An Act amending Title 75 (Vehicles) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, in registration of vehicles, providing for vendor-designed registration plates; and establishing the Pennsylvania State Police Traffic Safety Enhancement Restricted Account.

PRINTER'S NO. 792
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
SENATE BILL
No. 742
Session of
2025
INTRODUCED BY STEFANO, VOGEL, PHILLIPS-HILL, YAW, LAUGHLIN,
FLYNN, GEBHARD, PENNYCUICK AND CULVER, MAY 12, 2025
REFERRED TO TRANSPORTATION, MAY 12, 2025
AN ACT
Amending Title 75 (Vehicles) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated
Statutes, in registration of vehicles, providing for vendor-
designed registration plates; and establishing the
Pennsylvania State Police Traffic Safety Enhancement
Restricted Account.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Title 75 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated
Statutes is amended by adding a section to read:
§ 1341.2. Vendor-designed registration plates.
(a) Duties of department.--The department shall:
(1) Enter into a contract with a private vendor for the
design, marketing and sale of vendor-designed registration
plates within 12 months of the effective date of this
paragraph. The department shall select a private vendor
according to the provisions of 62 Pa.C.S. (relating to
procurement).
(2) Only select a private vendor who is able to fulfill
the requirements of this section.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
(3) Develop policies and procedures for the
implementation of this section.
(b) Contract requirements.--A contract entered into with a
private vendor under subsection (a) shall be for an initial term
of not less than five years and be renewable by the same private
vendor for not less than two successive five-year terms. The
contract shall require the private vendor to:
(1) Design, market and sell the vendor-designed
registration plates on the private vendor's publicly
accessible Internet website, which shall be accessible on the
department's publicly accessible Internet website.
(2) Process the purchase and issuance of vendor-designed
registration plates hosted on the private vendor's publicly
accessible Internet website and pay any associated costs and
fees.
(3) Permit a vendor-designed registration plate that is
purchased from the private vendor's publicly accessible
Internet website to feature personalized or nonpersonalized
alphanumeric patterns in accordance with practices of the
department.
(4) Provide to the department, at least monthly,
periodic accounts that accurately detail all material
transactions, including information reasonably required by
the department to support fees that are collected by the
private vendor.
(5) Establish an electronic infrastructure coordinated
and compatible with the department's systems, by which motor
vehicle owners may electronically send and receive
applications, other documents or required payments and that,
when secure access is necessary, can be electronically
20250SB0742PN0792 - 2 -
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
validated by the department.
(6) Establish the amounts to be received by the
department from the fees imposed under subsection (d).
(7) Comply with the provisions of sections 1331(a), (b)
and (d) (relating to issuance and reissuance of registration
plates) and 1333 (relating to lost, stolen, damaged or
illegible registration plate).
(8) Process the purchase of vendor-designed registration
plates in accordance with current department practices.
(9) Provide for a minimum revenue guarantee within the
first five years of the contract. The guarantee shall be
negotiated between the department and the private vendor.
(10) Comply with any other requirement established by
the department, subject to the contract limitations in
subsection (c).
(c) Contract limitations.--The department may not
unreasonably:
(1) Disapprove or limit an aspect of a private vendor's
marketing and sales plan.
(2) Interfere with the selection, assignment or
management by the private vendor of the private vendor's
employees, agents or subcontractors.
(3) Restrict the ability of the private vendor to offer
a variety of plate designs with personalized and
nonpersonalized alphanumeric patterns.
(4) Disapprove or limit the ability of the private
vendor to offer vender-designed registration plate renewal
terms of more than one year.
(5) Disapprove or limit the ability of the private
vendor to offer symbols on a vendor-designed registration
20250SB0742PN0792 - 3 -
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
plate that are not part of the registration plate's
alphanumeric pattern.
(d) Fees.--The department, in consultation with the private
vendor, shall establish fees for the issuance and renewal of
vendor-designed registration plates that are marketed and sold
by the private vendor.
(e) Restricted account.--The Pennsylvania State Police
Traffic Safety Enhancement Restricted Account is established in
the Motor License Fund. The department shall be reimbursed
actual costs incurred in the implementation of this section from
fees generated under this section. The remainder of fees
collected under this section shall be deposited into the
Pennsylvania State Police Traffic Safety Enhancement Restricted
Account solely for the purchase of equipment and supplies by the
Pennsylvania State Police for enforcing and enhancing traffic
safety efforts in this Commonwealth. Money in the account shall
be appropriated on a continuing basis.
(f) Issuance limitation.--
(1) Vendor-designed registration plates may only be sold
and issued for a motorcycle or a passenger car or truck with
a registered gross weight of not more than 14,000 pounds.
(2) Subject to paragraph (3), 12 vendor-designed
registration plate designs shall be made available by the
private vendor for purchase by the motoring public.
(3) After 12 months from the initial date that the
private vendor makes approved vendor-designed registration
plates available for purchase by the motoring public, the
department may approve additional vendor-designed
registration plate designs in excess of the limitation
contained in paragraph (2).
20250SB0742PN0792 - 4 -
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
(g) Design limitation.--A vendor-designed registration plate
may not substantially mimic:
(1) The department's standard white, blue and yellow
registration plate or any future standard-issue registration
plates provided by the department.
(2) Other registration plates specifically authorized by
this subchapter.
(h) Design approval.--The department shall approve the
designs, symbols and color combinations for vendor-designed
registration plates that are exclusively marketed and sold by a
private vendor in consultation with the Pennsylvania State
Police subject to the following:
(1) The department may not restrict the background
color, color combinations or color of plate numbers or
letters of vendor-designed registration plates, except as
determined by the department as necessary for law enforcement
purposes.
(2) The department may disapprove a design, cancel a
vendor-designed registration plate or require the
discontinuation of a vendor-designed registration plate or
color combination that is marketed, hosted or sold by a
private vendor at any time if the department determines that
the disapproval, cancellation or discontinuation is in the
best interest of the Commonwealth or the motoring public.
(3) In accordance with current department license plate
testing practices, the department shall test each approved
design of a vender-designed registration plate to ensure the
design meets the department's registration plate reflectivity
requirements, can be read by authorized automated enforcement
systems and read by electronic toll collection devices as
20250SB0742PN0792 - 5 -
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
defined in 74 Pa.C.S. § 8102 (relating to definitions).
(i) Ownership retained.--Each approved vendor-designed
registration plate design and color combination remains the
property of the department. A vendor-designed registration plate
remains the property of the department and shall not be
considered property of the person that is issued the vendor-
designed registration plate.
(j) Cease of operations.--If the private vendor that enters
into a contract with the department ceases operations:
(1) The department may fulfill the duties of the private
vendor temporarily until another private vendor is selected
and begins operation.
(2) The private vendor's share of the fee under
subsection (d) shall be deposited to the credit of the Motor
License Fund until a new private vendor is selected by the
department, at which time, the share of the fee shall be
transmitted to the private vendor that ceased operations.
(k) Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed to prohibit:
(1) The seizure of a vendor-designed registration plate
under section 1334.1 (relating to seizure of registration
plate).
(2) The surrender of a vendor-designed registration
plate under section 1376 (relating to surrender of
registration plates and cards upon suspension or revocation).
Section 2. This act shall take effect in 180 days.
20250SB0742PN0792 - 6 -
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26