PLATES, STICKERS & TAGS

California requires a plate and a sticker to be affixed to your vehicle in order to identify it. License plates can assist in verifying if the vehicle is registered and to whom it is registered to. This has been in affect since 1905. Law makers have made changes and all dealerships now have to issue and affix a paper plate to a vehicle they sell for identity purposes.

There are different types of license plates they consist of a standard license plate or a special interest license plates. If a personalized plate is desired there are specific costs that are paid yearly on top of your regular renewal fees and in other states may be every other year. For the most part an individual would obtain a standard plate unless a personalized one was requested. All vehicles must attach a front and rear plate unless it is a commercial tractor that is coded as a DS (diesel) whereby it would be issued commercial plate. All other on the road vehicles are issued 2 plates. Special equipment vehicles and motorcycles are issued 1 plate. Other vehicles that require special plates are government vehicles, they are issued exempt plates.   

If any type of plates are lost or stolen, they need to be replaced immediately. You will need to apply for a replacement plate and a new registration card will be issued with it with the updated plate number and information on it.  Sometimes state offices can take several weeks to obtain a standard plate.

At Road Ready, we issue same day plates and stickers. Buyers or owners of vehicles that have purchased their vehicle form a dealer are required to affix a license plate or plates to their new vehicle within 90 days of purchase. If you are involved with a private party purchase, California requires you to start your transfer within 10 days of purchase and penalties will not accumulate until after 30 days without any attempt to start the transfers. You can request to transfer or keep your personalized plate to your new vehicle, or it will have to be released and surrendered to DMV unless the person or persons buying your vehicle wants to keep it then it will go with the car when it is sold along with a form you will give to them to relinquish your interest in it.  

The Permanent Trailer Identification program known as PTI, trailers are issued a PTI plate and permanent reg card. There are no vehicle stickers or tags issued.  As for vehicle stickers or tags, we all know that without a current one affixed to your vehicle you are subject to getting cited by an officer. It is an ongoing occurrence we encounter every day.

There are two types of tags and vehicle stickers affixed to a plate.  There is a month and year. The vehicle stickers are commonly known as the identifier for the month and year the vehicle is registered for and the plate number identifies the owner(s).  There is a 30 day grace period before law enforcement can pull you over and ticket you for no proof of current registration.

Permanent Fleet Registration vehicles receive a California permanent fleet sticker. This month sticker does not need to be replaced every year but the annual one does. Each commercial type vehicle is initially issued a permanent license plate, a month tag or sticker, a weight decal and weight decal year tag and an annual tag or vehicle sticker. Both the year and weight decal year tags or vehicle stickers are issued annually.  If you decide to change your GVW weight at the time of renewal you will be issued a new one to affix to your vehicle.  You must replace the one on your door if you change your GVW or you will be given a ticket if you are hauling more than what you are licensed to haul.

PFR (permanent Fleet Registration) registrations are only issued the initial month and year sticker but will not be issued an annual one each year.  Our services extend to offering interstate carriers same day IRP plates and stickers so long as all the documentation required is provided to us. We would not be giving you all the information possible about plates and stickers if we didn’t touch upon temporary operating permits.

Temporary operating permits (TOP) allows an individual or company to operate when all registration fees have been paid, but a license plate and/or tags or stickers have not been issued. There are many different types of temporary operating permits the most common one in our industry is the One Trip Permit. This permit allows you to move a vehicle without being registered to the borders of California. We offer these readily available to our clients.

At Road Ready, we try to make your life easy when it comes to paying for these requests.  We can issue plates and vehicle stickers the same day with payments of Zelle, Wire or Cash.