Bill would let rental fleets use centralized 'fleet' plates without stickers to ease logistics, rental industry says

Delegate Stewart presented House Bill 14-64, which would create a framework allowing rental fleet owners to register vehicles on fleet plates without applying serialized renewal stickers to each plate. Industry witnesses, including Brad Ruthka and Ben Perez of Enterprise Holdings, testified that the change would address logistical challenges when vehicles move between locations or across state lines and would reduce the number of sidelined vehicles that appear to lack current registration while the sticker is being transferred.

Ben Perez told the committee Enterprise’s Maryland fleet totals roughly 37,000 vehicles and that the company currently assigns serialized stickers and registration cards to each vehicle; the renewal-sticker process can be delayed when cars are returned to different locations or are out of state. "During this time, it may appear that a vehicle is being operated without a current registration due to the delayed sticker application, when in fact the registration is current," Perez said. Enterprise asked the committee for a favorable report and noted the bill includes an $8.50 fee designed to cover administrative costs.

Committee members raised concerns in the fiscal note that while the fee would generate revenue to the Transportation Trust Fund, initial implementation may require expenditures. Delegate Huey asked whether the fee should be calibrated to cover administrative costs; rental-industry witnesses said they would accept that approach. No committee vote was recorded at the hearing; industry representatives said they will continue to work with lawmakers on technical amendments to ensure implementation is administratively neutral for the MVA.