Why California Has Same-Sized Auto Plates

This responds to a letter from Mary Schwartz (July 24) on the subject of license plates.

Schwartz questions why license plates for the front and back of the car are not of different sizes. California is a member of the American Assn. of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), which establishes various policies to provide uniformity throughout the United States. California, along with the other 49 states, has adopted uniform license plate dimensions (12 by 6 inches).

Providing different size license plates for the front and back of the vehicle would not be a cost-effective deterrent to license plate theft. The cost to retool the present license plate manufacturing equipment to make different sized license plates would be costly and require setting the die twice for each license plate configuration produced.

At present, the cost of various types of substitute license plates is between $7 and $12. These fees cover only the cost of producing the license plates and processing the application. Any increase in the cost would necessarily be passed on to the motoring public.

Additionally, there is no advantage for a perpetrator to steal and display the front license plate on a vehicle. The rear license plate carries the validation devices (month and year stickers), which law enforcement routinely checks while on patrol.

Schwartz’s letter also questions the need for reporting a missing license plate or applying for a duplicate if one plate is missing. The California Highway Patrol issued approximately 60,000 citations in 1985 for violations of failure to display or improper display of license plates.

ALVIN J. LIVINGSTON

Sacramento

Livingston is deputy director of the Department of Motor Vehicles.