HOUSTON – Get ready for a big change the next time you go to get your vehicle inspected.
Starting Sunday, you won't be getting a new inspection sticker for your windshield anymore.
The state is calling it the "Two Steps, One Sticker" program. In the future just one sticker will prove that your car was both registered and inspected.
More: Two Steps, One Sticker
Lawmakers in Austin approved the change during the 2013 Legislative Session.
"Your inspection status, a notice of pass or fail, will be electronically verified when you renew your vehicle registration," said Senator Royce West, D-Dallas.
At John's Express Lube in Bellaire, they do not even have the old stickers anymore. The next vehicles to be inspected will get a report.
"A physical paper and also it goes into the state computer showing that your car passed," said Chris Georgalos.
The goal is to get you to the point where both your inspection and registration will come up at the same time. Eventually you will have fewer stickers in your window and the state should have fewer cases of sticker fraud.
"It's going to be confusing at first until everybody gets the hang of it," Georgalos said. "But once everybody understands how they're going to do it, it's going to actually make it easier."
Breakdown: Two Steps, One Sticker explained
After passing an inspection, drivers will get an inspection report. They'll take it with them to get a registration sticker to their nearby tax office.
There are three possible scenarios:
- If your stickers expire in the same month, you have 90 days prior to get your inspection done, ahead of re-registering your vehicle.
- If your inspection expires before your registration. Get your inspection when it expires. This time, you won't get a sticker, just an inspection report. Then, go to the tax office with that report when your registration is due and get one sticker for both.
- If your inspection expires after your registration, you're in luck. When you go to get your car registered, your inspection is still current. So you've got one more cycle before you've got to get your car inspected again.
Our sister station, KVUE-TV in Austin, contributed to this report
