License Plate News

[andrepoiy]

And just as fast as they came, the blue Ontario plates are gone: https://driving.ca/auto-news/news/ontario-government-admits-mistake-returns-to-a-white-licence-plate-design

The new new plates will be pretty much the same as the old design but flat (akin to recent redesigns in Kansas and New Jersey) and maintain the "A place to grow" slogan from the blue plates. Is this the shortest lived license plate design in history??? Didn't even make it through February...

Back to the "liberal" plates, eh? . It still shocks me that the illegibility slipped through.

I'm disappointed that they're sticking to flat plates, but at least the return to blue-on-white will look better.

Those blue plates will be highly sought after... Due to their low numbers. I wish I could get one... before they appreciate in value.

[interstate73]

After all the fuss that had mostly been forgotten about due to some other ruckus that took people's attention, the Government of Ontario is abandoning the license plate redesign and returning to the old embossed blue-on-white "Liberal" plates without any changes: https://globalnews.ca/news/6911676/ontario-licence-plate-redesign-2/

[kphoger]

What is a Kentucky 10,000? Saw a KY plate with that number on it at the bottom.

I believe that means that the vehicle weighs at least 10,000 lbs. In Indiana, vehicles over a certain weight have to have different "truck" plates with their weight class on them. Probably the same thing in Kentucky.

Yeah, it has something to do with trucks.  The deal is, and AFAIK this is a unique to Kentucky thing, I have seen the same exact type of vehicle with both regular and these weight based plates.  No body seems to know what the distinction is.

And, word to the wise:  If you drive in Kentucky in a vehicle that has a GVW rating of more than 10,000 pounds, you are required to stop at the weigh scales–no matter if your vehicle has commercial plates or not.  When I used to drive a delivery route in the southern Illinois region, one of our drivers found that out the hard way, because it hadn't even occurred to anyone at our company.  We drove Isuzu cab-over turbo-diesel box trucks (like this), which in Illinois get regular license plates and are exempt from stopping at the scales.  He found out that's not true in Kentucky when the state troopers came racing after him down the highway.

We all learned to avoid that highway.  Our small company got a bad reputation among highway patrol in the Paducah area, though, because of that plus one other incident.  There was a traffic pileup on the I-24 Ohio River bridge, and one of our drivers was caught in the middle.  The accident was clearly not his fault, but his truck had a huge company name and phone number on the side, so guess who people decided to sue.  Well, anyway, at the time of the pileup, when the police arrived, they performed a truck inspection on the spot and found that the rear brakes didn't work.  Yeah, from that point on, our trucks may as well have had giant bulls-eyes painted on them.

[vdeane]

Remember those new plates for NY?  Looks like they actually happened even after the mandatory replacement after 10 years with new plate fee plan was cancelled, though they ran into the same reflectivity problem that Ontario had (although, unlike Ontario, the state caught it before they were issued): https://nypost.com/2020/05/13/ny-dmv-recalls-cuomos-new-license-plates-due-to-e-zpass-defect/

[andrepoiy]

Yeah Ontario has now officially scrapped those blue plates...

[mgk920]

What are the latest plans for California when the current series of plate numbers runs out?  They are already up to [8SAAxxx] and from what I am aware of, will not be using numbers in the [9LLLNNN] block.

Mike

[jakeroot]

What are the latest plans for California when the current series of plate numbers runs out?  They are already up to [8SAAxxx] and from what I am aware of, will not be using numbers in the [9LLLNNN] block.

Where did you hear that they were skipping out on 9-series plates? I hadn't heard that.

They could adopt San Andreas plate numbering (from GTA V); after 9 (or 8?), go to 10 and keep the ball moving :

[mgk920]

What are the latest plans for California when the current series of plate numbers runs out?  They are already up to [8SAAxxx] and from what I am aware of, will not be using numbers in the [9LLLNNN] block.

Where did you hear that they were skipping out on 9-series plates? I hadn't heard that.

It was in a discussion on this in here a couple of years ago.

Mike

[kphoger]

Kansas announced a new design for personalized license plates.  However, none of the ones I've seen have looked like the examples.  The ones I've seen have all been a plain brown background, not fading to gold with a graphic element as indicated.

[jdbx]

What are the latest plans for California when the current series of plate numbers runs out?  They are already up to [8SAAxxx] and from what I am aware of, will not be using numbers in the [9LLLNNN] block.

I would expect that they will do the same thing they did with commercial plates, where they also skipped the 9 series.  It went from 8Z99999 to 00000A1.  For passenger cars, what we will probably see after the 8 series is exhausted is 000AAA1.

[frankenroad]

What are the latest plans for California when the current series of plate numbers runs out?  They are already up to [8SAAxxx] and from what I am aware of, will not be using numbers in the [9LLLNNN] block.

I would expect that they will do the same thing they did with commercial plates, where they also skipped the 9 series.  It went from 8Z99999 to 00000A1.  For passenger cars, what we will probably see after the 8 series is exhausted is 000AAA1.

I wonder why they don't just go to LLLNNNN like most other larger states.  I also wish they would use a slightly narrower font so they have room for a space between the letters and numbers.

[kphoger]

Kansas announced a new design for personalized license plates.  However, none of the ones I've seen have looked like the examples.  The ones I've seen have all been a plain brown background, not fading to gold with a graphic element as indicated.

Update:  I've started seeing these plates with the graphic element as pictured.  I wonder why the earliest ones didn't have it.

