The in basket: A couple of people wrote in after reading the
Feb. 1 Road Warrior about having to replace one’s license plates
when they get to be seven years old to remind me of something that
I had forgotten.
You can’t keep the old plates but there is a way you can get new
plates with the same numbers, for a price.
The in basket: A couple of people wrote in after reading the Feb. 1
Road Warrior about having to replace one’s license plates when they
get to be seven years old to remind me of something that I had
forgotten.
You can’t keep the old plates but there is a way you can get new
plates with the same numbers, for a price.
Jill Rinard wrote ” It seems like it would be easier to issue new
plates with the same numbers. If they are issuing new plates with
new numbers, isn’t there more work on the DOT’s end with paperwork
for license number changes? Why can’t they just leave the numbers
the same?”
Les, who gave no last name, wondered the same thing, and then, on
his own, discovered the answer is that they can. He and another
reader, Bill Rowe, said it costs $20 more to keep your plate
numbers. “Not sure if I think it’s worth it or not yet,” Les
added.
The out basket: The mass production and distribution of replacement
plates without worrying about preserving a person’s numbers makes
that the least expensive means of replacing plates, So the
Department of Licensing adds $20 to cover the costs of ordering up
specific replacement numbers and mailing the new plates, says Brad
Benfield of the state Department of Licensing.
However, it doesn’t really cost $20 to cover those costs, “A recent
fee study indicated that the actual cost to the department for the
special handling and mailing of these plates is about $4.51,” Brad
said. “The excess money is used to fund transportation
needs in our state.”
The choice to keep one’s plate number has been available since Nov.
1, 2003, he said. Further, a person now can keep his plate number
when selling a vehicle and buying a new one, for $10 extra,
providing both are the same kind of vehicle, either both cars or
both trucks.
The changes “will allow someone to keep their current license plate
number pretty much as long as they want,” Brad said.
Any way you cut it, the law requiring replacement of plates every seven years is yet another way that the brain-dead politicians who voted for it can piss away the taxpayers money. In many cases, vehicles that are garaged and get 1/1000 of the exposure to UV are being required to change perfectly readable plates. Multiply the cost to manufacture and mail each plate times the number of plates being replaced every year and you come up with no small change.