CAMP RED CLOUD -- Transferring vehicle ownership from one Area I Soldier to another is now a lot quicker and easier than it was only weeks ago thanks to an arrangement worked out by the U.S. Army and officials of the city of Dongducheon.
The streamlined arrangement cuts vehicle transfer to a virtually one-stop, same-day process under an agreement reached between the U.S. Army Garrison Red Cloud and Area I and Dongducheon city officials.
Under the new agreement, a Dongducheon city vehicle registration official has been assigned to work in the Area I vehicle registration office in Maude Hall, Room 2440. That means that much of the vehicle paperwork process that previously required trips to Dongducheon City Hall can now be done right in Maude Hall.
"That day, on the spot, one-stop, you never have to come back," said Eliott Bradley, who heads the U.S. Army Garrison Red Cloud and Area I's Directorate of Emergency Services. "So that saves, right there, five days."
The Dongducheon official works at Maude Hall Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The agreement was signed Oct. 31 and took effect Nov. 1.
It applies not only to Soldiers but to all members of the Area I community -- Defense Department civilians, dependents, authorized contractors and retirees, Bradley said.
Registering a vehicle for a member of the U.S. military community involves two sets of officials -- those of the U.S. military itself, and local South Korean motor vehicle authorities.
In Area I until now, part of the ownership transfer process included actions that were only performed at Dongducheon City Hall. That added several days to the process of transferring ownership of a vehicle, said Bradley.
Now, ownership transfer, which includes transferring registration and plates and updating the vehicle decal, can be completed within a single day, Bradley said.
If a Soldier is nearing PCS and wants to sell a vehicle to another Soldier, for example, both would come to the vehicle registration office at Maude Hall with the necessary documents, among them driver's license, insurance, and registration.
Once officials there ensure the documents are correctly filled out and otherwise in order, the Dongducheon official working there would print out new vehicle registration paperwork in the new owner's name, Bradley said.
And the new owner would be issued an updated vehicle decal.
That's days faster than before, mainly because Area I officials would have to travel to Dongducheon City Hall and -- on Tuesdays or Thursdays only -- drop off the required paperwork at the vehicle registration office.
"In the meantime the Soldiers would have to wait several days," Bradley said.
Customers would have to make another trip to City Hall for the second phase to have license plates issued.
They would return to Maude Hall where an official decal would be put on the vehicle.
The new arrangement has also simplified some parts of the process of registering a newly arrived vehicle in Korea, Bradley said.
Having the Dongducheon official working out of Maude Hall speeds the process of getting that paperwork okayed, and the customer can then go, typically same day, to City Hall to be issued permanent plates.
But Area I officials are currently exploring steps that could eventually further streamline the process for registration of vehicles newly arrived in Korea, as well as for vehicles purchased from off-post dealers, Bradley said.
Capt. Nathan Bethea found transferring vehicle ownership much easier than it might have been for a process that involves two sets of authorities, one of them a foreign government.
Bethea went to Maude Hall Nov. 14 to take ownership of a gold-colored 1998 Daewoo Matiz he bought from a fellow-officer who was nearing PCS and had advertised it for sale.
They presented all the required paperwork and were in and out in about 45 minutes, said Bethea, assistant S-3 with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, part of the 2nd Infantry Division.
"All in all I felt the process was pretty easy," he said. "Given that I'm dealing with a foreign country I found that it went a lot easier than it could have gone.
"For the simple fact that it eliminates us having to go down to a Korean government building, which I think might be intimidating just because of the language barrier and so on," said Bethea. "Having it here made it much easier," he said. "It's no harder than registering a vehicle in the United States."
Maude Hall's vehicle registration office is also the place to register vehicles purchased from off-post Korean dealers.
Those wanting further details about vehicle registration and related matters can call the Vehicle Registration Office at 730-4494.
Social Sharing