In Queensland, this year, the state government have done away with registration stickers that go on windscreens ; doing away with red tape, an efficiency measure apparently.

So, a police officer can no longer glance at the windscreen, of a passing or parked car - and see from the colour coded sticker that the registration is current - he must have access to an online device to have the reggo plate checked to see if the registration has been paid.

That's efficiency, clever, eh ?

Wantok's concerns have been considered and have been answered.

As I stated above, registration status of vehicles and much more, right down to the paint colour and vehicle make and style are available to police in two or three seconds via the numberplates.

The stickers can be misleading if they are displayed on the incorrect vehicle. The NSW and Qld and, presumably, other governments have decided not to go to the trouble and expense of issuing windscreen stickers for light vehicles.

Back in the day when I owned a number of vintage sports cars [I hasten to add that that was also in the days when they were dirt cheap!].
I only had one rego sticker and one set of plates on a registered vehicle, the sticker was on a piece of glass that fitted into a trailer sticker holder [for the car that had only aero screens].
When i wanted to take out an unregistered car I swapped the plates and stuck the rego sticker, on its own bit of glass, onto the inside of the windscreen with a smear of Vasolene.

Never got caught, but now-a-days 'things has changed' and a police car can scan your car and be after you in a flash.

The NRMA in NSW gives away windscreen/window stickers to members that one can write the rego date on as a reminder just in case the mail goes astray.

Yes wantok & Is Mise, they can scan, or see the rego label colour, but they don't bother unless there is a reason to raise suspicion.

My son has now for 11 years driven his Queensland registered cars in Victoria & NSW. As defence personnel he was entitled to keep his car registered where he wanted, when posted interstate. He has never been queried, despite the fact that the vehicle would have been unregistered after 3 months if civilian owned. The number plate & the rego sticker should have been obvious.

My youngest has been in Darwin for 11 months. She was working for the army, but was only a civilian employee. She was too slack to change her registration to NT from QLD, & was never queried.

I believe that only those that raise suspicion through some action are checked.

Incidentally Is Mise, all my Triumphs were the same colour, which may still fox them.

Hi, Hasbeen.

Things have moved on from the days when you only got caught if you drew attention to yourself.

Infra-red automatic numberplate scanning plus mobile satellite links back to the central registry changed all that several years back.

I'm not in the auto industry, but still have met several people who have been booked because their trailer was a day out of rego, or their car was a few days over - or longer. They were caught in the early days of the new technology. All the police had to do was to sit at the side of the road and call ahead to their mates up the road a bit when a vehicle of interest came past.

In NSW, the penalty for driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle is about $100, added to which is the cost and inconvenience of getting a vehicle inspection immediately, plus perhaps an overnight stay in a motel while any defects are attended to. The whole exercise can cost a couple of grand, a day or two out of your life, plus points and licence suspension.

And it is virtually automatic.

Like Hasbeen, in my youth I owned several Austin 8 convertibles. Like Hasbeen, I used to swap the plates and windscreens (only 4 screws needed).
Like Hasbeen, I was lucky.

Those days have gone forever.

Oops!

My typo. The penalties for driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle in NSW amount to about $1000, not $100.

Add a full roadworthiness inspection (Called a "Blue Slip" or something similar - not just the customary "pink slip") if the vehicle is more than a couple of weeks over, if you can find an authorised inspector and things start to grow.

Defects, whether picked up by the police or the inspector, have to be attended to immediately or within several days. The whole thing quickly becomes out of control; an unmitigated disaster, especially if away from home and travelling with children.