Once you arrive in Germany one of the first things on your mind is probably "where is my car?" It can be very
frustrating wondering where it is when you’re sitting in the hotel with
nowhere to go. You can track your car from status from www.whereismypov.com.
You will need to enter the sponsors last name and his/her social or order#
given to you by the VPC when you dropped it off. When your car has arrived you will receive an email
that it’s ready for pick up. If you call asking for updates they will ask "have you received an email yet?" Also, once your car has arrived in Germany and is on a truck to your location it will not tell you where it is. It will only tell you it arrived at the port.
Once you receive the email you will need to take ALL your POV paperwork from
shipping it with you to pick it up (especially the POA). You cannot pick up
your car unless you have your German drivers license so be sure you have that. The VPC to pick up your car may not be at
your exact location. For example, if you're stationed at Vilseck, your car will be at the Grafenwoher VPC. When you go to pick it up you will need to go
to the registration office first (expect to wait a little bit, the earlier the
better) and tell them your car is ready to be picked up. They have to issue you
temporary license plates first just so you can drive it out of the parking lot. They
will look at your paperwork, drivers license and you must pay either 15 or 30 dollars (sorry, I can't remember) and then they will issue you a new German registration. Make sure
you have both the soldier and spouse name on the registration. You need both names on it so both names can be on the gas ration card. Once you have the registration you can go
to the actual VPC office and show them you have the registration and temporary
plates. This is where they will need your POA if you have one. They will take you to your car where you personally look it over to make sure
there are no scratches or dents that weren't previously there. If there are, be sure to tell them and they
will document it (this will later be taken to the claims office). Their paper to document dents and scratches is carbon copy paper, be sure to write hard enough to copy through. If the claims office can't read it they will have to go through a process to get the original. After you inspect the car they will
place the temporary places on. You then have 30 days to get your car
inspected on post by the German inspection center. The inspection itself will only take about 15 minutes but the line
to get the inspection could be very long so prepare to wait. Once your car has been inspected and
passed you will then go back to the registration office, the first place, and they will issue you
the official license plates. Once you have those you have freedom! Enjoy
exploring!
