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Quick Rant: It’s Annoying that Two-Year Vehicle Registration in Pennsylvania Doesn’t Come With a Discount
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One thing that bothers me is when Penn DOT (the absolute worst)* sends you the letter for vehicle registration. This is what I get in the mail:
My options are $116 for one year, or $232 for two years. The price is whatever for a small truck, no big deal, but there’s no discount for the extra year.
Which begs the obvious question – what benefit do we get from this? We save ourselves the trouble of having to fill out the online form every year? It takes two minutes to do. Do the old school folks save themselves a stamp?
It’s such a negligible perk that it feels insulting. Imagine going to ACME and seeing 1 pound of blueberries for $5. Then some teenage dipshit comes along and says, “well, you can buy two pounds for $10!” Yeah? Okay. So you get the same unit cost of blueberries, just in a larger quantity. You don’t actually save any money, and if you can’t eat the blueberries fast enough, then they start to go bad. If PennDOT was running Costco, their heads would explode if you asked them to define the concept of bulk purchasing.
Sometimes I think I’m the only person in the world who gets mad about this, then I come across this February story from the Pennsylvania Capital Star explaining a bill that would provide registration discounts:
State car owners could save money when registering their vehicles, under a state lawmaker’s plan.
In a memo seeking co-sponsors, House Transportation Committee Chair Ed Neilson (D-Philadelphia) said his bill would provide a discount for people who want to register their vehicles for two years instead of one.
The legislation itself has yet to be introduced, and Neilson’s memo did not specify the amount of the discount. But a spokesperson for Neilson said in a text message it would “be at least 10%.”
Looking at the PA legislature website, Neilson was able to get 24 co-sponsors on board, which includes 19 Democrats and 5 Republicans. 14 of these legislators are from the greater Philadelphia region, including Liz Hanbidge and Steve Malagari, who represent the wonderful communities of Upper Gwynedd and Lansdale Borough. It further says that the bill was referred to the House Transportation Committee at the end of March, so I think transportation needs to get it moving here, or maybe it’s already dead. I don’t know. But it’s no surprise to see Eastern PA leading the charge while the Yinzers sit on their fat butts.
We deserve a discount for two-year vehicle registry in Pennsylvania. And if it’s the same in New Jersey and Delaware, they also deserve a discount. Power to the people!
*PennDOT is the absolute worst. My favorite thing is when you drive down 76 or the Blue Route or whatever, and they have one of the lanes shut down. But there’s not a single person doing any kind of work. There are no government vehicles even parked on the side of the road. It’s just a long line of cones and we all sit there in traffic for no reason whatsoever.
EDIT – Someone made a good point. If we renew at two years, we don’t get dicked over when they increase the price 365 days from now. What a deal!
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com