On Getting A License Plate
I think license plates are cool. So cool, in fact, that I wrote about them a few years ago (here). That time I wrote about license plates in general and the multitude of designs that are offered by our state BMV. Which stands for Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Some states have a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Don’t ask me what the difference might be – I suspect that Bureaus and Departments do the same thing. There is probably an Office of Motor Vehicles (OMV) somewhere.
But I digress. This time I am writing about how hard it is to get my hands on a license plate.
As I shared recently, I bought a new car for the first time in quite a few years. One benefit of buying a new car is that it comes with a temporary paper license plate that is issued by the selling dealer under some kind of arrangement with the state. “My”, I thought in late May when I bought the car, “the July 5th expiration date on that temporary plate will give me all kinds of time to get a real license plate.” And it was, of course.
Many of you, however, have probably experienced for yourselves how long deadlines can often result in procrastination. I have a long history of treating a deadline as the optimal time for doing something. If something takes a day, why do it now when I don’t actually have to do it until the end of next month? Yes, some of you will tell you that I should have taken after my late mother, who did everything pretty much immediately wherever such a thing was possible. But then I would have so many fewer things to blog about.
A number of years ago, our state BMV offices changed from a traditional 5-business-day schedule to one where they close on Monday, and are open until 6:30 on one weekday and on Saturday mornings. What a great thing, now that my schedule is no longer as flexible as it once was. But somehow, the late weekday and the Saturday hours seem to have disappeared from most of the branches. Although the “closed Monday” part has not. As I was looking for a branch with a combination of hours and location I could make on a day off or after work, I found out that the state BMV website now allows purchasers of new cars the chance to complete the transaction online. How wonderful!
I believe it was June 26th that I completed my application for a new plate on the website. I was quite proud of myself for not waiting until the last minute. Ten days in advance of a deadline is me being quite the early bird. And now, I could live like those who regularly gorge on the proverbial worms and completely relax while my BMV fulfilled my order and mailed me my new license plate.
Which, as of July 5th, had still not arrived. A look at the BMV website’s small print disclosed that I should allow up to 21 days for a plate to arrive. Which I don’t understand. I can order a box of pens from Amazon and they will be at my door the next day. But it takes three weeks for a license plate? Perhaps they are custom made, and Prisoner No. 537792R is dutifully hammering the numbers onto a steel blank, which must then be transported to a Bob Ross wannabe who paints bucolic covered bridge scenes on each of them before sending it to its eventual owner. How special!
Or perhaps this is just one more reason we all snickered at the slogan “Government at the speed of business” that we used to see on BMV materials. Fortunately, the website offered a free chat session. A nameless chatter helpfully noted that my application was in process, but that I should still allow another week or two for my plate to arrive. He (or she or it, in case AI is on the job) suggested (also helpfully) that I can go to a local branch and obtain another temporary plate at no cost.
And so I did. On a recent Saturday morning I drove to a license branch to obtain the piece of paper that will allow me to drive the vehicle for which I am paying. Oh well – I suppose I am no worse off than I was before when I had planned to make such a trip anyway.
I was met with a sort of consierge service, in which there is a person standing outside the door asking what you need. Or maybe it is the BMV equivilent of a bouncer, who refuses to admit people who don’t have all of the right paperwork for their transaction. I guess that is good news for those of us who make it in the door, knowing that everyone ahead of us in line will actually be qualified to do what they seek to do.
Actually there was a second such consierge inside the door, who told me that my transaction would be no charge, and that I should “Go stand on that green box and someone will call you up”. Everything went perfectly. A young man called me up and gave me a replacement for my expired temporary plate, this one good for thirty days. Everything went swimmingly, until he asked a question: “Is this for a truck?”
No, I replied, it is a passenger car. “Hmm, they have processed this as a truck plate. You will probably need to bring it in when you get it and change it out for a passenger car plate – those are less expensive.”
Delightful. Which was exactly what I said when my plate arrived and – just as the helpful BMV man predicted – it was a plate for a truck. Which is not what I need the license plate for. So, I guess it will be back to the BMV for me to trade my truck plate in for a license plate for my new car. I just hope they don’t charge me a “convenience fee”.
J. P.'s Blog 
Ah, back to the DMV. Glad that DMV rep was kind enough to tell you, you’d be getting a truck license plate. You would have noticed, but nice that they were on top of it. Happy Driving!
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It seemed so easy at first. Too easy, as it turned out.
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You are once again timely with subjects. Still this month I need to go to the Department of Revenue to obtain a new license sticker for a certain old Ford van. I give the State of Missouri credit – they are honest. Getting your plates at the Department of Revenue isn’t even trying to conceal the state’s money grab.
Missouri has contracted out this service in every license office in the state, save one. It’s here in the state capital, in the Truman Building, the nucleus of the DOR as it’s also the place where everyone sends their taxes. You have seen the building; it is across the street from the Capital Plaza, the place you and Marianne stayed when you visited JC. I go to the non-contracted location as it’s the closest, plus it saves me the $1.50 franchise fee the rest of the places charge.
