A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats | An Interview Beth Caro of NIVTA (eLUMINATE Part 6)

Welcome to part six of eLUMINATE: An eSTART Profile Series. This series features individuals with perspectives on eSTART’s mission and objectives, with the goal of providing awareness, perspective and education on modernizing the title and registration space.

In this edition, we're featuring Beth Caro, President and CEO at the National Independent Vehicle Title Agents Organization (NIVTA). We talked with Beth about her experience as a veteran of auto titling and registration, what NIVTA’s mission is, and how we can move towards the modernization of auto titling and registration. Enjoy!

Hey there! Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Hi! I’m Beth Caro, President and CEO of National Independent Vehicle Title Agents (NIVTA). I’m also the President of Auto Tag Connect.

Tell me about NIVTA – what’s the mission there?

So, the process of titling and registering a car in the U.S. is complex. It can vary by county and state. What a lot of people may not know, or may not think about, is that it’s not just Departments of Motor Vehicles (DMVs) working on titling and registration. There are thousands of third-party operators that act as sort of satellite or affiliated businesses, helping DMVs process requests more efficiently and working with people to get all their paperwork in order.

NIVTA is a non-profit dedicated to uniting all of those third-party vehicle title agents, state affiliates, associate business members, dealership agents, and anyone else involved in the auto titling and registration process. We help them work together to create policies and ways of working that benefit everyone. We also offer a lot of resources to help keep our members up-to-date with industry best practices, making process improvements, switching to electronic titling (“e-titling”), fraud prevention, training, and compliance – trying to make it easier for everyone involved.

Love that. You’ve been in the auto space for awhile – what was your journey like to get to NIVTA?

I’ve actually been working in the auto titling and registration space for about two and a half decades (laughs). Time flies. I got involved with the industry starting out at a young age in my Family's Independent Dealership in Maryland by assisting in processing the buyers' title work at our local MVA branch after high school. Yes, this was well, before we had any computer systems and every step of the process was on paper! Then we expanded to grow the dealership operations to have an onsite national Title and Registration Agency. We were one of the first national offices in Maryland that processed both Pennsylvania and District of Columbia license plates on site.

That was really where I got introduced to the world of auto titling and registration, and where I became really passionate about how we could make titling and registration easier for people. It was also where I started to really realize the importance of a coalition, like NIVTA, that could help DMVs and third-party operators work together more effectively.

How did NIVTA get involved with eSTART? What can organizations like eSTART and NIVTA bring to this space?

NIVTA’s involvement with eSTART came about naturally – both NIVTA and eSTART share a goal of modernizing auto titling and registration and helping DMVs and third-party operators create better processes and policies. These types of coalitions can help bridge gaps and create ties, which is – I think – incredibly valuable.

What do you feel is the biggest barrier to modernizing auto titling and registration?

Uncertainty is a major factor for DMVs. Funding is also barrier to digitizing titling and registration – I think a lot of DMVs are unsure about exactly what e-titling and registration means for them. That’s where organizations like eSTART and NIVTA come in – we can help educate DMVs and third-party operators on how to best modernize their current systems.

We can also help make sure the right people are communicating with each other. DMVs and third-party operators may use different systems or need to update different parts of their frameworks and processes to achieve e-titling – we can help keep track of where everyone’s at and help different DMVs and third parties understand exactly what their specific needs are, so we all move forward together.

Sounds like a plan. Thanks for your time!

Thank you!