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License Plate News

Started by Alex, February 04, 2010, 10:38:53 AM

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SP Cook

Question:

Just got back from West Palm Beach.  Rented a car from Hertz.  Every car on the Hertz lot was registered in Blount County, Tennessee.  Another brand was using Davidson County.  Another Indiana.  Another Louisiana.  On the freeway, there were enough Blount County, Tennessee plates that one would have though one was in Knoxville.

Howcome Florida puts up with this?  In my state, the local rental car franchisees have to keep a %age registered in-state (for example the local Enterprise covers most of WV, and small parts of KY and OH, with WV comprising about 80% of its business, so 80% of the cars are plated in WV, etc).  Obviously these cars were delivered directly to the rental agency and have never been north of Daytona Beach. 


formulanone

#451
Quote from: SP Cook on February 22, 2013, 07:15:51 AM
Question:

Just got back from West Palm Beach.  Rented a car from Hertz.  Every car on the Hertz lot was registered in Blount County, Tennessee.  Another brand was using Davidson County.  Another Indiana.  Another Louisiana.  On the freeway, there were enough Blount County, Tennessee plates that one would have though one was in Knoxville.

How come Florida puts up with this?

I rent from Avis a lot, and they essentially do the same thing; I guess it boils down to a few things:

Some counties/states are just cheaper than others to register vehicles. Other places seem to have large airport-based lots for pooling together a lot of vehicles, and distribute them to areas as needed (Florida needs lots of rentals between Thanksgiving to Easter/Passover, or shortages during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy). You also get one-way rentals; so it's not terribly uncommon to see a vehicle on a rental lot with a plate from a state that's 1000+ miles away. If the demand increases for a type of car, or a replacement car is needed, they'll distribute them as needed...after all, a car that isn't being rented is just a company expense that generates no revenue.

Florida is one of those places that also attracts lots of tourism, so out-of-state plates aren't very unusual, although something from Alaska or Hawaii on Floridian soil are rare (but not impossible, especially in the car biz) finds. I'd imagine that most rental car agencies don't have roots in Florida, anyhow; they probably don't care much if the company isn't incorporated in Florida. That's not to say I haven't had rental cars in Florida with Florida license plates, but I don't think they have such restrictions.

Blount County, TN does seem to be a popular one with rental registrations, with Shelby County, TN being another one that seems to be oddly popular nearly anywhere I travel in The South. On the other hand, I've had Florida plates on rentals in Arkansas and Georgia, so...[shrugs]

The High Plains Traveler

Quote from: Scott5114 on February 21, 2013, 03:01:48 PM
I actually feel like Oklahoma's current flat plate is miles better than the one it replaced, though part of that is probably due to me getting sick of the previous design after having had to stare at it for 20 years, and not caring for Oklahoma's embossed font. (The flat plate uses Series C digits and some kind of squared-off variant of Series C letters).
I really like the design of the Oklahoma plate, but having the graphic on one side results in all six characters being pushed together without a space. Like New Mexico's balloon plate, this inhibits readability. Also, although the flat letterset used by Oklahoma isn't bad as those go, it is hard to distinguish among letters D, O and Q.
"Tongue-tied and twisted; just an earth-bound misfit, I."

D-Dey65

Quote from: myosh_tino on January 17, 2013, 02:05:55 PM
Found out through Daniel Faigin's cahighways.org site that the California DMV has launched the California Legacy License Plate program where car owners can pre-order vintage California plates (black-on-yellow, yellow-on-black and yellow-on-blue)...



From what I gather, the vintage plates are being treated as a specialty plate which means an annual fee will apply.  Vintage plates will be issued if the DMV receives at least 7,500 orders by January 1st, 2015.
Antique car collectors are going to sweep these up like gang-busters, if they haven't already.



jwolfer

Quote from: SP Cook on February 22, 2013, 07:15:51 AM
Question:

Just got back from West Palm Beach.  Rented a car from Hertz.  Every car on the Hertz lot was registered in Blount County, Tennessee.  Another brand was using Davidson County.  Another Indiana.  Another Louisiana.  On the freeway, there were enough Blount County, Tennessee plates that one would have though one was in Knoxville.

Howcome Florida puts up with this?  In my state, the local rental car franchisees have to keep a %age registered in-state (for example the local Enterprise covers most of WV, and small parts of KY and OH, with WV comprising about 80% of its business, so 80% of the cars are plated in WV, etc).  Obviously these cars were delivered directly to the rental agency and have never been north of Daytona Beach. 

Back when Florida had counties on all the tags, and after Florida went away from the LEASE for the county name;  Lots of rental cars were from Manatee and Duval County for some reason.  I assumed it was for registration. 

thenetwork

Speaking of License Plates for rental cars, I know that in some parts of the country, states and/or rental car companies try their best to mask rental cars so as to either reduce the amount of break-ins or damage to a rental car.

Meanwhile, Colorado rental cars which get their plates in-state are sitting ducks -- All Colorado "Rental Car" license plates are a Red-on-White version of the standard issue Green-On-White plates. 

