Snowmobile Registration – A Lesson from Tony Soprano

November 9th, 2006 · No Comments · News

Part of something I’m working on…you might save some money?

Here’s the result of my research into the snowmobile registration/club/nyssa/dmv situation. I don’t know what to say…interesting?

From a club:

8/5/06: Starting this winter, NYS snowmobile registration will increase to $100 per sled, UNLESS one member of a household is a member in good standing of a NYSSA snowmobile club for the upcoming 2006-2007 season. As a member of the Indian Lake Snowarriors, every sled registered by your household will only pay $45 per snowmobile.

With your snowmobile registration renewal from NYS for the upcoming 2006-2007 season, you will receive a card which explains the two-tier registration fee system now in effect. Whether you renew your membership in the Indian Lake Snowarriors Association or join us for the first time, we will send you an official proof-of-club voucher which should be included with your NYS registration renewal.

A quick scan shows memberships ranging from $20-$30. I have not yet found a club with online memberships, though a few promise it. The clubs receive “official” vouchers from NYSSA – NYSSA seems to get $5 of each membership sold. That is why they don’t care which club, they are essentially selling vouchers. This is not a huge profit incentive for the club to pursue, nor does it provide any rationale for more members. On the other hand, I don’t think any of the clubs considered “cornering the market” on memberships.

Most interesting for me is this. According to DMV, the registration fee is $10. The balance of the fee received $35-$100/registration is a Snowmobile Development and Maintenance Fund charge. I assume this is funneled through NYSSA and the clubs through some grooming scheme. Not all clubs are grooming on a large scale, but this is where the big money is.

So in essence, you must have already purchased a membership prior to registration to qualify for the lower fee schedule. You do not have to be a member in order to register or ride, just pay $100. The calculus for the potential snowmobiler is the difference between the club fee and $55/sled minus the time/hassle of seeking out the membership. Bottom line though, you must have the NYSSA issued voucher to send in with your registration.

If I understand things, our primary goal is to increase the available registration discount for the end-user, both in time and/or money. Under these constraints, our only area which we could make an impact is in the membership process. “Spur of the moment” registrations at the lower rate will always be restrained by the built-in waiting period needed while the new member waits for the voucher(s) to come in the mail. As such, this increases the odds that the “Fund” will receive the greater of the two possible contributions associated with registration.

NYSSA is currently linked from the DMV page. Buried within NYSSA’s site is a list of clubs. NYSSA links to a website designer which is specifically offering the creation of Snowmobile Club websites. Both NYSSA’s site and the website designer’s site are registered to the same owner.