Come next year, motorists will no longer be required to display a registration sticker on their license plate.

The final sticker will be issued Dec. 30 of this year due to Act 89, signed into law in November 2013.The process will save mailing costs and police will be able to scan license plates to get accurate expiration dates.Customers will still need to have their vehicles registered and inspected, but there will no longer be a need to display a registration sticker after the final day of this year.Law enforcement will still be able to pull people over for expired registration. A unit mounted to a law enforcement vehicle contains cameras that scan the license plates on passing vehicles, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.Department of Transportation Secretary Leslie S. Richards invited legislators and law enforcement officers Wednesday to see the Automated License Plate Reader technology in action."License plate reader technology allows a single law enforcement officer to quickly, accurately and reliably check the status of thousands of license plates on a single shift using information from PennDOT's registration database to determine if there are expired registrations or lack of insurance for the vehicle," Richards said. "It is a true force multiplier."The plate is compared to information uploaded from the Justice Network. This upload contains an "exceptions list."As an example, this list would contain license plates with expired vehicle registrations, insurance coverage or stolen vehicles to name a few, according to PennDOT. The officer will receive an audible alert when a license plate on the list is identified.The new technology has advantages over the visual inspection of registration stickers, which can be counterfeited, sold, affixed to dead plates or applied to plates.To help law enforcement to buy the plate reader, PennDOT is proposing a grant program utilizing the savings from the elimination of the registration stickers.The program could provide grants to law enforcement officers for the purchase and maintenance of license plate readers.The process will be easier for drivers as well.As of Jan. 1, 2017, customers who renew online will be able save a copy of and print a permanent registration card on demand.Future plans also include allowing customers to eventually upload their registration cards to their smartphones and eliminate the requirement to print a copy altogether.For those who do not have a computer, the option of renewing by mail is, and still will be, an option for customers, as will visiting a PennDOT authorized agent to renew their vehicle registration, according to PennDOT.Further savings will be realized in reduced mailing costs.Currently, 40 percent of customers already renew vehicle registrations online. Eliminating the need to mail these customers a registration sticker, coupled with the ability to print their registration card on demand, will eliminate more than $2 million per year in mailing costs.In addition, the elimination of the registration stickers will save $1 million a year in product costs, bringing the estimated first year savings to about $3.1 million.The elimination of the registration sticker was evaluated as part of a Penn State University research study that concluded eliminating the registration sticker would have no impact on compliance with vehicle registration laws.A copy of the study is on the Driver and Vehicle Services webpage at

www.dmv.pa.gov at the Registration Stickers tab under Vehicle Registration.