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ETR

ETR is Your Friend, Not Your Enemy!

Q & A with Sherri O’Cane, GIADA’s Electronic Title Registration Expert

By Jordan Head, GIADA Marketing and Public Relations Manager

With the Electronic Title Registration Q. What is the Quality Assurance (QA) it to the DOR to keep dealers from being
(ETR) system in full effect and here to process for ETR? penalized. Dealers have 30 days to complete
stay, there’s been an influx of questions the deal in TitleTec from the sales date
and feedback about the new program. At A. When documents come to the facility, without penalty, but once they’ve hit that
Georgia Independent Automobile Dealer’s we open packages, sort the deals, assign “Finalize” button, the clock starts ticking.
Association (GIADA), we’re here to let you them to a box and move on to the QA We ask that dealers get the documents to the
know ETR is your friend, not your enemy! process. In QA, we’re checking to see if scanning center within eight days so we can
Sherri O’Cane, Titles and Imaging the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) QA them and scan them to the DOR. They
Supervisor at GIADA, maintains the ETR and customers’ names and addresses are have to have them within 15 days to avoid
database for the association and works with correct. We also check to see if all of the penalty. If they don’t get them in within 45
TitleTec with onboarding new ETR dealers. forms are there and filled out correctly. days, there’s an additional penalty.
She began working for GIADA in 2016,
while she has 14 years of experience in Q. What are some of the main questions you Q. What would you tell a dealer that finds the
the automobile industry in roles including receive about ETR? new system difficult?
a Title Clerk, Collections Manager and
Office Manager to name a few. As our in- A. One question I get a lot is, “which A. The system is very simple and user
house ETR expert, Sherri explains in-depth transactions are exempt?” This is friendly, it’s just taking the time to go
why the ETR system isn’t as bad as some common because some transactions through every single step. With TOPs, it
dealers may think. can’t be processed through ETR such as was only two steps, start and submit. With
vehicles being titled in the dealership TitleTec, you have the start screen, vehicle
Q. What are the conveniences of ETR name, government entities, and non- screen, owner screen, lien holder screen,
compared to the old way? resident service members. If you have review screen, submit screen, e-forms
someone who is a disabled veteran, those screen and the scanning tabs screen. It’s
A. With ETR, you don’t have to deal with transactions have to be taken to the county. about six more tabs in addition to the
159 county tag offices. You don’t have to If you have a deal that’s over 29 days on two that they’re used to. If dealers have a
worry about the county tag office losing a TOPs only deal, the ETR system won’t dealer management software system, it’ll
or rejecting the title paperwork either. allow you to do a new ETR deal. I also automatically transfer the information
In the past, dealers could only process a receive questions about adding a second to TitleTec. Many times, if a dealer has a
certain amount of title work a day at a tag owner. If the second owner has an out-of- customer in-house, they’re trying to hurry
office. If a dealer lived in Carroll County state license, the system won’t accept it, so to print that TOPs tag. Dealers are used to
and the customer lived in DeKalb County, those deals can be taken to the county tag only two buttons, but now they can’t do a
the dealer would have to go to DeKalb to office. It’s just a lot of ETR exceptions that TOPs tag without going through every
process it. No one was on the same page. can’t be overridden in these systems. single tab. In regards to documents, it’s
The ETR process alleviated that headache. no different than what you would take or
Q. Could you tell me about some of the send to the county tag offices under the old
Q. What is GIADA’s role in ETR? penalties and fines in ETR? process. The T21 includes a breakdown of
associated title work as a reminder of what
A. We’re the scanning center, so dealers A. One of the biggest problems dealers the DOR requires. TAVT and title fees will
have to understand that once we get their go through is the change of address. The be deducted via ACH, saving you from
documents, we’re going to correct them. customer’s address must be up-to-date handwriting paper checks. With ETR, it’s
If everything is correct, we’ll scan it to the in TitleTec. The DOR charges a $1 fee to just understanding the process.
Department of Revenue (DOR). We’re update it. Dealers must make sure this is
voluntarily involved and we act as second correct because they don’t want the TAVT To learn more about ETR, visit giada.org
eye looking over the documents. If we find going to the wrong county. This makes it or call us at (770) 745-9650. To set up a
errors, we have to send the forms back to the difficult to get the money transferred. This TitleTec ETR account, visit titletec.com. n
dealers to correct. The DOR does charge a is avoided by filling out the MV-34 Change
document error fee, so dealers must make of Address form. Once you’ve updated that,
sure the information in TitleTec is accurate. we need it within eight days so we can scan

10 | GIADA Independent Auto Dealer MARCH 2018