Colorado Rental Car = mostly out-of-area travelers = always lots of good stuff in the car & trunk for thieves! :no:

corco

That bled into eastern Wyoming too, where virtually all rentals had Colorado red and white plates. (I'm pretty sure eastern Wyoming rental car agencies just accumulated all their cars from one way rentals from Denver)

Interestingly, a couple years ago when my folks flew into Denver to come to my graduation in Laramie, they rented an Aveo from National that had regular green and white plates, but that's the only known rental car I've ever seen with green Colorado tags.

djsinco

Some smaller counties in NY used the county abbreviation (for example, YT-XXXX, was Yates County.) This was in the 1980's and early '90's that I know of. Of course, this numbering system would never work in a populated area. I think the locals liked the knowledge they lived in an area that could manage this.

Are there any states beside NY that allow 8 character vanity plates?
3 million miles and counting

Big John

Quote from: djsinco on February 23, 2013, 03:30:11 AM

Are there any states beside NY that allow 8 character vanity plates?
North Carolina does

The High Plains Traveler

Quote from: thenetwork on February 22, 2013, 09:01:12 PM
Speaking of License Plates for rental cars, I know that in some parts of the country, states and/or rental car companies try their best to mask rental cars so as to either reduce the amount of break-ins or damage to a rental car.

Meanwhile, Colorado rental cars which get their plates in-state are sitting ducks -- All Colorado "Rental Car" license plates are a Red-on-White version of the standard issue Green-On-White plates. 

Colorado Rental Car = mostly out-of-area travelers = always lots of good stuff in the car & trunk for thieves! :no:
Those are fleet plates (vertical stacked FLT in front of the serial), which are not confined to rental cars. The electric utility I work for has a service center lot full of trucks and fleet vehicles, all bearing those plates.
"Tongue-tied and twisted; just an earth-bound misfit, I."

CentralCAroadgeek

#460
Quote from: Big John on February 23, 2013, 09:45:21 AM
Quote from: djsinco on February 23, 2013, 03:30:11 AM

Are there any states beside NY that allow 8 character vanity plates?
North Carolina does
Ontario does too.

Nevada is now issuing these new sesquicentennial plates for its 150th anniversary next year. In my opinion, they're a bit too crowded...

djsinco

This thread is too long for me to read it all at one time, so pardon me if this is redundant.

I find it interesting that Mexico issues a license plate, and a window decal that is identical. The vehicle must have both the license plate mounted, and the (presumably non-removable) decal visible in the rear-facing glass. I guess there must be lots of chicanery going on in Mexico with license plate swapping and borrowing. Aside from emission/safety/registration stickers, are there any US states that require something like this?
3 million miles and counting

signalman

Quote from: djsinco on February 23, 2013, 02:02:31 PM
This thread is too long for me to read it all at one time, so pardon me if this is redundant.

I find it interesting that Mexico issues a license plate, and a window decal that is identical. The vehicle must have both the license plate mounted, and the (presumably non-removable) decal visible in the rear-facing glass. I guess there must be lots of chicanery going on in Mexico with license plate swapping and borrowing. Aside from emission/safety/registration stickers, are there any US states that require something like this?

The city of Philadelphia tried this for a brief time in lieu of plate stickers to combat sticker theft.  It didn't last long.  I seem to remember complaints of profiling by the police when they were traveling outside of the city.

kphoger

Quote from: djsinco on February 23, 2013, 02:02:31 PM
I find it interesting that Mexico issues a license plate, and a window decal that is identical. The vehicle must have both the license plate mounted, and the (presumably non-removable) decal visible in the rear-facing glass. I guess there must be lots of chicanery going on in Mexico with license plate swapping and borrowing. Aside from emission/safety/registration stickers, are there any US states that require something like this?

It also makes it fun to see cars that are more than about ten years old, because you get to see the design of all the previous license plate issues for that state for the past several years:  in most cases, at least, the design of the sticker is basically the same as the plates themselves.

For example, here's a picture of my two sons playing in the back of an old clunker this past summer.  Notice the stickers on the left side of the window.  From top to bottom, those are the license plate designs for the state of Coahuila for the 2001 series, the 1998 issue, what I think was a mid-1990s issue, and then the 2010 issue to the right of those.  (I'm not sure why there's no 2003 issue sticker.)
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

cpzilliacus

Quote from: djsinco on February 23, 2013, 02:02:31 PM
This thread is too long for me to read it all at one time, so pardon me if this is redundant.

I find it interesting that Mexico issues a license plate, and a window decal that is identical. The vehicle must have both the license plate mounted, and the (presumably non-removable) decal visible in the rear-facing glass. I guess there must be lots of chicanery going on in Mexico with license plate swapping and borrowing. Aside from emission/safety/registration stickers, are there any US states that require something like this?

Not one of the 50 states, but it does have the authority to issue license plates - the District of Columbia has been doing this for quite a few years now.
Opinions expressed here on AAROADS are strictly personal and mine alone, and do not reflect policies or positions of MWCOG, NCRTPB or their member federal, state, county and municipal governments or any other agency.

djsinco

Interesting. When I visit DC, I generally stay in Alexandria, take the Metro into town, and generally stick to the National Mall or other touristy areas. The majority of the rest of the city is pretty repulsive to me.
3 million miles and counting

SP Cook

Quote from: kphoger on February 23, 2013, 02:45:03 PM
Aside from emission/safety/registration stickers, are there any US states that require something like this?

