Penalizing the safe; the state safety inspection sticker

Yesterday I spent the morning getting a safety inspection sticker. What a waste of time.

Not every state requires these but in Texas, if you want to get your mandatory vehicle license renewed, you have to jump through this hoop.

Now, I understand the importance of safety. Having worked in the construction business for forty years, safety has become one of the prime ethical dictates of construction operations. But our philosophy is that everyone looks out for each other. We are all lifeguards in the swimming pool, and while our employer provides minimum guidelines, we lookout for ourselves and the well being of our co-workers.

Not so with the state. In the eyes of the state, everyone is going to act unsafe so it penalizes the entire citizenry by mandating a state sanctioned safety inspection for everyone. Gone are the days when you tell your buddy “Hey, your right brake light is out, want some help fixing it?”.

One would think that this would imply some sort of liability on the state’s part should there be an accident that involves some sort of defective part that's checked in the inspection process, but as we all know the state is liable for very little.

As with all laws of this nature, the state assumes that citizens are bad in nature and must be regulated. One wonders how they got their training to recognize every nefarious act that could be committed against humanity. Somehow, they have become experts at recognizing maliciousness. Perhaps because the bureaucrats have malicious thoughts themselves?

At one time the state required a renewal sticker for both the license plate and the safety inspection, obstructing part of the field of view through the windshield. But today, with all the fourth amendment violations that the state has in their tool chest, they can actually log into a computer database to make sure that you have jumped this hurdle.

The vehicle in question for me was a RV that I own that has been parked in a trailer park in south Texas for two years. I skipped last year's hoop jumping because, well, it’s a pain in the ass to disconnect all the utilities and get this done. Plus I had no intent of taking the beast out on the highway. I was using it for temporary shelter only.

But now I’m leaving this job assignment, and need to drive it the 200 miles to get it back to a safe zone where it’s not subject to being accosted by the state’s highway bandits.

The first place that I took it wouldn’t look at it, saying that I had to take it to a place that inspects commercial vehicles. This is false, a RV is NOT a commercial vehicle. Rather than argue the point, I took their recommendation. It’s likely that they just didn’t want to mess with it. After all, the state only allows them to be compensated $7.00 for this service.
The inspection went without a hitch. I had spent several hundred dollars two years ago when I bought the RV getting everything fixed that was subject to the inspection. The biggest cost was replacing the running lights that were all damaged or not working. There are about 20 of them.

This particular RV came from Arizona, where no safety inspection is required. Since the previous owner used it primarily for shelter in Texas, he never got the title transferred to Texas and kept paying the state of Arizona for tag renewal.

One thing that is really bothersome about the process is that you have to take a day off from your productive job to have the inspection done. Very few of the shops that offer this service are open on the weekend. When I was younger and making a lot less money, a day away from work could mean the difference in paying the mortgage or missing the due date.

But the real burn is the total cost for this. I mentioned the $7.00 inspection fee, but the state charged me over $130 for the tag renewal. This coupled with the time taken to be in compliance makes me wonder where the value is, since I’ll only be driving it less than 200 miles on state roads this year.

Thanks for reading my rant.