Mason Treat Act To Introduce New Rules For Temporary Vehicle Tags

The way you register your car with the state is changing. Service Oklahoma says it will be safer for everyone.

Those changes are through the Mason Treat Act, and it goes into effect next week.

Once the Mason Treat Act goes into effect, temporary tags will only be good for 10 days instead of 60 days.

Boomerang Printing in Tulsa is one of the authorized vendors in the state for printing the new temporary tags. The tags will be printed on waterproof paper that can't be ripped.

This new law comes after Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat's son Mason was hurt in a wreck in January. He was stopped for not having a tag on the car he'd just bought from a person, not a dealer. Troopers say a driver fell asleep and slammed into the back of Mason's car, injuring Mason and the deputy who had pulled him over.

Drivers will now be able to preregister their vehicles. If buying from a dealership, they'll handle the registration, but if doing a private sale, you'll need to go online to OkCars.serviceok.gov.

They can also go into any Service Location office.

“If you bought from a private individual in the past, you wouldn't have any license plate on the back of your car, just the proof of sale and proof of insurance in your glovebox,” said Jay Doyle with Service Oklahoma. “If law enforcement was to pull you over because they are trained to pull over cars that don't have license plates on them, that obviously causes a potential safety issue.”

Once registered, you'll get a metal license plate, and there will be a temporary decal in the corner to let law enforcement know it's not permanently registered yet.

You'll still have 60 days to pay the tag title and taxes.

“It'll allow law enforcement to know who is driving the vehicle, who owns the vehicles, so if they do pull you over if you're speeding, for example, they actually know who is behind the wheel of that car,” said Doyle.

He says this new process will not only be safer for everyone but easier in the long run.

“It gets information to Service Oklahoma so we can communicate, so we can give reminders, hey your two months is coming up, you don't have to remember if oh no I bought my vehicle on what day and do I need to fully register,” he said.

The Mason Treat Act will go into effect on Sept. 1.