Saturday, April 10, 2021
Update on Massachusetts Motor Vehicle Inspections
Inspections are not expected to resume at locations until potentially Saturday, April 17.
The following is an update from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) in regard to the nationwide system outage of motor vehicle inspection services by the RMV’s vendor, Applus Technologies (Applus).
Status of vehicle inspections
Applus Technologies, a vendor that facilitates vehicle inspections in MA and several other states, experienced a cyber-attack in several states on March 30, preventing the RMV’s vehicle inspection stations from conducting vehicle inspections statewide. The RMV will hold the vendor accountable for this disruption and is working with Applus to restore services as soon as possible. Applus has indicated that their systems will be operating by Saturday, April 17th in Massachusetts and the Registry will continue working with the vendor to meet this goal. It has been 12 days since the Registry learned of the Applus cyber-attack, and the outage has had a significant impact to the many business owners who employ staff to deliver vehicle inspection services to the citizens of the Commonwealth.
Background information
The RMV is allowing a grace period for specific motor vehicle inspection requirements outlined below:
· Motor vehicles with expired inspection stickers from March 2021, (“3” sticker on windshield), should be granted until April 30, 2021, to obtain an inspection.
· Vehicles newly purchased or registered on or after Tuesday, March 23, 2021, should be granted until April 30, 2021, to obtain an inspection. Newly purchased vehicles must typically be inspected within seven (7) days of registration.
· Customers who recently had a failed inspection and are in the 60-day free retest window will be afforded one extra day for each day Applus’s system remains unavailable but should plan to facilitate their inspection as soon as possible once the system is restored and stations are online.
The RMV has advised law enforcement that compliance with the safety/emissions inspection requirement has not been possible since March 30, in light of the outage caused by the malware attack against Applus. The RMV is working in close partnership with the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS), the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association (MCOPA), the Massachusetts State Police (MSP) and other stakeholders to mitigate the impacts of the outage.
Historically, motor vehicle inspections average approximately 15,000 per day, with as many as 20,000+ inspections being conducted on the first two days of the month and the last two days of the month. The RMV estimates that there are between 40,000 to 50,000 vehicles that may still have a March sticker and require an inspection.
Please visit https://www.mavehiclecheck.com/ for more information on the outage.