We renewed the VW’s plates online earlier this year (which I can’t for the van; go figure) The turnaround was such the plates would appear to be expired prior to arrival of the stickers. DOR was gracious enough to include an excuse letter to keep in the car to show any member of law enforcement should their curiosity be aroused.
Ugh. I loathe having to get plates renewed and transferred.
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Ours used to be franchised, but the state took them back in the late 80s. Under the old system, our local AAA offered license branch services to members, and they did a great job. Then a new administration came in and required private organizations like AAA to serve the general public and not just members. They tried but got overwhelmed and gave it up. It was a great membership benefit while it lasted.
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When I moved to Indiana, I took one look at the license bureau closest to me and shook my head, it looked like a disaster! Years before, Wisconsin, the state I was coming from, had started putting in highly computerized modern offices super efficient, at least in my area. Thank God, the “wags” at the cigar lounge in Brownsburg redirected me to use the local Brownsburg DMV, which did not have the non-intellectual human traffic as did my nearest office had, and things went much more smoothly. This all might have something to do with taxes as well. My car license in Milwaukee county currently is 145 bucks (almost half being county and city wheel taxes to fund road repair, etc.), my license in Indiana last was 40 bucks. Not to mention the roads in Indiana were the worst of any place I every lived. Sometimes when it comes to taxes, you get what you pay for! My experience living all over the country is also that your interaction with government goods and services is totally based on the morons you are living with. If your office is flooded with people needing service that are far below what you would consider average intelligence, your time spent will increase exponentially. When I lived in Chicago, it was an all day affair! I remember filling out my paperwork at about eight am in the morning, getting to the window at about eleven am, and having the person at the window review my stuff and say: “Congratulations, you’re the first person to fill this out correctly today!” I was also mad I didn’t get two license plates in Indiana, no front plate! I told the locals this was a sure sign that the state was just taxing you and giving you one plate as cheaply as possible, they weren’t worried about the cops identifying your car on the street in a theft. Here’s something weird tho. There is a certain year of plate in my state, where the paint and coating is entirely peeling off! Not unusual to see a car with a completely naked aluminum plate, just the emboss! Weird!
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Ours are no longer embossed but are completely flat with a design and numbers printed on. If the printing comes off, there will be nothing left.
Here we pay an excise tax based on the value of the vehicle. I have paid the minimum for several years, but plates are pricey for a mid-priced new vehicle.
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After reading this tale, I have to give credit where it’s due. PennDOT – the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation – embarked on a mission in the late 1990s to make its processes faster and less painful. Even renewing my driver’s license at the height of the pandemic in April 2020 was relatively easy.
PennDOT recently released a completely redesigned license plate for Pennsylvania, which is actually a considerable improvement over our current plates. Our current plates are so ugly that, rather than switch to this plate, I ordered a specialty plate (with a very low number) honoring the Pennsylvania Railroad. I plan on keeping it as long as possible!
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A prior governor made an improved BMV a priority and it showed. The current administration (of the same political party) seems less engaged on this topic.
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The BMV should use the full name Bureaucracy instead of Bureau. Give them credit for recognizing you are a professional truck driver.
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Haha, good thought. I know better than to try to drive a car with a truck plate. I once got pulled over for doing this (temporarily putting the plate from the truck I sold to the car I bought) and don’t care to repeat the experience.
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When I moved to DC, it was the first time I ever heard of the idea that your car and drivers license had to be issued in the same state! It was illegal for “snowbirds” to have a car licensed in Wisconsin, and a drivers license from Wisconsin, but then another car in Florida licensed in Florida. Everything had to be licensed in one state or the other. It would be weird to license everything in Wisconsin, but have to drive the Florida car back every two years for an exhaust test. I think you have to license everything in the state you spend the most time in, and identify as your legal address, even if it’s only 51%.
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I once bought a car from a neighbor who had it registered in Florida. I think it was much cheaper for him to do so, especially on a car that was expensive when he bought it.
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We have some similar issues in Ontario, although a few years ago the Conservative government decided to make plate renewal free, and even sent me a cheque for the remaining portion of the year. Then for a while you still have to renew every 2 years but it was free. So I got to the MOT office, pay you nothing, you do nothing and we’re good for another two years somehow. Apparently someone realized how dumb that was because it was recently done away with, and I don’t think we have to renew plates at all now.
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Wow – the idea of not renewing plates is one I have never thought about. Now you have me wondering if the system actually raises enough revenue to cover the cost of the bureaucracy that administers it.
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Correct, as far as I know, no renewal is necessary in Ontario any longer, after this calendar year I believe.
I had to get a new set of plates for my DD, and rather than going to the MOT office, I went to the local Staples store where they have a whole corner with helpful friendly people eager to please and for you to buy something else while you are in the store. The guys there were helpful and possessed a positive attitude that was refreshing, having dealt with Service Ontario many times before, and having dreaded it each time.
