News in 2022

Since 2009 the Junk, Salvage, and Insurance (JSI) industries have been reporting salvage vehicles to NMVTIS in compliance with federal rules. Now the system is being updated to provide better, cleaner, and more meaningful data for the industries that use it.

The changes to reporting are slated to go fully into effect mid-January 2023, with a true date to be announced before the end of 2022.

The reason for the delay is that most JSI reporting is being performed via batch, spreadsheet, or computer to computer reporting. Data consolidators have made it known that all the management systems, data consolidators, and large businesses need to update their programs to accommodate the changes.

What are the changes and what does it mean to those who report?

There are two changes in the reporting process. The first is a series of data validations that weren’t present before. For example, making sure that a state being reported has the official abbreviation of a jurisdiction like California (CA). Most fields now have specific validations and if data is reported that does not fit the validations, the whole record will be rejected. It seems simple, but in testing as much as 10% of the data being currently reported would be rejected.

For the last 13 years, most businesses that have reported through Auto Data Direct have had almost no rejections. But with these updates there will likely be customers who are asked to fix and resend their reports. For those that key in data, the entry screens will be updated so only valid data can be entered, so those reporting entities won’t be impacted. But, for those using batch, spreadsheet, or business to business reporting it is going to be necessary to check the confirmation reports for any errors before sending updated records.

The second change is the addition of two new dispositions, “Parts” and “Retained.” Retained is specifically for Insurance companies reporting owner retained vehicles. These reports would be used when the owner keeps a vehicle that was determined to be salvage.

The Parts disposition will be used primarily by auto recyclers when purchasing vehicles to sell parts. With this disposition, the title to the vehicle will not be flagged as “never to be titled again” as a vehicle with the disposition “Scrap” previously would have been. With this change, reporting businesses should only use the disposition of “Scrap” if they never intend on reselling the vehicle with a useable title for rebuilding.

If the dispositions of Unknown, Parts, or Scrap are used, the reporting entity should make a second report when the vehicle/car body is sold of either “Sold” or “Crush”. If the disposition of Crush or Scrap are used, this means that that VIN will never be retitled in any state. This change is happening since many more vehicles that were previously reported as Scrap are being purchased by rebuilders wanting to fix them and get salvage rebuilt titles, largely due to inventory shortages of drivable vehicles.

Businesses that report salvage vehicles using a batch or bulk process will need to make sure they get the new batch reporting file/format. This file will describe in detail the new edit checks and which data elements are affected. It will also cover the new dispositions and their uses. If this is not done when the batches are sent, it’s estimated up to 10% of the records being sent could be rejected. It will also be important to monitor confirmation/error reports because records that were previously passed through may be rejected and the reporting entity will not have completed the required salvage vehicle report to stay fully compliant.

What should reporting entities do now?

These changes are not in effect yet and the new dispositions are not yet active. There will be emails notifying affected customers when the batch files and specs are available, when the dates of full implementation are planned for, plus reminders to check confirmation reports for rejects.

Auto Data Direct will continue to work with our customers and management systems to get their systems ready for the changes, so they can update their users before it goes into effect. Reporting entities that do not use ADD should contact their JSI consolidator for information.