Are license tag stickers obsolete?

[patric]

MADISON — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's budget calls for doing away with registration stickers on vehicle's license plates.

Walker estimates the move would save about $800,000 over the two-year spending plan through printing and mailing costs.

State Transportation Secretary Mark Gottlieb told the Legislature's budget committee on Monday that the stickers are anachronistic.

Rep. Dan Meyer asked Gottlieb whether ending the stickers would make life harder for police to check for expired registrations.

Gottlieb countered that he's heard people steal registration stickers off plates and the only reliable way to determine whether a vehicle is properly registered is to run the license plate number.

[dbacks fan]

The thing to do with stickers, or as they are called here tabs, is to make them specific. In AZ the sticker now not only shows the month it expires, but the year, and it shows the actual plate number on the sticker, and is designed so that once it's applied, to get it off in one piece is almost impossible. So even if you were to get the sticker off, it won't match the tag that it is on.

[Gonesouth1234]

The thing to do with stickers, or as they are called here tabs, is to make them specific. In AZ the sticker now not only shows the month it expires, but the year, and it shows the actual plate number on the sticker, and is designed so that once it's applied, to get it off in one piece is almost impossible. So even if you were to get the sticker off, it won't match the tag that it is on.

+1

I've had to replace several that were peeled off of the tag on the Hupmobile over the years, and sometimes the whole plate.  The cost is about $10 bucks, and a trip to the tag agency, including a couple of hours off work to get it done.
This won't stop theft, but might slow it down a little.

[sgrizzle]

He is talking about saving $400,000 per year in a state with $5M vehicles. If they are charging even $10 a year, that cost is minimal.

[patric]

If you were a less-than-honest person, the only thing you would have to match is the color, given normal traffic viewing distances.

[Hoss]

The thing to do with stickers, or as they are called here tabs, is to make them specific. In AZ the sticker now not only shows the month it expires, but the year, and it shows the actual plate number on the sticker, and is designed so that once it's applied, to get it off in one piece is almost impossible. So even if you were to get the sticker off, it won't match the tag that it is on.

It's pretty simple, for me anyway.  I started doing this when I lived in Texas (pre Texas and their window registration stickers) and continued it to Oklahoma:  use an X-acto knife and cut a cross-hatch into the sticker after you've applied it.  Makes it pretty difficult for thieves to reuse it.

[custosnox]

It's pretty simple, for me anyway.  I started doing this when I lived in Texas (pre Texas and their window registration stickers) and continued it to Oklahoma:  use an X-acto knife and cut a cross-hatch into the sticker after you've applied it.  Makes it pretty difficult for thieves to reuse it.

I've done that for years.

[dbacks fan]

This is what I was refering to as all of the info on the tab......



They have three s shaped scribes from top to bottom so that you can't easily get it off in one piece.

[nathanm]

So what do you know, DB?

[dbacks fan]

So what do you know, DB?

Okay, I will tell the story one time. In 1983 I was working at the Vickers C-Store on 71st just east of Sheridan. At that time, the store did not have a cash register, and if you paid by credit card, it was the old fashioned credit card machine where you put the card in a slot, and then put a three part receipt slip over the card and ran the roller over it to make an imprint of the card, and to make sure the card was valid you had to look through a book with all of the invalid numbers. After all of that, which took about 45 seconds, you needed their tag number to put on the receipt. When you asked what the tag was, most people said "I don't know" so I made it the seven digit requirement to make a personal tag, and have had it since 1986 in Oklahoma, and since 1998 in Arizona.

[nathanm]

the old fashioned credit card machine where you put the card in a slot, and then put a three part receipt slip over the card and ran the roller over it to make an imprint of the card, and to make sure the card was valid you had to look through a book with all of the invalid numbers. After all of that, which took about 45 seconds, you needed their tag number to put on the receipt. When you asked what the tag was, most people said "I don't know" so I made it the seven digit requirement to make a personal tag, and have had it since 1986 in Oklahoma, and since 1998 in Arizona.

With a tag like that, you gotta have a story. 

As recently as 2003 I had someone pull out an imprint machine. They didn't bother checking the book. Of course, I think they quit printing the book by that time. I should mention that this was at a national chain shoe store..just off Times Square in NYC. She who must be obeyed was not prepared for quite that much walking.

[Hoss]

With a tag like that, you gotta have a story. 

As recently as 2003 I had someone pull out an imprint machine. They didn't bother checking the book. Of course, I think they quit printing the book by that time. I should mention that this was at a national chain shoe store..just off Times Square in NYC. She who must be obeyed was not prepared for quite that much walking.

If the POS machine is down or if they have a comms problem, back then that wasn't an uncommon practice.

[nathanm]

If the POS machine is down or if they have a comms problem, back then that wasn't an uncommon practice.

It's still not. One of my clients still uses imprints exclusively. Of course, they almost always get paid by check or briefcase of cash, so it's rarely used..

[dbacks fan]

So what do you know, DB?

I'm a sarcastic, observational humorist, that can take it, as well as give it, grew up in Tulsa from birth in 1963, and moved out in 1998. I love Tulsa, and it will always remain in my heart as where I am from, and I have family that rests in Tulsa, in Memorial Park, and there is a place there for me as well, next to my mother, and a brother.

I love Tulsa, have and will, and when I pass, I will reside where I came from.

[sgrizzle]

I'm a sarcastic, observational humorist, that can take it, as well as give it, grew up in Tulsa from birth in 1963, and moved out in 1998. I love Tulsa, and it will always remain in my heart as where I am from, and I have family that rests in Tulsa, in Memorial Park, and there is a place there for me as well, next to my mother, and a brother.

I love Tulsa, have and will, and when I pass, I will reside where I came from.

What you don't realize is that their tag read "IDONTNO"