Why did I need new plates? My old one, the rear plate, was delaminating after 14 years. I would have left it like that, but the resulting inability to read the plate number would have left me open to issues when travelling south of the border. You see, the paint for the numbers themselves, had been applied to the laminate, not the metal plate, so no laminate = no plate readable number.
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It’s interesting how states vary on this. Here in Virginia, car dealers issue license plates, so you don’t need to bother with the DMV unless you buy a car privately. Or unless you’re like me and don’t like the standard-issue plate. Our regular plates have the slogan “Virginia is for Lovers,” which I loathe, so we have other plate designs on our cars. Back in 2018, the online process to order my option plate was quick and easy.
When I lived in Maryland, dealing with anything car-registration related was like doing so in the Soviet Union – lots of lines, fees and paperwork.
In Pennsylvania, tags used to be issued by independent tag agencies, many (most?) of which were shady. I have no idea if that’s still the case there. The concierge thing at government buildings is odd. Around here, it started during the Covid era as a way to control the number of people waiting in lines. But it’s never gone away, so now you need to “check in” with a front-desk receptionist before going to wait in the same dang line as before.
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Then there are the widely varying costs. I have been told that service members often choose Florida as their state of residence (they get to pick one) partly because vehicle ownership is so inexpensive there.
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Wow. If that car you showed us in a previous post is a truck then maybe Transformers are real. Your BMV sounds about on-par with our DMV here in Colorado.
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We don’t tend to name cars but now you have me thinking “Optimus Prime” 🙂
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“Optimus Prime” would be cool. All of my cars have had names. They usually name themselves.
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Gee, what a rigamarole for a new license plate. Our Secretary of State (the name in Michigan for the entity like your BMV) touts how many things may be done online. I have taken to renewing the license/registration for two years … less hassle that way.
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Maybe the DMV is another advantage of living in a small town in a sparsely populated area. South Carolina’s DMV has not only been a pleasant experience (swapping driver licenses and plates from Colorado), but they issue the actual plate and create the actual license at the same time you apply. Nothing at all through the mail. What a concept! We were in an out in less than an hour.
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Dave, the place I live now used to be like this years ago, until post 9-11 and the decision to make your drivers license a vetted national ID. Now the physical drivers licenses have to come out of one office. They decided making your license ID at local offices all over the state would be open to fraud! Lord knows there are so many criminals working everywhere, including public offices like the state license bureau, and your post office (where they always find people stealing the mail), that I can see their point!
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Disturbing thought there, Andy. There did seem to be the necessary checks/balances in the process at our local office, but I didn’t consider the trustworthiness of those behind the counter. It does seem we’re in times where centralized vetting is a necessity.
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I discovered in my second Saturday trip that the selling dealer somehow entered things into the system as a truck. The BMV fixed it and gave me a new temp plate while I wait for another in the mail. I get to keep the truck plate, so if I buy an old truck I will be good!
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I’m still waiting for the Canadian Government to issue me a new passport. Who knows when it will finally arrive, but it will take longer than it took my husband to buy a used car in Toronto, have it shipped to Calgary, get it inspected, insure and register it. Fortunately he already had a license plate – or who knows how much longer the whole process would have taken.
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“Hi, were from the government. Sorry, but your time and bother are not relevant to us.” Sadly, this seems to be spreading into the corporate sector too, though their phone messages always insist that “Your call is important to us” while they give you options that don’t apply to your situation.
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I live in Illinois, the land of excess and corruption. I could probably write a months worth of blogs about our Secretary of States offices (equal to your BMV). I had the same license plate number since I started driving in 1977. Believe it or not I only have 6 physical plates (we get a sticker each year not a new plate unless you want to pay the vig). At one point the plate I had was 14 years old. Just bought a truck and sadly had to relinquish my number as car plates aren’t transferred to trucks. Boo hoo.
I hold drivers licenses for cars, motorcycles and non commercial trucks (everything except tractor trailers.). Totally freaks out the SOS workers when I have to renew.
best of all, although the state has the equipment and the prisoners to make them, Illinois contracts plates out to a Texas company!
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Fortunately, our renewal process works pretty smoothly online (so long as you don’t change anything). Kind of like the computer systems of my experience.
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Not to veer this conversation to a way too political bent, but after living in Washington DC for a number of years and knowing government workers, as well as applying for Social Security a few years ago, Ditto Medicare, and, horrors; my only small pension was at a company that went into receivership, about the time I wanted to apply for it, and it was rolled into the government insured pension program right at that time! Which should have been a formula for disaster! It all came off without a hitch, including the pension distribution, and worked as easy as a hot knife through butter! Even three years later, I got a letter from the government pension insurance company apologizing for miscalculating my pension, and raising my monthly distribution by three bucks, and sending me a check for the difference accumulated over the previous three years! I still maintain that almost everyone that complains about the evil government, when you quiz them, are basically complaining about their state DMV, or their county property tax collector, and they have very little, if any, interaction with the actual federal government! State and local governments? That can be a different world!
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My experience is that government offices everywhere operate in the same spectrum everything and everyone else does, with some being quite focused and competent while others are not.
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