Apportioned License Plate Placement

[guest]

I don't know what the rules are in other states, but in Texas apportioned trucks are only issued one license plate and it is required to be placed on the front of the vehicle. This means that on a straight truck or van there is no rear license plate. This is sometimes not good, because many of the times that a member of law enforcement wants to take a look at your license plate it is from the rear. If they don't see a plate, they may pull you over just to see what the situation is. The Texas cab card clearly states that there is only one plate and it is required to be on the front of the truck, but now you are on the side of the road wasting time.

To make matters worse, in Texas there is actually a conflict in state law--i.e., there is a statute requiring all vehicles to have a plate on the rear of the vehicle, even though apportioned trucks only get one plate and it is required to be on the front of the truck. If there is a trailer, no problem, because there is a trailer plate, but there is nothing for the backs of straight trucks. Another thing that is kind of comical is that in Texas a truck must have a rear license plate light to get inspected, which is ironic in the case of an apportioned straight truck considering that there is no rear license plate to illuminate.

My response to this problem, which was at the suggestion of the Texas DOT office, is I had a novelty license plate made for the rear of my truck with the word "APPORTIONED" stamped on it in black letters on a white background in the DOT required size and font applicable to other information on the truck. They tell me this has worked well for others, and it has worked well for me so far, but it feels kind of funny back there. What the DOT people told me is that some police officers just think that there should be some kind of plate back there, even if it's not a real one, to which I responded "what if it said 'I'd rather be fishing'?" The DOT fellow said that would be fine, or, he said, maybe if I had a Ford truck I could have a license plate of that little guy peeing on the Chevy emblem. We both laughed and I walked out pretty spooked.

Tax dollars at work.

 

[RichM]

At one time Florida had only one plate which had to go on the front.I was stopped in Boulder Colorado and received a violation for a missing license plate. The Officer would not listen so I appealed the ticket,sent the court a letter and asked them to contact the Fl Dot,which they did and the violation was cancelled. Still cost me time and phone calls.
Now FL has a front and rear plate.

 

[davekc]

We run them on the front on tractors and one in the back on straight trucks. We keep a spare in case the extra is stolen in Brownsville or Laredo. Only stopped one time that I know of. We as well have base plates from Florida. We should sit the spare in the windshield. Not sure if that would suffice or not?

Davekc

 

[x06col]

We had the same problem until I started putting the little instruction thingie for placement of the plate in with the Authorities, permits, cab cards, etc. Just saves some time and BS

 

[guest]

Sounds to me like it might be a good idea to move the front license plate to the rear when I leave Texas and put it back when I get back home.

The Texas DOT made it clear that you only get ONE apportioned plate. I thought about making a color photocopy of it and laminating it and putting it in the rear, but that would, of course, be a counterfeit license plate, which would be a crime, so maybe I won't do that.

 

[Doggie Daddy]

in ohio,it is just the opposite, the plate(one) must be displayed on the rear of a straight truck.we have only been questioned about it a few times,and that was at the U.S./CAN border.just as x06col,we keep the instuction paper for placement with our permits.DD.