I’m currently buying a car from a dealership in “one plate” Florida.

It is being truck shipped to my home in “two plate” Missouri.

For simplicity, I’ll “copy/paste” the content of a letter I’ve sent to several Missouri State government people (for whatever good it will do).

Considering the safety issues as stated in the letter, I think the U.S. Highway Safety should mandate the “one plate” law nationwide.

I’ve never been one to get all whacked out over a front license plate (had them here my whole life), but times and technology has changed.

The only feedback I’ve gotten so far is something like “Wait and try again after the elections.”

Seems no one wants to tackle this if they might not be seated in a few months.

I guess government legislation proposals grind to a halt late term.

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Missouri two license plate


Greetings!

I am finding an issue, which I’m sure is affecting more and more Missouri citizens:

The “Two License Plate” per vehicle law.

In past decades, this was an accepted and common law, and easily adhered to. It may have even had some limited purpose.

With today’s advanced vehicle technology (front vehicle sensors, parking alerts, radar lane monitoring, cameras, and many others). The vast majority geared toward decreasing accidents and increasing safety, while also increasing driver alertness.

I am currently having a newer vehicle brought in from “one plate” Florida, am running into compliance and safety issues in planning to adhere to Missouri’s front plate mandate.

It seems a number of vehicles make it almost impossible to voluntarily comply.

Many of said sensors, etc. are well hidden (by cosmetic design) behind almost all areas of the car front end.

I’ve been in contact with my Florida dealer, and he is at quite a loss as well. Being from one plate Florida, it’s not an issue that he deals with.

Drilling into the front end could well damage high end equipment, and/or block sensors input (thus reducing safety).

And vehicle makers seem to have little (if any) incentive to make this law easy to comply with across all makes.

The only possible alternative I have found so far is some aftermarket setup which is of poor quality, and must be placed “off set” from the vehicle center point. Worse yet, it looks like removal is required before using an automatic car wash. Then re-installing afterwards. That sounds like repetitive fun… 🙈

A by-product would be State cost reduction and environmental savings on reducing plate manufacture by millions.

Approximately ten other States have been “single license plate” for many years without issue.

I would even hope for (possibly) a suspension of Missouri front plate enforcement pending formal legislation.

Please give this the strongest consideration, keeping in mind the sizable reasoning and benefits, given today’s technology.

Kindest regards,

O Fallon, Missouri

Ohio recently changed from a 2 plate state to a 1 plate state, over the objections of law enforcement.

was that done to save the state money by not having to manufacture the second plate ?
pennsylvania quit issuing the "expiration stickers" several years ago to save the state money in printing them, and also went to two year tag registrations for the same reason, not needing to send out yearly registration forms, thus saving printing and mailing costs.
at the time, police objected to it, but that has been put to rest since the proliferation of tag readers that most squad cars have these days tied into all the computers on board necessary to do required police work.
it is also highly recommended that people do this on line now, [re-registration] and in doing so, the person needs to print out the registration document themselves, thus saving the state even more money. [i have been doing this for years. it's an easy task for me to do, so i just do it]
we have close to the highest gas tax in the country, but it also funds the state police budget, along with the department of transportation.
there has been moves to remove the state police budget from the gas tax, but there can never seem to come to a way to fund the state police.
we are a "one plate" state, for those that do not know.

I have never understood the real benefit of two plates for the taxpayer/citizen, I can see a few downsides.
Stop giving the free state of Florida any ideas.
I close my case.

SD you can on some vehicles run rear plate but .. it costs $40 more to register it per year , lol

I don't know if it was done to save $, but my registration cost didn't go down.

If you are breaking the law the cops are just going get 15 cop cars to follow you. So what difference does the front plate make?. Is this a new car? Used car? Are they selling it "as is" with no warranty? If it's new I would think it's the dealers responsibility to make the vehicle compliant with your state laws. If it's used it's your problem.

Oregon stopped enforcing the front plate law several years back because so many front plates were being stolen and put on other cars.
However they still provide both when you switch to a designer design, or registering from out of state/new etc.

I never understood the demand for the front plate. At highway speeds you can't ever read them, and at night time they become unreadable at any speed.

