New MA Inspection Sticker Change: Tardy Drivers Will Be Penalized

MASSACHUSETTS — The Registry of Motor Vehicles will soon put a new policy in the place that will penalize car owners who wait longer than a year to renew inspection stickers.

The new change will target a common practice among Massachusetts drivers who skirt the yearly inspection: waiting a month or two (or more) to stretch the annual requirement beyond 12 months. The RMV recently estimated there are as many as 584,000 cars with expired registrations operating on state roads at any given time.

Starting Nov. 1, drivers who wait longer than a year will receive stickers back-dated to the month they were supposed to get a new sticker. For example, if a car owner with an August sticker waits until October to get an inspection, they will get a new sticker that expires in August of the next year — lopping off two months between inspections.

The punishment for drivers whose inspections lapse into a new year wait will be harsher: those drivers will automatically get a sticker that expires in January of the year they're in.

"Vehicle owners are required to have the inspection done one year from the month the last inspection was done. We are asking all vehicle owners to place safety first and make sure to check your inspection date, and don’t be late," Registrar of Motor Vehicles Colleen Ogilvie said in a recent announcement about the change.

On top of the RMV's policy change, drivers in Massachusetts can get whacked by police for failing to inspect. You can get pulled over for the offense, and may get a $40 fine. It costs $35 to get a new inspection sticker at any of the 1,800 inspection stations in the state.

Confused about the inspection change? Here's a chart with a few examples of what the policy will do after Nov. 1:

One more change coming to the vehicle inspection system: starting Oct. 1, drivers who pass inspection will no longer get an inspection report printed on paper. Those will be available online. Drivers who fail inspections will still get a printed report outlining fixes needed to pass.