TITLE 49

MOTOR VEHICLES

CHAPTER 2

GENERAL

49-202.  Duties of department. (1) All registration and driver’s license records in the office of the department shall be public records and open to inspection by the public during normal business hours, except for those records declared by law to be for the confidential use of the department, or those records containing personal information subject to restrictions or conditions regarding disclosure. If the department has contracted for a service to be provided by another entity, an additional fee shall be charged by that contractor whether the service is rendered during normal business hours, other than normal business hours or on weekends.

(2)  In addition to other fees required by law to be collected by the department, the department shall collect the following:

(a)  For certifying a copy of any record pertaining to any vehicle license, any certificate of title, or any driver’s license 

(b)  For issuing every Idaho certificate of title 

(c)  For furnishing a duplicate copy of any Idaho certificate

of title 

(d)  For issuance or transfer of every certificate of title on a new or used vehicle or other titled vehicle in an expedited manner (rush titles), in addition to any other fee required by this section 

(e)  For recording a transitional ownership document, in addition to any other fee required by this section 

(f)  For furnishing a replacement of any receipt

of registration 

(g)  For furnishing copies of registration or ownership of motor vehicles or driver’s license records, per vehicle registration, accident report records, title or per driver’s license record 

Additional contractor fee, not to exceed 

(h)  For services in searching files of vehicle or other

registrations, vehicle titles, or driver’s licenses per hour 

(i)  Placing "stop" cards in vehicle registration or title

files, each

(j)  For issuance of an assigned or replacement vehicle

identification number (VIN) 

(k)  For a vehicle identification number (VIN) inspection whether conducted by a city or county peace officer or any other peace officer or designated agent of the state of Idaho, per inspection 

(l)  For all replacement registration stickers, each 

(m)  For issuing letters of temporary vehicle clearance

to Idaho-based motor carriers 

(n)  For all sample license plates, each 

(o)  For filing release of liability statements 

(p)  For safety and insurance programs for each vehicle operated

by a motor carrier 

A lesser amount may be set by rule of the board.

(3)  The fees required in this section shall not apply when the service is furnished to any federal, state, county or city peace officer when such service is required in the performance of their duties as peace officers.

(4)  The department may enter into agreements with private companies or public entities to provide the services for which a fee is collected in subsection (2)(g) of this section. Such private contractor shall collect the fee prescribed and remit the fee to the department. The contractor shall also collect and retain the additional fee charged for his services.

(5)(a) The department shall pay three dollars ($3.00) of the fee collected by a county assessor or other authorized agent of the department as provided in subsection (2)(a) through (f) of this section, and four dollars ($4.00) as provided in subsection (2)(g) of this section, to the county assessor or sheriff of the county or authorized agent of the department collecting such fee, which shall be deposited with the county treasurer and credited to the county current expense fund when collected by the county. When fees are collected by the department or an authorized agent of the department, such fees shall be deposited with the issuing entity. The remainder of the fees collected as provided in that subsection shall be paid by the department to the state treasurer and placed in the state highway account.

(b)  The fee collected under subsection (2)(k) of this section for a VIN inspection shall be placed in the city general fund if conducted by a city peace officer, in the county current expense fund if conducted by a county peace officer, shall be retained by the special agent authorized to perform the inspection, or paid to the state treasurer and placed to the credit of the Idaho state police if conducted by the Idaho state police or in the state highway account if conducted by the department.

(c)  The fee collected under subsection (2)(o) of this section for filing release of liability statements shall be retained by the county assessor of the county collecting such fee and shall be deposited with the county treasurer and credited to the county current expense fund. Any fees collected by the department for filing release of liability statements shall be retained by the department. However, the fees provided for in subsection (2)(o) of this section shall not apply when a transaction is filed electronically with the department.

(d)  The fee in subsection (2)(m) of this section shall not apply when the Idaho-based motor carrier or its representative obtains and prints the document using internet access.

