News in 2016

Recently the Department of Justice issued a memo stressing the importance of affected businesses reporting salvage vehicles to NMVTIS with emphasis on the fact that many new flood-damaged vehicles have been generated because of the recent events across the country. Auctions have been overrun with flood vehicles, due to the large volume of vehicles affected, and these vehicles are often sent to locations that can handle the overflow of vehicles. In many instances this will be in states other than the state where the flood occurred. This is a prime example of why NMVTIS is so important to both salvage buyers and consumers. Because of the differences in reporting requirements and title brands by state, these flooded vehicles may be sold or titled without any notice of the flood events.

Because of natural disasters like this combined with the advent of many new parties entering the salvage purchasing market, there have been efforts to bring tighter NMVTIS rules to the state level, where local enforcement can help “level the playing field.” New legislation has been introduced in many states focusing directly on getting more detailed information reported to the state in less time than the 30 days required by the federal regulations. At first this may just seem like more rules imposed on the licensed businesses, but this legislation can supplement the federal rule by allowing systematic analysis of the data provided. Essentially, if enforcement personnel want to see how many vehicles are being purchased by private individuals or how many vehicles are being sold by a specific individual, that enforcement agent must contact each reporting entity to obtain these details. This requires huge amounts of time and effort that enforcement officials don’t have the resources to undertake. Additionally, the information collected at a federal level is very basic, and in many instances can’t be used by the states to obtain the detailed information they need. For instance, a state may be able to determine that “Jim Brown” purchased and sold over 1,000 vehicles nationwide. They don’t know how many different “Jim Browns” that is, or if some of those “Jim Browns” were licensed rebuilders. By “beefing up” the legislation at a state level, state-specific requirements can be incorporated in the reports. For instance, if your state requires a buyer of salvage vehicles to report purchases and apply for a salvage certificate or a “green light” for processing, this information could be sent by a NMVTIS data consolidator to NMVTIS on the reporting entities behalf, to the state and also to law enforcement if required in the state regulations. With today’s technology, a single, more detailed and timely report can be made once and sent to all parties that need the information, satisfying the requirements of the reporting entity and triggering other steps like the state issuance of a salvage certificate. Because of the more timely and detailed information that all parties would receive, issues could be more easily identified, and the reporting parties could make a single report to meet multiple requirements saving time and hassle for the reporting parties while providing essential information to states and law enforcement.

NMVTIS contains very useful data, but as it is a federal requirement, any modifications/enhancements are very slow and very difficult to make happen. Adopting NMVTIS procedures at the state level can provide the states better information to keep their businesses and their citizens' assets protected and state records up-to-date, making changes at a state level can be a step in the right direction for all involved.

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