PAY BY MAIL AND YOU'LL PAY LESS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 15, 1993                   TAG: 9301150170
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
PAY BY MAIL AND YOU'LL PAY LESS
If the Department of Motor Vehicles wants car owners to buy tags by mail, why doesn't it offer them a discount?
Wellllllll . . . come July 1, it will.
Plate renewals due on or after that date will cost $1.50 less if you buy by mail. Two-year renewals will be discounted $3.
Commissioner Donald E. Williams said Thursday that the department hopes to increase mail purchases to 50 percent of all renewals, about 2 million licenses.
Mail renewals now run about 38 percent.
The DMV estimated the discount will cost the department about $3 million in lost revenue.
The department has moved increasingly toward providing DMV procedures off-site. For instance, car dealers now can register new vehicles by computer.
In the Roanoke Valley, the department still is negotiating for space at Crossroads Mall so it can merge its two local offices.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB