When Virginia residents get their car re-inspected this year, they’ll notice the commonwealth’s inspection stickers have changed again.
Starting last year, the stickers were relocated from the center of the windshield to the bottom left corner.
Now, for 2019, the Virginia State Police Safety Division is rolling out a new design with a traffic safety message.
The 2019 sticker is a little smaller — it’s cut down from 2.75 in. x 4 in. to 2 in. x 3 in.
The expiration year is now also permanently affixed to the right side of the sticker. The month of expiration has been added as an insert and that insert for the month is now larger as well increase visibility.
“The change in size is in response to the feedback State Police received from Virginians following the sticker’s relocation to the bottom left corner of the windshield in 2018,” said Captain R.C. Maxey Jr., Virginia State Police Safety Division Commander. “We heard from a number of motorists who had difficulty seeing around the sticker, so we worked to reduce its size to slightly smaller than the average credit card.”
Safety features in the background of the sticker have also been enhanced to prevent unauthorized removal, tampering and counterfeit practices.
None of these changes will apply to motorcycle or trailer safety inspection stickers, and rejection stickers remain the same.
In addition to the cosmetic changes, inspection stickers will now also come with an attached sticker reminding drivers about Virginia’s “Move Over” law, which requires motorists to move over a lane when approaching an emergency vehicle stopped alongside the road or cautiously pass by if unable to move over.
New inspection stickers will come with that message attached, and it will be removed by the inspector and given to the customer along with their receipt.
