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Sablan calls for ‘rental vehicle’ registration
Sablan
Rep. Vinson Sablan (Ind-Saipan) has prefilled a bill to differentiate between commercial rental cars and cars for personal use that are registered in the Commonwealth.
House Bill 19-25 notes that car rental businesses are being treated in the same manner and paying the same fees as individual citizens and that “action must be taken to differentiate” the two, as tourist investments and the demand for car rentals increase.
H.B. 19-125 seeks to, among others, require a registration fee of $150 for car rental vehicles, and require rental car license plates to display a “symbol, word or letter” that identifies them as such.
In an email, Sablan said it is evident that there has been a significant increase in rental vehicles in the CNMI especially on Saipan. As driving is one of the main attractions and recreational activities for tourists, Sablan said, the CNMI has to make sure that “our community is safe from inexperienced operators.”
“We all have been seeing and feeling this on the roads and highways on a daily basis,” Sablan said. “Our government needs to have accountability of how many vehicles are being registered as rental vehicles, especially with the rise of rental vehicle companies that is very visible. Before this bill, I believe there was no record or count of how many rental vehicles are on our roads.”
Portions of the funding from this bill will go to the creation of general rules of the roads manuals, which will be written, in different languages for visiting drivers to have to ensure safety for all on the roads of the CNMI.
There is also a portion of funding from this bill, which will go into the effective enforcement of this bill if it becomes law.
