Raleigh, NC Although vehicle owners in North Carolina can keep their license plates under a new state program to replace old plates automatically, there is a catch.
From Friday, any ordinary number plate of seven years old or older will be replaced when the vehicle’s annual registration is renewed.
Previously, drivers from North Carolina were allowed to keep their plates indefinitely, and many are more than a decade old. People who needed a replacement plate had to go through a process to request it from the Motor Vehicles Division.
Last year, state lawmakers approved a seven-year automated replacement program because plate numbers can be blurred by weather and time, making it difficult to read.
A DMV spokesman said people could keep the same number, but after a WRAL News viewer questioned it, the agency acknowledged that people renewing their registrations online could not get the same number.
Bobby Fergione’s grandmother, Jacqueline Fergione, was one of the first to be told she needed a new plate. He said he always helps her renew online.
“She had an older license plate … which she’s had all the time she’s been here 20 years. It was on three different cars,” Bobby Fergione said.
Jacqueline Fergione remembers the number, and at 84 she did not want a new ladder. But Bobby Fergione said he sees no option online to stop her number.
“I said, ‘Let me have the DMV and ask, ‘and the lady I talked to at home DMV “told me the option is only available if you have a void card,” he said. I said, ‘I do not think there is anything I can do, Grandmom. ‘”
DMV spokesman John Brockman said the agency does not offer the option in its online portal, which accounts for about 40 percent renewals, because the DMV do not really want people to keep the same number.
Brockman said in a statement: “We would rather not have customers use the same number,” Brockman said. four times more expensive. ‘
The 2019 law does not require people to hand in their old plates when they are replaced, and DMV officials fear that people will have to pass on the old plates to others if the numbers do not change.
PPeople who renew by mail or in person will have the option to keep the same number without paying for a void ticket, Brockman said.
But Bobby Fergione said the entry form his grandmother received was also confusing.
“I guess they want you to mark this check mark, but they do not say explicitly,” he said.
‘I would like to see them send her a sign with the same numbers and the same registration. and I would like them to make this process clearer, “he added. I just think we get conflicting information. “
DMV officials expect to replace nearly 2.5 million older ordinary plates by 2021. Next year, the DMV will replace approximately 500,000 older personalized and special boards.
From 2022, the plates in North Carolina will be digitally printed on flat metal, rather than stamped on it.