Nowadays, license plate readers are more prevalent than one might think...two plates gives 'em more chance to track you.

Wisconsin is a 2 plate state.
My wife's car was purchased from New Jersey, a one plate state, and in 10 years we never added the front plate.
I bought a 2015 Challenger from Washington state, also a one plate state, and in 8 years have never added a front plate.
I supposed it depends on how strict, or bored, any specific cops wants to be.
We don’t have traffic readers.
But…I suppose I could get asked to put one one at any time.

Any worries about having a front plate depend on enforcement level, of course.
Probably every State I've lived in had a 2-plate law, but I haven't run a front on probably half my vehicles.
Example: something different on the front, like a Road Runner head decal on a black plate, or the "1968" plate, etc.
In several cases, a front plate was just unappealing to me because of the vehicle's design..
Been hassled twice in 50 years - once in CA and once in ID - the ID deal wasn't a ticket, just a frustrated cop because he'd missed clocking my speed.
Judge in CA threw that ticket out.

Back when I sold new Fords (sorry!) the cars automatically came with a front plate bracket if the car was going to a two-plate state. Not so for cars shipped to a one plate state.

There must be a manufacturer's part number for the front plate bracket. The selling dealer should order one and provide it to the OP as a courtesy.

This ^^^ especially on toll roads at the toll booths.

States delete the front plate to save money that they don't give back or reduce the cost of registration to the public......they usually increase the price

Not sure what the real advantage here is for LPR, unless you have twice as many LPR's going both ways in order to read plates on a vehicle towing a trailer that has a front plate.

Missouri (my state) is supposed to be working on legislation to make it a one plate state.

I either saw it on the local news or read it online.

You could check into that.

Illinois is a two plate state. We put the front plate on vehicles only rarely. It's been years since a cop gave us any crap over only having one plate.

Thd debate about front plates aside most vehicles are made with the sensors and wiring not in the way of adding a front plate and it shouldn't be that hard for the dealer to see the back side of the bumper cover to make sure any wiring is out of the way of being damaged. Usually the bumper covers even have the spots molded into them to knock out or drill the holes for the plate bracket.

Exactly, all cars sold in the US are designed to run two plates. If your state doesn't require it you don't run it. However, the factory has the appropriate bracket and location for it. Had to do this with the BMW I bought a few years ago.

I'm also in WI and will not give the cops a single reason to have a talk with me(especially after a couple cold ones at a show or a ball game) My brother has been pulled over for lack of front plate. My daughter bought a brand new Jeep and the damn dealer wanted to charge her $100 to mount a front plate. I had a chat with said dealer about selling a new car that was not compliant with the laws in the state they were selling it in........they installed the plate free of charge.....lol

Todays arrested shooting suspect is likely only custody after being taken into custody on I95 approx 25 miles north of the golf course mainly because of active LPR's reporting the suspects path real time, FWIW.

And even has the ability to run a front and rear Euro style wide/low front/rear license plate. Lots of American vehicles that can mount a European style license plate if sold overseas (i.e., Jeeps) front and rear.

Washington State is a two plate state, except for Collector Car Plates. I still run a pair on my YOM registered cars because I think it looks better

Missouri allows one plate on year of manufacture plates for 1971 and older since that’s all that were required in those years.

Anything 1972 and newer requires two with the exception of trucks running 18,000 pound or heavier plates.

N.J. requires two plates but I thought I read they might consider only going to one. I have QQ ( historic ) plates on my 92 D150 and I only have the rear plate as I have a custom plate on the front , I also heard that with historic plates you only need a rear plate in N.J. I don't know if its true on not , I don't drive the truck much maybe to an occasional cruise night , show or I bracket race it sometimes. I haven't been pulled over or questioned about it . On my daily driver Honda HRV the front plate mounts right in the middle of the grille which looked really ugly , I moved the mounting bracket down lower under the middle of the bumper and it looks much better, I don't know why they couldn't do that at the factory.

ND is similar with Antique license plates (Pioneer Plates) for vehicles at least 40 years old and NOT used for business or farm transportation. No front plate required. In fact one of my Bud's with a Buick GS has a front plate that reads "Student Driver".