Dept of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Division, is Driving Better Service
3 September 1999
Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Division, is Driving Better Service Your Way With Implementation of 'GRATIS'Georgia Registration and Title Information System Will Change the Way Georgians Receive Their Tags and Titles ATLANTA, Sept. 2 -- Georgia has the 9th largest vehicle population in the United States and will now join 27 other states having state-of-the-art systems to ensure that all registered vehicles in the state are accounted for and that proper state records are being maintained. Jerry Jackson, Commissioner for the Department of Revenue, is proud that "over the coming Labor Day weekend, the state of Georgia will be installing a statewide Y2K compliant computer system to support our tag and title operations." September 7, 1999, Georgia will implement "GRATIS," (Georgia Registration and Title Information System), a real-time, integrated vehicle registration and title processing system for the state of Georgia. "GRATIS" replaces the old system of handling registrations and titles, which had become labor-intensive, cumbersome and error-prone. Milton Dufford, Deputy Commissioner of the Motor Vehicle Division of the State Revenue Department said, "GRATIS will improve the speed and efficiency of registration and title processing in Georgia, benefiting local vehicle registration officials and their staff, law enforcement agencies, auto dealers, auto owners and purchasers, insurers and the driving public." GRATIS is modeled on North Carolina's state title and registration system ("STARS") and will make it much easier for you to register, renew and title your vehicle. With GRATIS emission inspection data is recorded in the system at the time of the inspection and is immediately available to the tag specialist when registering your vehicle. County tax commissioners' offices are able to process tag and title transactions on-site immediately, sharply reducing waiting time for new titles. Normal registrations take only minutes. Mailed-in registration renewals are processed in minutes, not days. New titles can be mailed to the owner or lienholder the day after a title application is filed. Dufford said, "The efficiency of the 'GRATIS' system is very, very important to us. We continuously look for ways to improve Motor Vehicle, so we'll be looking at 'GRATIS' to improve our service to our customers." He indicated, "The citizens are going to notice the efficiency of being able to have on-line, real-time updates from county to county." Additional benefits include user-friendly tag decals, with the car's license tag number on each decal. The "GRATIS" centralized database permits information to be shared throughout the state in all participating counties, helping to stop the registration of stolen vehicles and aiding in the collection of county ad valorem taxes. The "GRATIS" program will provide consistent name identification, with registrations and titles matching the owner's name on his/her driver's license. One of the largest benefits of "GRATIS" is the effect the program will have on law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement agencies will have real- time access to information about vehicle registration and ownership. With over 500,000 State Patrol road-side traffic stops each year, "GRATIS" will provide immediate access to the name, address, and other information about the owner of a vehicle, tag number, Vehicle Identification Numbers and title numbers to officers. Robert Hightower, Director of the Department of Public Safety, said, "The 'GRATIS' system is very important to the Georgia Department of Public Safety and to the Georgia State Patrol. I know it is very important to the Sheriff's departments and the police departments across the state. Getting this timely information on the computer system so that data is available to any law enforcement officer making a traffic stop and identifying the vehicle, is invaluable to the officer. It is good for them because of the danger involved in what appear to be routine stops. All of our law enforcement officers are put in a tremendous amount of danger anytime they stop a vehicle. When they stop a vehicle that may be involved in a crime or that may be stolen, it makes it that much more dangerous." Fully funded by the state of Georgia, "GRATIS" will provide significant cost savings for state and county governments, as well as automobile dealers and lenders. Please note that many county tag offices will be closed, or have reduced services, on Tuesday, September 7, 1999 to make the transition to GRATIS. Counties participating: Appling Atkinson Bacon Baker Baldwin Barrow Bartow Berrien Bibb Bleckley Brantley Brooks Bryan Bulloch Burke Butts Calhoun Carroll Catoosa Charlton Chattahoochee Chatham Chattooga Cherokee Clarke Clayton Clinch Coffee Colquitt Cook Coweta Crawford Crisp Dade Dawson Decatur DeKalb Dougherty Douglas Echols Effingham Elbert Emanuel Evans Fayette Floyd Forsyth Franklin Fulton Gilmer Glascock Glynn Gordon Greene Gwinnett Hall Hancock Haralson Harris Hart Heard Henry Houston Irwin Jackson Jasper Jefferson Jenkins Johnson Jones Lamar Lanier Laurens Liberty Lincoln Long Lowndes Lumpkin Macon Madison Marion McDuffie McIntosh Meriwether Miller Monroe Montgomery Morgan Murray Muscogee Newton Oconee Oglethorpe Paulding Pierce Pike Polk Pulaski Putnam Quitman Rockdale Schley Seminole Spalding Sumter Talbot Taliaferro Tattnall Taylor Terrell Thomas Tift Toombs Treutlen Troup Union Upson Walker Walton Ware Warren Washington Webster Wheeler White Whitfield Wilkes Worth