(e)  The fee collected under subsection (2)(p) of this section for motor carriers shall be paid by the department to the state treasurer and placed in the state highway account. The director and the director of the Idaho state police shall jointly determine the amount to be transferred from the state highway account to the law enforcement fund for motor carrier safety programs conducted by the Idaho state police pursuant to the provisions of section 67-2901A, Idaho Code.

(6)  The department as often as practicable may provide to law enforcement agencies the record of suspensions and revocations of driver licenses via the public safety and security information system (ILETS).

(7)  The department shall provide the forms prescribed in chapter 5 of this title, shall receive and file in its office in Ada county all instruments required in chapter 5 of this title to be filed with the department, shall prescribe a uniform method of numbering certificates of title, and shall maintain in the department indices for such certificates of title. All indices shall be by motor or identification number and alphabetical by name of the owner.

(8)  The department shall file each registration received under a distinctive registration number assigned to the vehicle and to the owner thereof.

(9)  The department shall not renew a driver’s license or identification card when fees required by law have not been paid or where fees for past periods are due, owing and unpaid including insufficient fund checks, until those fees have been paid.

(10) The department shall not grant the registration of a vehicle when:

(a)  The applicant is not entitled to registration under the provisions of this title; or

(b)  The applicant has neglected or refused to furnish the department with the information required in the appropriate form or reasonable additional information required by the department; or

(c)  The fees required by law have not been paid, or where fees for past registration periods are due, owing and unpaid including insufficient fund checks.

(11) The department or its authorized agents have the authority to request any person to submit to medical, vision, highway, or written examinations, to protect the safety of the public upon the highways. The department or its authorized agents may exercise such authority based upon evidence which may include, but is not limited to, observations made.

(12) The department shall revoke the registration of any vehicle:

(a)  Which the department shall determine is unsafe or unfit to be operated or is not equipped as required by law;

(b)  Whenever the person to whom the registration card or registration plate has been issued shall make or permit to be made any unlawful use of the same or permit their use by a person not entitled thereto;

(c)  For any violation of vehicle registration requirements by the owner or operator in the current or past registration periods;

(d)  Whenever a motor carrier requests revocation, or whenever an interstate carrier’s federal operating authority has been revoked;

(e)  For failure of the owner or operator to file the reports required or nonpayment of audit assessments or fees assessed against the owner by the department or the state tax commission pursuant to audit under the provisions of section 49-439, Idaho Code;

(f)  Identified by any city or county administering a program established by ordinance for the inspection and readjustment of motor vehicles (which program is part of an approved state implementation plan adopted by both the state and federal governments under 42 U.S.C. 7410) as having failed to comply with an ordinance requiring motor vehicle emission inspection and readjustment; provided that no vehicle shall be identified to the department under this subsection unless:

(i)   The city or county certifies to the department that the owner of the motor vehicle has been given notice and had the opportunity for a hearing concerning compliance with the ordinance and has exhausted all remedies and appeals from any determination made at such hearing; and

(ii)  The city or county reimburses the department for all direct costs associated with the registration revocation procedure.

(13) The department shall not reregister or permit a vehicle to operate on a special trip permit until all fees, penalties and interest have been paid.

(14) The department shall institute educational programs, demonstrations, exhibits and displays.

(15) The department shall cancel a driver’s license or identification card when fees required by law have not been paid or where fees are due, owing and unpaid including insufficient fund checks, until those fees have been paid.

(16) The department shall examine persons and vehicles by written, oral, vision and skills tests without compulsion except as provided by law.

(17) The department shall employ expert and special help as needed in the department.

(18) The department shall compile accident statistics and disseminate information relating to those statistics.

(19) The department shall cooperate with the United States in the elimination of road hazards, whether of a physical, visual or mental character.

(20) The department shall place and maintain traffic-control devices, conforming to the board’s manual and specifications, upon all state highways as it shall deem necessary to indicate and to carry out the provisions of this title or to regulate, warn, or guide traffic. No local authority shall place or maintain any traffic-control device upon any highway under the jurisdiction of the department except by the latter’s permission. The placement and maintenance of such a traffic-control device by a local authority shall be made according to the board’s manual and specifications for a uniform system of traffic-control devices.

