DOT decision on license plate changes likely this summer

State transportation officials are considering a "least impact" alternative to issuing new Iowa's vehicle license plates.

A decision whether to issue new plates or extend the life of current plates by changing the order of letters and numbers will likely be made this summer, according to Mark Lowe, Transportation Division director at the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Iowa, which has 4,135,870 licensed vehicles on the road, isn't running out of numbers, Lowe said. The current system of three numbers followed by three letters on passenger vehicle plates should be good through 2012 or beyond, he said.

Then the choices would be to issue new plates, which the state hasn't done since 1996 when it replaced blue plates with the current white plates, or to make alphanumeric changes to increase the pool of letter-number combinations.

DOT officials are leaning toward the latter, Lowe said. Not only is issuing new plates expensive, Lowe said, but it's a lengthy process. When new plates were issued in 1996 to replace the green plates used from 1979 to 1985, the design process began in 1993. Currently, Iowa offers more than four dozen varieties of plates with themes ranging from military to wildlife to breast cancer and colleges and universities.

Lowe estimates issuing new plates would cost about $11 million. Plus, there would be a cost to the consumer to have plates mailed to them, he said. That hassle and expense could be avoided by alphanumeric changes.

"It seems to be a simpler solution," he said, "and more cost-effective.

The alphanumeric change would have the least impact on vehicle owners, he said. They wouldn't need to make any change because it would affect only newly issued plates.

Lowe and other DOT officials are "fairly well along in the study" of options. He's not hearing any comment one way or another, but expects that if a change is proposed there will be some feedback from the public.

Some states issue new plates on a set schedule. Nebraska, which just unveiled a new plate design, issue new plates every six years "whether they need them or not," Lowe said.

"Some states see (re-issuance) as a revenue generator," Lowe said. "For folks who don't keep up their registration when you change the look of the plates you force compliance. It's not clear to us you gain that much.

"To us, the cost to us and citizens didn't make sense given other pragmatic solutions," he said.