[Konza]

Arizona has apparently changed the alphanumeric sequence on its plates within the last month.  Seven digits, numbers and letters mixed together.  The few I've seen so far have the letter A in the third, fifth, and seventh position.  The old sequence ended before the first letter reached D.

[mgk920]

What are the latest plans for California when the current series of plate numbers runs out?  They are already up to [8SAAxxx] and from what I am aware of, will not be using numbers in the [9LLLNNN] block.

I would expect that they will do the same thing they did with commercial plates, where they also skipped the 9 series.  It went from 8Z99999 to 00000A1.  For passenger cars, what we will probably see after the 8 series is exhausted is 000AAA1.

I wonder why they don't just go to LLLNNNN like most other larger states.  I also wish they would use a slightly narrower font so they have room for a space between the letters and numbers.

I wouldn't mind seeing California going from 8LLLNNN to LLLLNNN like in Ontario.  I also like the slightly condensed font idea to allow a 'dash'.  Heck, if Wisconsin can do LLL-NNNN, why can't California?

Mike

[mgk920]

Arizona has apparently changed the alphanumeric sequence on its plates within the last month.  Seven digits, numbers and letters mixed together.  The few I've seen so far have the letter A in the third, fifth, and seventh position.  The old sequence ended before the first letter reached D.

That is totally weird.  The latest list in The High Road shows the current 'high' in Arizona as [A2A3ARA].  Are they going to be issuing them in totally random order?

Mike

[kphoger]

I wouldn't mind seeing California going from 8LLLNNN to LLLLNNN like in Ontario.

A pet peeve of mine is serial blocks that have more letters than numerals.

[Roadwarriors79]

It looks like more than a few people noticed changes to the standard Arizona plates. ADOT has an explanation. The standard plates will now have random sequencing.

https://azdot.gov/adot-news/your-eyes-don%E2%80%99t-deceive-you-new-license-plate-numbers-are-different

[kphoger]

It looks like more than a few people noticed changes to the standard Arizona plates. ADOT has an explanation. The standard plates will now have random sequencing.

https://azdot.gov/adot-news/your-eyes-don%E2%80%99t-deceive-you-new-license-plate-numbers-are-different

I had never thought about doing this for license plate serial numbers, but now I'm surprised agencies haven't already been doing it for years.

[mgk920]

It looks like more than a few people noticed changes to the standard Arizona plates. ADOT has an explanation. The standard plates will now have random sequencing.

https://azdot.gov/adot-news/your-eyes-don%E2%80%99t-deceive-you-new-license-plate-numbers-are-different

I had never thought about doing this for license plate serial numbers, but now I'm surprised agencies haven't already been doing it for years.

Indiana switched from issuing car plate numbers by county to 'at random' a couple of decades ago.

Mike

[kphoger]

It looks like more than a few people noticed changes to the standard Arizona plates. ADOT has an explanation. The standard plates will now have random sequencing.

https://azdot.gov/adot-news/your-eyes-don%E2%80%99t-deceive-you-new-license-plate-numbers-are-different

I had never thought about doing this for license plate serial numbers, but now I'm surprised agencies haven't already been doing it for years.

Indiana switched from issuing car plate numbers by county to 'at random' a couple of decades ago.

Mike

Maybe I'm understanding the change in Arizona incorrectly, then.  I read the article to mean new license plates are a random mix of letters and numbers–not that an existing serial number expanded in use.

??

[Roadwarriors79]

Arizona's newest standard plates are a random mix of letters and numbers. Some people have reported seeing new plates in a format of "A1B2C3D". I haven't seen any of those in the field. The plates I have seen have the format of "ABC1DEF". The only way to tell these are standard is there's a purple cactus to the left of the seven characters.

[jakeroot]

Arizona's newest standard plates are a random mix of letters and numbers. Some people have reported seeing new plates in a format of "A1B2C3D". I haven't seen any of those in the field. The plates I have seen have the format of "ABC1DEF". The only way to tell these are standard is there's a purple cactus to the left of the seven characters.

As for the latter combination, that may take the cake for the most number of letters in a non-custom alphanumeric licence plate. Even if it is 'random'.

I would think Arizona is keeping a certain format for their plates, even if they switch to random characters.

Here in WA, we use 'AAA0000' (currently on 'BXX----'), similar to how Arizona had worked, but we don't randomize the numbers or letters, to the best of my knowledge.

[kphoger]

As for the latter combination, that may take the cake for the most number of letters in a non-custom alphanumeric licence plate.

I was thinking I'd seen a standard-issue plate from one of the Indian nations of Oklahoma that had all letters, no numerals.  But I'm unable to find anything like that online, so I must be mistaken.

[Scott5114]

As for the latter combination, that may take the cake for the most number of letters in a non-custom alphanumeric licence plate.

I was thinking I'd seen a standard-issue plate from one of the Indian nations of Oklahoma that had all letters, no numerals.  But I'm unable to find anything like that online, so I must be mistaken.

I know at least one tribe (I want to say it's either the Comanches or the C&As) issues plates with all numbers, which is in and of itself pretty unusual in this day and age.

Chickasaw tags use two letters, but the letters are always CN. This is because they contracted the issuance out to the state, and that keeps them from conflicting with any other Oklahoma tag.

[Roadwarriors79]

Today I did see a few newer Arizona plates in the "A1B2CDE" format.

SM-G975U