HARRISBURG, Decmber 30, 2003 - - Residents in the Philadelphia area who are using a rear window registration sticker for their vehicle will be issued a new sticker that again is placed on the license plate, according to state Sen. Connie Williams. “This decision was made earlier this month by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. The department had implemented a pilot program in 2000 in an effort to reduce registration sticker theft,” Williams said.
“The discontinuance of the program should be relatively good news for most people, because it is only happening due to the new license plate design that moves the sticker to the left hand corner of the plate and is made of thicker aluminum. Both of these changes are believed to be deterrents to registration sticker theft.”
According to PENNDOT, beginning Dec. 15, 2003, as vehicle registrations are renewed or registration credentials reissued, a new registration plate sticker will be issued. The conversion is expected to take about one year to complete. In the meantime, the rear window registration sticker will be valid. Motorists should continue to display a rear window registration sticker until they receive a new license plate sticker, if they have already been issued a rear window sticker.
“PENNDOT
officials believed that the program had some impact in reducing
sticker theft in the Philadelphia region, but the cost of the
program in comparison with the benefit did not justify the
continuance of the pilot program,” Williams said.