals submitted to the dealer processing center. Both the notification process and the payment process (requiring the dealer to issue a check, even for a single dollar) is archaic and wastes both dealer and DMV staff time. A dealer should be able to make a payment online or over the phone.
Whether an NFT, or a credit card, or a prepaid account (like the TOD account), a simple math error should be resolved in minutes, not days, when it is discovered and reported to a dealer. DMV agreed to have a process in place by the end of 2023. We are monitoring their progress closely.
TEMPORARY REGISTRATIONS VS TRIP PERMITS FOR DEQ / And, third, OVDA continue to believe a dealer who sells a vehicle which needs a DEQ certification should be able to issue the purchaser a temporary registration, rather than a trip permit and then a temporary registration once the DEQ certification is complete. This unnecessary cost to the customer, and unnecessary paperwork by the dealer and DMV, simply makes no sense.
Our lobbyist, Darrell Fuller, had legislation introduced during the session earlier this year which would have permitted dealers to issue a temporary registration for vehicles still needing a DEQ certification. While it was unsuccessful, he has already signaled to DMV that the issue continues to be a high priority for OVDA.
If you have any questions about our policy priorities, or you have an issue for us to add to the list, you can reach out to our lobbyist, Darrell Fuller, at fuller_darrell@yahoo.com.