IIRC, didn't Kentucky used to require one to post a proof of insurance sticker in the back window, back years ago?

And, not technically "emission/safety/registration", some Virginia towns and counties have a wheel tax sticker that goes right next to the (weirdly placed) state inspection sticker. 

Which brings up another question from my recent trip to Florida.  Florida plate renewals are a yellow sticker with black writing in the form of "8-13" etc, that goes on the plate, much like most states.  Saw several cars with a sticker, about 5 x 5, on the back window of the form of:

NOW

(picture of a renewal sticker M-YY)

FLORIDA

with the plate having a sticker that read the same month in the previous year (i.e. expired). 

No idea what that was about.


cpzilliacus

Quote from: SP Cook on February 24, 2013, 07:22:30 AM
And, not technically "emission/safety/registration", some Virginia towns and counties have a wheel tax sticker that goes right next to the (weirdly placed) state inspection sticker. 

It used to be that every county and every city and town in the Commonwealth (there might have been a very few exceptions) issued a square local registration sticker next to the safety inspection sticker on the lower edge of the windshield in the middle.   Virginia local governments used to extract an annual (and hefty) personal property tax based on the value of the vehicle as determined by the local tax assessor.  Now that tax is a small remnant of what it once was for most automobiles and light trucks (but owners of heavier vehicles still have to pay it), many local governments have stopped issuing the stickers.
Opinions expressed here on AAROADS are strictly personal and mine alone, and do not reflect policies or positions of MWCOG, NCRTPB or their member federal, state, county and municipal governments or any other agency.

cpzilliacus

Quote from: djsinco on February 24, 2013, 03:39:35 AM
Interesting. When I visit DC, I generally stay in Alexandria, take the Metro into town, and generally stick to the National Mall or other touristy areas. The majority of the rest of the city is pretty repulsive to me.

I am not especially a fan of D.C. and its politics (I have lived in its close-in or distant suburbs nearly all my life), but there are some areas of the city that I rather like (though parking is almost always problematic, even in the many neighborhoods of the city that are very suburban in appearance).
Opinions expressed here on AAROADS are strictly personal and mine alone, and do not reflect policies or positions of MWCOG, NCRTPB or their member federal, state, county and municipal governments or any other agency.

Alex

via licenseplates.cc:
Gray orders license plate change: "˜District of Columbia' instead of "˜Washington D.C.'

QuoteOn Friday, Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) published a new mayoral order changing the city's license plates from "Washington D.C."  to the "District of Columbia."  The name change means the city's "taxation without representation"  license plates will be redesigned.

Molandfreak

Quote from: Max Rockatansky on December 05, 2023, 08:24:57 PM
AASHTO attributes 28.5% of highway inventory shrink to bad road fan social media posts.

cpzilliacus

Quote from: Alex on February 24, 2013, 03:16:42 PM
via licenseplates.cc:
Gray orders license plate change: "˜District of Columbia' instead of "˜Washington D.C.'

QuoteOn Friday, Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) published a new mayoral order changing the city's license plates from "Washington D.C."  to the "District of Columbia."  The name change means the city's "taxation without representation"  license plates will be redesigned.

You beat me to it.

Years ago, the District of Columbia's longtime black-on-reflective white tags did not mention "Washington" at all, just "District of Columbia."

Examples here.
Opinions expressed here on AAROADS are strictly personal and mine alone, and do not reflect policies or positions of MWCOG, NCRTPB or their member federal, state, county and municipal governments or any other agency.

formulanone

Quote from: djsinco on February 23, 2013, 03:30:11 AM
Are there any states beside NY that allow 8 character vanity plates?

Florida does, starting around 2003-04.

Even though there was previously room for an 8th character, it couldn't be used for anything other than a hyphen.

Alex

Iowa changes the sequence on license plates

QuoteTracy Bramble from the Iowa Department of Transportation explains that the previous arrangement of three numbers followed by three letters used on Iowa license plates reached the maximum possible combination last summer. Newly issued plates that are not personalized use a reverse sequence of three letters, followed by three numbers.

QuoteThe basic design stays the same. The DOT already had changed the color of the numbers and letters on newly issued plates from dark blue to black on standard plates and specialty plates that have the blue and white background. It did not affect specialty plates that use a special color as part of their design, such as collegiate and firefighter plates.

Changing the characters to black increased the contrast with the background, made them easier to read, and also makes plate production more consistent and cost-effective, Bramble said.

jp the roadgeek

Interstates I've clinched: 97, 290 (MA), 291 (CT), 291 (MA), 293, 295 (DE-NJ-PA), 295 (RI-MA), 384, 391, 395 (CT-MA), 395 (MD), 495 (DE), 610 (LA), 684, 691, 695 (MD), 695 (NY), 795 (MD)



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