# Vanity plates and Washington Transportation Dept.



## FurryOne (Apr 19, 2019)

I recently got a bill from Washington State saying I owed them $3 for using their toll roads. Looking at the bill, the only identifying info was the plate, which was shown as "TE5LA3". Well, my plate is "TE5LA 3", which includes a space. After a 20 minute hold I got to talk to a lovely Woman, and tell her that the plate doesn't match, and I've never been to her state in my life. When I pointed out the discrepancy in the plate, she stated that the form wouldn't show spaces. WhaaaT??? Her original repose was that i'd have to fill out the dispute form on the back and send it in. After getting a bit hot, I calmed down and she put me on hold to check the photo on file. When she came back she said that from the photo she couldn't tell what state the plate listed so she'd void the charge. While I'm thankful that she dropped the charge, her explanation sounds fishy to me - how crappy a camera do you have to have not to be able to read NEW YORK in 1.5" high block letters?? I think somebody just plain screwed up and interpreted the plate or state wrong - or the vehicle they photographed had a cover over their plate.


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

I feel like a lot of government agenices right now (fed, state, city, county, etc) have lost a ton of money due to the pandemic, and are having brainstorming sessions on how to bring in more income. One of those suggestions would very likely be to start aggressively collecting fees, taxes, or fines from out of state drivers.

What you're seeing is probably one of the results from that.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

FurryOne said:


> she stated that the form wouldn't show spaces. WhaaaT???


Actually, this part of the explanation is reasonable. For vanity plates, PA will allow you to insert spaces wherever you want, but the space is not considered as part of the plate number. I assume other states do the same thing. So if somebody already has a plate "TESLA 3", I can't get "TESLA3".


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## iChris93 (Feb 3, 2017)

FurryOne said:


> how crappy a camera do you have to have not to be able to read NEW YORK in 1.5" high block letters??


TeslaCam cameras?


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

garsh said:


> Actually, this part of the explanation is reasonable. For vanity plates, PA will allow you to insert spaces wherever you want, but the space is not considered as part of the plate number. I assume other states do the same thing. So if somebody already has a plate "TESLA 3", I can't get "TESLA3".


What's funny about that isn't so much the space or lack thereof, but the fact that Washington State's DMV looked at New York plates after ones native to the state. I'm sure there are "TESLA3" and "TESLA 3" plates in nearly every single state by now, including California and Oregon. Which means the fact that it chose a plate from New York means their license plate search has an arbitrary order of states it searches in, and New York must be something like the 2nd or 3rd state in that arbitrary order.

Perhaps the ordering of states had to do with which states have mutual violation and fine partnerships (states that will help Washington State collect), but even then, it's unlikely that list includes only New York. And it's not alphabetical, because New York ends up _after_ California that way - in fact New York ends up closer to the end of the list. It can't be ordered by issued license plates either, since California has more of those as well.

So as conspiracy theorist as it sounds, the most likely reason to pick on New Yorkers is that New Yorkers are more likely to actually pay the fine. Maybe because the agreement with Washington State is stronger than most other states, where they can actually get the New York DMV to suspend licenses over it, or maybe it's just experience, that the largest number of notices they sent out and were paid went to New York.


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## TomT (Apr 1, 2019)

One of the reasons why I have an Amateur Radio plate. I can guarantee no one else has my call sign.


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## FurryOne (Apr 19, 2019)

garsh said:


> Actually, this part of the explanation is reasonable. For vanity plates, PA will allow you to insert spaces wherever you want, but the space is not considered as part of the plate number. I assume other states do the same thing. So if somebody already has a plate "TESLA 3", I can't get "TESLA3".


Here in NY, I had the option of with or without the space, and it makes a difference - so someone else in NY can have TE5LA3. Other states need to get their sh*t together - it's 2020 not 1920.


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## FurryOne (Apr 19, 2019)

iChris93 said:


> TeslaCam cameras?


Ouch!


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

FurryOne said:


> Here in NY, I had the option of with or without the space, and it makes a difference - so someone else in NY can have TE5LA3.


That is incorrect.
https://nysdmv.custhelp.com/app/ans...registration-documents-or-personalized-plates
_The computer record of your plate number does not contain spaces. So, the registration sticker and registration document do not show the spaces you requested. The spaces and location of the New York State outline on personalized plates are set when the plates are manufactured._

Try it yourself. No matter where you put spaces, or how many spaces you add, it says that "TE5LA3" is taken.
https://transact3.dmv.ny.gov/PlatesPersonalized/


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## Klaus-rf (Mar 6, 2019)

JasonF said:


> What's funny about that isn't so much the space or lack thereof, but the fact that Washington State's DMV looked at New York plates after ones native to the state. I'm sure there are "TESLA3" and "TESLA 3" plates in nearly every single state by now, including California and Oregon. Which means the fact that it chose a plate from New York means their license plate search has an arbitrary order of states it searches in, and New York must be something like the 2nd or 3rd state in that arbitrary order.


 I'm betting they sent a ticket (request for payment) to every state they found a "TESLA3" number plate in. And why not? Someone might just pay it.


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## FurryOne (Apr 19, 2019)

garsh said:


> That is incorrect.
> https://nysdmv.custhelp.com/app/ans...registration-documents-or-personalized-plates
> _The computer record of your plate number does not contain spaces. So, the registration sticker and registration document do not show the spaces you requested. The spaces and location of the New York State outline on personalized plates are set when the plates are manufactured._





> Try it yourself. No matter where you put spaces, or how many spaces you add, it says that "TE5LA3" is taken.
> https://transact3.dmv.ny.gov/PlatesPersonalized/


Oh boy, leave it to the DMV's to screw things up. I stand corrected - unlike the Washington toll collector. In an age of computers, where a single misplaced space can crash a program, the DMV ignore spaces. With my luck, a year for now I'll get stopped and find out that Washington has an arrest warrant out to collect their $3.


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