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Committee advances bill to use GVWR instead of shipping weight for pickup registrations
Summary
The Government Operations Division voted to give House Bill 1345 a "do pass" recommendation after Representative Pat Heiner said the bill corrects a decades-old registration practice that doubled shipping weight for half‑ton pickups. Sponsors said fee changes are minimal and the change aligns North Dakota with neighboring states.
The Government Operations Division voted to give House Bill 1345 a “do pass” recommendation after lawmakers and the bill’s sponsor said the measure fixes an out‑of‑date method for calculating registered vehicle weight.
Representative Pat Heiner, R., said the bill replaces an old practice that used a vehicle’s shipping weight — which in some cases was doubled for registration — with the vehicle’s gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). Heiner told the committee the change responds to constituent inquiries after a pickup owner saw “10,800 pounds” listed on a registration for a half‑ton truck and questioned the figure.
“...the law for the state of North Dakota at the time said that the shipping weight would be doubled for registration purposes in North Dakota,” Representative Heiner said during his introduction of the bill. He added that the highway department recommended using GVWR, and that neighboring states (Montana, South Dakota and Minnesota) use the same metric.
Heiner and staff discussed the bill’s fiscal note with the panel. The sponsor said the fiscal impact is small — about $86,000 total on the current fiscal note — and that the department rearranged fee bands to be “as close to neutral as they possibly could without raising anybody's rates.” Heiner summarized the distribution in the fiscal note: approximately $30,000 across counties, $17,000 across cities and about $3,700 across townships when divided among jurisdictions.
Committee members asked whether the shipping‑weight rule applied only to half‑ton pickups; Heiner said staff determined it appears limited to half‑ton pickups. Members also asked how law enforcement would treat the tag weight if a vehicle were stopped; Heiner said patrol guidance is to use the vehicle door tag weight for enforcement, and the bill is intended to avoid confusion.
Senator Erberly moved a due‑pass recommendation and Senator Sickler seconded. The committee recorded ayes from the senators present and the motion passed. Senator Burkhart volunteered to carry the bill to the full Appropriations Committee.
The measure now moves to the next committee/floor steps as carried by a sponsor.
Ending: The committee did not amend the bill; it approved a due‑pass recommendation and identified a senator to carry HB 1345 forward. No implementation details beyond the fiscal note were set by the committee.
