Do All Utility Trailers Have To Be Registered In California

••• Oleksandr Filon/iStock/GettyImages

California requires the registration of nigh utility trailers with the California Section of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Permanent Trailer Identification (PTI) plan, which ensures that owners properly title and maintain the trailers to brand them safe for themselves, other drivers and their cargo, specially animals. Most people who ain utility trailers can apply this service, simply it does have a few exceptions.

Utility Trailer Types and Their Uses

Utility trailers exist in several different sizes and shapes. Some open, allowing for the dumping of their contents, and some accept enclosed walls. Most have multiple functions for transporting goods. A bones utility trailer ordinarily has a tailgate, a platform, wheels and guardrails around it and is helpful for noncommercial drivers when moving equipment or supplies from identify to place.

Different types of utility trailers include:

Lowboy trailers that adjust to a shallow deck acme, making loading and unloading heavy objects easy. These trailers normally bear moving equipment that doesn't fit on a flatbed trailer or on a single-drop trailer.

Car haulers move vehicles from one identify to another. The trailer tin can be a simple car dolly fastened to a vehicle's two front wheels or a hydraulic automobile carrier trailer with a tilting cab that a driver can bulldoze upward on.

Dump trailers operate much as dump trucks exercise – their platform lifts at an angle to dump the trailer'south contents on the basis. They piece of work well for moving objects in mounds, like dirt, gravel or mulch.

Enclosed utility trailers, besides known every bit cargo trailers, offer protection from the elements for animals, equipment and supplies.

Flatbed utility trailers practise non have guardrails, unlike a bones utility trailer. They accept unlike configurations, simply the most common is a deck above the trailer's wheels which has the flattest load area possible in a utility trailer.

California DMV Permanent Trailer Identification Program

California has a Permanent Trailer Identification (PTI) program through the DMV that owners utilise when registering their utility trailers. The department issues a PTI license plate and a permanent ID card instead of standard trailer plates. When initially converting to the program, the DMV allows trailer owners to retain their existing plate numbers or to exchange their former trailer plate for a PTI plate for costless. The bureau does not offering Fractional Year Registration (PYR) or Permanent Armada Registration (PFR) for utility trailers, and owners cannot register them under the International Registration Plan (IRP).

Trailer owners tin can besides retain special interest or personalized plates on their PTI trailers, which are non subject to registration fees, including California Highway Patrol (CHP) fees, canton fees, licensing fees or weight fees. However, when renewing a PTI trailer registration, fees for special plates may be due to the DMV role.

Utility Trailer Registration Process in California

While PTI trailers do not have annual registration fees, owners must pay a maintenance service fee or file the Planned Non-Operation Certification (PNO–REG 102) course every five years. This process began with registrations that expired on or afterwards December 31, 2006.

When registering a trailer with the PTI program, owners must utilise the DMV's class REG 4017. Owners who want a paper championship for their trailer should complete and sign Side A of the certificate. The owner volition make full out Side B when transferring a trailer'southward ownership without a paper title through a registered possessor transfer or when releasing a lien holder or legal possessor.

Utility Trailer'southward Document of Title

The DMV doesn't automatically issue a paper title until full payment of a lien occurs. Instead, owners take access to Electronic Lien and Titling (ELT). When they satisfy their lien, the DMV receives notification and issues the newspaper championship to the vehicle's registered possessor or a new lien holder.

Lien holders do not take to wait for a paper championship to take proof of lien fulfillment. An electronic notification comes the next concern twenty-four hours, with the necessary information included. ELT also offers these transactions:

Paper title release to the utility trailer's registered possessor without their alter of address.
Newspaper title release to the utility trailer's new legal possessor with a certificate of registration sent to the registered owner.
Ability to alter the lien holder branch/location with a document of registration sent to the registered owner.
Paper title release to the lien holder with no changes. No registration certificate is required.
Paper title release to a dealer, auction or insurance company. No registration certificate required for the registered possessor.

Trailers Excluded From the PTI Plan

The DMV excludes some utility trailers from the PTI plan. These trailers must apply for the standard annual registration:

Coach Gunkhole Trailers: Owners must register a trailer coach with a hull as a dual vehicle/vessel.

Park Trailers (like campers or travel trailers) nether California Health and Safety Code Section 18009: Owners must register a utility trailer designed for human inhabitants and seasonal or recreational use that has less than 400 square feet of floor area, excluding the loft, built on single chassis, and transported via highways with a California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) permit.

Manufactured homes and park trailers must have a characterization or information plate detailing its construction. Park trailers display an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) characterization from the DMV, while manufactured homes display a HUD information plate from the California Department of Housing Customs Development (DHC).

Utility Trailer Insurance

A utility trailer owner should have insurance for their trailer, but how they buy information technology is upward to them. This type of policy provides the money necessary to pay tertiary parties for harm or injury from accidents involving the trailer. It may as well comprehend legal and courtroom fees up to the policy limit. Auto insurance also provides some coverage, but additional liability for the trailer may exist necessary, depending on its use.

Trailer owners may desire to accept other types of insurance coverage depending on their needs. For example, collision coverage compensates for repairing or replacing the trailer if an accident occurs regardless of error. Comprehensive coverage finances an possessor when repairing or replacing a trailer involved in a noncollision-related occurrence, such as a fire, alluvion, theft, vandalism or storm in which the trailer is damaged by falling debris.

Contents coverage compensates an owner to repair or replace the objects transported, regardless of fault, simply alive animals demand a specific type of insurance coverage. Finally, roadside help covers towing or breakdowns if the trailer becomes inoperable while on the route.