(21) The department may conduct an investigation of any bridge or other elevated structure constituting a part of a highway, and, if it shall find that the structure cannot with safety to itself withstand vehicles traveling at a speed otherwise permissible under this title, shall determine and declare the maximum speed of vehicles which the structure can safely withstand, and shall cause or permit suitable signs stating the maximum speed to be erected and maintained before each end of the structure.

(22) Whenever the department shall determine on the basis of an engineering and traffic investigation that slow speeds on any highway or part of a highway impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, the department may determine and declare a minimum speed limit below which no person shall drive a vehicle except when necessary for safe operation or in compliance with law, and that limit shall be effective when posted upon appropriate fixed or variable signs.

(23) The department shall regulate or prohibit the use of any controlled-access highway by any class or kind of traffic which is found to be incompatible with the normal and safe movement of traffic.

(24) The department shall erect and maintain traffic-control devices on controlled-access highways on which any prohibitions are applicable.

(25) The department and local authorities are authorized to determine those portions of any highway under their respective jurisdictions where overtaking and passing or driving on the left side of the roadway would be especially hazardous and may by appropriate signs or markings on the roadway indicate the beginning and end of those zones and when signs or markings are in place and clearly visible to an ordinarily observant person, every driver of a vehicle shall obey those directions.

(26) The department and local authorities in their respective jurisdictions may in their discretion issue special permits authorizing the operation upon a highway of traction engines or tractors having movable tracks with transverse corrugations upon the periphery of the movable tracks or farm tractors or other farm machinery, the operation of which upon a highway would otherwise be prohibited under this title or title 40, Idaho Code.

(27) The department and local highway authorities within their respective jurisdictions may place official traffic-control devices prohibiting, limiting or restricting the stopping, standing or parking of vehicles on any highway where such stopping, standing or parking is dangerous to those using the highway or where the stopping, standing or parking of vehicles unduly interferes with the free movement of traffic thereon.

(28) On any informational material printed after July 1, 1995, by or at the order of the department and distributed to counties, school districts or individuals for the purpose of assisting a person to successfully pass a driver’s license test, the department shall include material about the state’s open range law and responsibilities, liabilities and obligations of drivers driving in the open range.

History:

[49-202, added 1988, ch. 265, sec. 5, p. 572; am. 1989, ch. 88, sec. 13, p. 167; am. 1989, ch. 310, sec. 8, p. 779; am. 1990, ch. 45, sec. 12, p. 86; am. 1991, ch. 143, sec. 1, p. 337; am. 1991, ch. 214, sec. 1, p. 511; am. 1992, ch. 35, sec. 6, p. 109; am. 1992, ch. 115, sec. 5, p. 354; am. 1992, ch. 173, sec. 1, p. 542; am. 1993, ch. 299, sec. 2, p. 1101; am. 1994, ch. 315, sec. 1, p. 1001; am. 1995, ch. 116, sec. 26, p. 407; am. 1995, ch. 209, sec. 1, p. 710; am. 1996, ch. 271, sec. 1, p. 879; am. 1997, ch. 80, sec. 7, p. 181; am. 1997, ch. 155, sec. 3, p. 443; am. 1998, ch. 110, sec. 9, p. 387; am. 1999, ch. 81, sec. 4, p. 242; am. 1999, ch. 383, sec. 6, p. 1057; am. 2000, ch. 320, sec. 3, p. 1082; am. 2000, ch. 418, sec. 6, p. 1335; am. 2000, ch. 469, sec. 112, p. 1571; am. 2001, ch. 183, sec. 20, p. 629; am. 2004, ch. 234, sec. 1, p. 687; am. 2007, ch. 21, sec. 1, p. 34; am. 2008, ch. 55, sec. 1, p. 138; am. 2009, ch. 331, sec. 2, p. 947; am. 2012, ch. 325, sec. 3, p. 898; am. 2019, ch. 274, sec. 1, p. 803; am. 2020, ch. 38, sec. 1, p. 75; am. 2023, ch. 286, sec. 1, p. 871.]