At 09:23 PM 1/29/97 +0000, you wrote:
>I know there are some current (and certainly some prior) military
>members on this list, so hopefully I can get some real-life advice.
> I'm currently stationed in Florida, and am not required to have
>an emissions test on my '72 B. Hopefully, I'll be transferred to
>Texas for my next school, and I believe that as long as I keep my
>tags current with Florida, I shouldn't have to register or smog test
>the car in Texas. Does this sound reasonable? I did the same
>thing in South Carolina, driving with current Florida plates, but I
>was only there for six months, and may have just gotten lucky with
>the local constabulary. I'm hoping to get Hawaii for my first
>permanent duty station (oxymoron?), and I think I'll be screwed,
>because there's no way I'll be able to get the car back to Florida
>once a year to update the tags. Any experience?
> BTW, has anybody else heard of the "three-state" rule? Evidently,
>if your registration, insurance, and driver's license are from three
>different states, you can legally only drive in those three states.
>May seem far-fetched, but ask an active-duty military member,
>especially one who is early in his career and getting bounced from
>one school to another how far-fetched it is.
>Scott Gardner
>gardner@lwcomm.com
>
As long as at least two of the following items match, you should be OK:
State of (temporary) residence, Driver's License, License plates.
Therefore, if you go to Texas and have a Florida DL, you're OK, because
you're not a legal resident of Texas. You can re-register by mail in
Florida (I think!). I heard of the Tri-State law all the time during my 21
years in the Navy, but never got nailed for it. Essentially, you don't have
a problem, as long as you behave yourself. Military service does still
offer a few benefits, some of them even intangible. This is one of them.
Even as a legal resident of the state of Texas, as long as I didn't spend
more than 30 continuous days in the state, I didn't have to change my DL (
I had been forced by the state of SC to surrender my Texas DL for insurance
reasons). You didn't mention your Home Of Record, so that may trip you up.
Sam Staton
'73 Rdstr
ETC(SS), USN(RET)
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