PA windshield inspection stickers 1969-1983

Pennsylvania windshield inspection stickers 1969-1983

Motor vehicle inspections in Pennsylvania began in 1928. Inspections were performed twice a year; for passenger vehicles the inspections occurred during the quarters that included May, June and July, as well as November, December and January. Commercial vehicle inspections were conducted during the other months: February, March and April, as well as August, September and October. The quarters came to be known as cycles 1, 2, 3 and 4; the cycles ended (and thus the inspections expired) on the last days of October, January, April and July, respectively.

These inspection cycles continued until the Pennsylvania legislature passed HB (House Bill) 1479 in 1967. Effective May 1, 1969, passenger vehicle inspections would be staggered among all 4 cycles, instead of just cycles 2 and 4. This helped to balance vehicle inspectors' workload throughout the year, due to the imbalance of passenger vehicles vs. commercial vehicles (approximately 5.2 million passenger vehicles vs. 800,000 commercial vehicles, a 6.5:1 ratio) inspected during cycles 2 & 4 vs. those in cycles 1 & 3. Vehicles would now display windshield stickers with the cycle number of 1, 2, 3 or 4, and exact date of expiration. Until this time, the stickers would only indicate on the outside of the sticker the calendar year(s) in which the inspection period fell, but did indicate from inside the vehicle when it could be inspected again and when the sticker actually expired.

Inspection performed in November 1947-January 1948
(Inside/outside views)

Inspection performed in May, June or July 1954
(Inside/outside views)

The last digit of a vehicle's identification/serial number determined whether its inspection would bear an odd or even inspection cycle sticker. Odd final numbers were assigned to cycles 1 and 3, while even final numbers were assigned to cycles 2 and 4. The initial inspections performed in May, June and July 1969 would receive stickers numbered 2 or 3, to expire on January 31 or April 30, 1970. The number 1 sticker for October 1969 was skipped because it would have only provided around 3 months between inspections for those on the odd cycle, and as such those vehicles on the odd cycle got a bonus of sorts, with 9 months of time between inspection due dates.

Inspections would continue to be performed every 6 months, until July 1982, when Pennsylvania transitioned to annual inspections, effective August 1, 1982. The #2 sticker for 1982-1983 was the last semiannual sticker to be issued, and was last valid on January 31, 1983.

	1 (October 31 expiration)	2 (January 31 expiration)	3 (April 30 expiration)	4 (July 31 expiration)
1969-1970	Does not exist
1970-1971
1971-1972
1972-1973
1973-1974
1974-1975
1975-1976
1976-1977
1977-1978
1978-1979		Expiration date no longer displayed on front of sticker
1979-1980	Photo courtesy caja69
1980-1981
1981-1982
1982-1983	Photo courtesy jpwtrades	Photo courtesy max1614	Does not exist	Does not exist

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