Law Enforcement Notice, VT Message Switch - Major Changes

We are making significant changes and updates affecting your interaction with the Vermont DMV. These changes are part of our core modernization project. DMV modernization will include Vehicle Services (title and registration) beginning November 12, 2023.

We understand that these updates may bring about some adjustments to your operations, and we appreciate your cooperation. If you have any questions or require further clarification regarding these updates, please do not hesitate to contact DMV Enforcement & Safety.

We value your partnership and commitment to ensuring the safe and legal operation of vehicles in Vermont. Thank you for your attention to these critical matters.

Message Switch Changes for Law Enforcement Officers

• General
  • All Vermont vehicle responses sent through the message switch for law enforcement inquiries will be sent in in formatted text using the standardized NLETS Stylesheet.
    • This will match the format of out of state messages that law enforcement officers currently receive.
  • The vehicle responses will include standardized values for vehicle details (e.g., Vehicle Color, Vehicle Make, Vehicle Fuel Type).
  • Plate Type Codes have been remapped to better align with Vermont license plates. This will impact both inquiries made with a plate type and plate number included in the request as well as the values returned in the responses.
    • Inquiries run with a Plate Type of ZZ will return any matching plate regardless of Plate Type.

• Registration Responses
  • RQ and QVF messages will now return the same information in the same format. While the RQ requires a Plate Type to be included in the inquiry, the QVF does not.
  • The RQ and QVF message keys will no longer accept the expiration year of the given plate into account when searching the system. This is due to the changes to Stickers mentioned below under DMV Business Changes.
  • An Expiration Date of 9999-12-31 represents a non-expiring registration, which is active until canceled.

• Snowmobiles and Boats
  • The QVF message key will no longer respond for snowmobiles and boats, it will now be for vehicles only.
    • Instead, officers should send an SQ message to look up a snowmobile and a BQ message to look up a boat.
    • The extra state specific fields previously retrieved by the QVF request are now appended to the bottom of the standard SQ, BQ, or RQ response.
  • The SQ can return information from either the Snowmobile Number or from the Snowmobile Plate (Antique Snowmobiles)
  • The BQ can return information from either the Boat Number or from a Temporary Plate ID (Temporary Boat Registrations)

• Disabled Placards
  • Placard information will remain in the mainframe until the next phase of the project. However, law enforcement officers will still be able to search for placards through the RQ, QVF, and QVP message keys as they do now.
    • However, the placard data from these messages will be one day behind the Mainframe data.
    • Customers who get a placard in person or by mail will not see their record updated until the data is available the Mainframe. The usual process delays will affect this information’s availability.
  • Currently a user can search for a placard by passing in the Transporter plate type to a QVF or RQ message. Going forward users will need to use the Disabled Plate Type (DX) to search for a placard through a QVF or RQ message. Without this plate type placard data will not be inquired on.

• Name Searches
  • Searching by Name in the RNQ, SQ, and BQ messages expects a specific format for the name: LAST, FIRST MIDDLE
  • NLETs standards requires that a First and Last name are provided for the Name Search

• Vehicle Owners without a Name or Address on File
  • The Mainframe currently has some PIDs that do not have Name or Address information on file, but they are still linked to vehicles in the system.
  • The following information will be shown in Message Switch responses for vehicles with owners where the system does not have a name or address on file.
    • REGISTERED TO: NAME NOT ON FILE
      • Other name parts will be blank.
    • REGISTERED ADDRESS: NOT ON FILE
      • Other address parts will be blank
• Registration Status Codes
  • OWNXFR - Invalid Registration
  • REGOOS - Surrendered Registration
  • VRGACT - Valid Registration
  • VRGCNL - Cancelled Registration
  • VRGEXP - Expired Registration
  • VRGIRP - Valid International Registration Plan (IRP)
  • VRGNON - No Registration
  • VRGREV - Revoked Registration
  • VRGSUS - Suspended Registration
  • VRGXFR - Invalid Registration

DMV Business Changes

• Elimination of Stickers
  • Vermont will discontinue the issuance of validation stickers on all registrations.
  • Plates will remain valid without affixing a registration sticker.
  • Customers will not be required to remove existing stickers.

• Several documents generated by the DMV are changing:
  • Registration Certificates (Temporary and Standard) will now be printed on 8.5 x 11 standard paper and have a different format.
    • There will be a barcode printed on each registration certificate that can be used to easily scan and see registration information. The barcode is the same as the current IRP Cab Card.
  • Online Temporary Plates (W Plates) have a new format.
  • Cardboard Temporary Plates have been replaced with a plastic plate with a new design.
  • Blue/Red Light Permits and Window Tint Permits will be separate permits printed on 8.5 x 11 paper. They will no longer be a copy of the application.

• Motorboat Numbers and Vessel Validation Numbers will have a new format.
  • Motorboat Numbers
    • Current: 4 Numbers + 1 Letter
    • New: 4 Numbers + 2 Letters
  • Vessel Validation Numbers
    • Current: 4 Numbers
    • New: 5 Numbers

• To request title and lien history and information on a vehicle, or a certified copy of a driving record please use destination ORI VTDMV0000.

Message Switch Downtime/Cutover

Vehicle law enforcement inquiries will be down on Sunday, November 12, 2023, from 04:00 - 05:00 to allow time to switch vehicle inquiries to the new system.

Ongoing Maintenance & Support

The Vermont Vehicle system will undergo regular maintenance starting November 14, 2023, on Tuesdays from Midnight - to 6:00 a.m.

Users may encounter slow responses or may encounter an error during this time, but the system will not be completely down.

If your messenger station receives a message that requires review by the team supporting DMV, it can be forwarded to station DMVREVIEW. Out of state users can either forward the response in question or send a new AM message to VTDMV0008.

Message Switch Changes for CAD Vendors

• General
  • All Vermont vehicle responses sent through the message switch for law enforcement inquiries will be sent in in formatted text using the standardized NLETS Stylesheet.
  • The vehicle responses will include NIEM standardized values (e.g., Vehicle Color, Vehicle Make, Vehicle Fuel Type).
  • Plate Codes have been remapped to better align with Vermont license plates. This will impact both inquiries made with a plate type and plate number included in the request as well as the values returned in the responses.

• Disabled Placards
  • An optional parameter will be added to the QVP message key to indicate that the officer would like to see placards in the response.
    • The optional parameter name is IncludePlacards.
    • If this is not included in the QVP request or if IncludePlacards is true, then placards will be returned.
  • A new message key, QHP, will be available to search the mainframe directly for placards.
    • This will be available in OpenFox and may be available in other law enforcement applications.
    • The QHP will act just like a QVF, users will pass in the placard number as the plate ID and the mainframe will respond with placard information.

Example of New Documents

Example of New Temporary Plates