Is it no longer necessary to display insurance stickers on vehicles?
2 Answers
Currently, vehicle insurance stickers do not need to be displayed, but compulsory traffic insurance and annual inspection stickers still need to be affixed. Although vehicle insurance stickers are not required, it does not mean that vehicles do not need insurance. Compulsory traffic insurance is a type of insurance mandated by the state and must be purchased. The compulsory traffic insurance sticker still needs to be displayed on the vehicle. According to the Road Traffic Safety Law, any vehicle driving on the road without displaying an inspection compliance sticker or a compulsory traffic insurance sticker, or without carrying a driver's license or vehicle registration certificate, will be detained by the public security traffic management department. The compulsory traffic insurance sticker and the vehicle inspection compliance sticker should be affixed to the upper right corner of the vehicle.
Last time I drove to a neighboring province for a trip, I was pulled over by traffic police. I thought the insurance sticker wasn’t required nationwide anymore, but they said their province was still enforcing the old rule. I checked this specifically—currently, over 40 cities like Beijing and Shanghai have indeed canceled the mandatory display of paper insurance policies, as electronic policies hold the same legal effect. However, places like Xinjiang and Tibet still follow the old rule, requiring the sticker to be placed on the upper right corner of the windshield. The safest approach is to keep the electronic policy in your insurance company’s app on your phone and store a copy in the trunk. If driving across provinces, calling the insurance company’s customer service in advance to confirm the destination’s policy is the most reliable. After all, progress varies by province—don’t get a ticket over this small detail.
