OPP officers see tens of thousands of unregistered plates while on patrol

Hundreds of thousands of motorists in the province are driving on the roads with unregistered licence plates after the province scrapped plate stickers and renewal fees in 2022.

But just because the stickers and fees are no more doesn’t mean that you don’t have to renew your licence plates.

Ontario Provincial Police say officers have seen tens of thousands of unregistered plates while on patrol.

Sgt. Kerry Schmidt says that when they’re at a traffic stop, running their automatic licence plate reading system, they flag “a couple of dozen” vehicles with an unregistered status in a matter of minutes.

READ MORE: Ontario eliminating licence plate renewal fees and stickers

“I know there’s been changes in the way license renewals are done, there’s no longer a fee and it’s all done online and I think a lot of people are neglecting or forgetting to go online and renew their registration,” Schmidt said.

“No charge for passenger vehicles, light trucks, motorcycles, mopeds and so on, but it is required. You don’t need to have a sticker on your license plate, but that doesn’t mean you’re not still required to have the vehicle registered.”

And according to the Ministry of Transportation, there were more than 800,000 unregistered plates in 2022 and close to 600,000 in June of this year.

Schmidt believes the staggering numbers could be due to the fact drivers no longer receive reminders to renew their licence plates in the mail.