When a commercial vehicle is tagged in Barton County, the registrant needs to bring to the Treasurer’s Office:
• Either a renewal notice, past registration, title or title snapshot for each vehicle.
• United States Department of Transportation number (customer must have such a number before registration can be done. They can be applied for at www.truckingks.org.
• Tax identification number
• Primary contact name and number
• Mailing address
• Heavy-use tax form 2290 (if vehicle is registered at over 54,000 pounds)
• Current proof of insurance
• Unit number of vehicle if applicable
• Number of axles on the vehicle
• Color of vehicle
• Fuel type
• Purchase price
• Garage address
• Empty weight
• If name on USDOT number permit is different than the name on the vehicle title, a lease agreement between the two names is required. An example would be the USDOT number being in company name and the vehicle titled in an individual’s name. Lease agreements available in the Treasurer’ Office.
Barton County Treasurer Kevin Wondra and his staff have been fielding a lot of questions lately on commercial vehicle registration. Unfortunately, with new requirements from the state level taking affect only last week, county officials are still feeling their way through the changes.
Wondra said his office now only handles commercial motor vehicle transactions for vehicles that are used intrastate (within the State of Kansas). Up until Jan. 2, these had been handled at the state level.
If the vehicle is used for business purposes both within and outside the state, registration must be done at a county treasurer’ office that handles International Registration Plan vehicle transactions, and that does not include Barton County. The closest IRP county is Stafford.
However, it handles IRP registrations by appointment only. The phone number for the Stafford County Treasurer’ office is 620-549-3508.
Meanwhile, back in Barton County, Wondra advises those coming in for commercial vehicle registration to bring the necessary documentation with them to make the process smoother.
Since it takes a while to do each transaction, Wondra suggests calling his office at 620-793-1831 first to see if there will be a wait. He also asks customers not wait until the end of the expiration period to get the registration done to help eliminate wait times at that time.
The registration will be more expensive for some and less for others, Wondra said. The new system bases the cost on the gross weight of the vehicle, not the vehicle make, model and year like paying property taxes the old way.
There are those who tagged their vehicles as private and not commercial because they didn’t want the extra paperwork and rules, he said. There could be fines and a misdemeanor charge if they are stopped and are tagged as standard when they should in fact be tagged as a commercial vehicle.
“Since this is something new for us, I don’t know how many commercial vehicles we have in Barton County,” Wondra said. Also, there are some vehicles that haven’t been tagged as commercial in the past that probably will be now.
Plus, he said, there are some treasurers only handling registrations from within their county because of the added burden. Barton County is accepting out-of-county transactions for now.
So, since the Barton County Treasurer’ office is doing registrations for not just residents of Barton County, Wondra doesn’t know how many out- of-county customers he might see.
