In another sign of the apocalypse, letters and numbers are peeling off our license plates.
DMV used to send replacements after 10 years
When an email arrives with “Possible Pulitzer Prize story” in the subject line, I should probably take a look.
The sender was Jill Jeka of Muskego. She has noticed that letters and numbers are peeling off some Wisconsin license plates. And she suggested “an expose that will blow the lid off the quality control department of the Wisconsin License Plate Making Bureau.”
If that is their real name, and it probably isn't.
I'm all for blowing the lid off a big story, so I started watching for license plates shedding their skin like a lizard. Tipster Jeka is correct. I've spotted these deficient plates in traffic and in parking lots.
To be fair to the bureau of whatever, most plates you see look just fine. That doesn't sound very Pulitzer-worthy, so this story will focus on the bad plates out there and try to toss around some blame.
In the past, you could always count on your Wisconsin license plates, right? The numbers and letters would stay put and resist peeling. There's an old Buick covered in a tarp and parked forever in a driveway in my neighborhood. The 1970s-era front plate is exposed and it looks absolutely fine after 40 some years.
Meanwhile, the front and rear plates on Patricia Patterson's 2007 Infiniti are a mess. I didn't have to go far to find this example. Patterson works in finance and billing at the Journal Sentinel and parks in the same lot as I do.
Why do bad license plates happen to good people? I had to find out. Patterson has had the same plates for maybe 10 years, and the car does not sleep in a garage at night. These may be risk factors.
What about car washes? Can we blame the
soap and brushes? She gets the car washed maybe once a month.
The plates began peeling in the past year or two. So far, police have not stopped her for unreadable digits, but someone I know tells me his wife was ticketed for this offense.
“People tell me, ‘You need to get new plates.’ I probably should, but it’s a whole ordeal to go to the DMV,” Patterson said.
I happen to have a reliable source at the DMV. Jeremy Krueger is section chief of the plate room. He and I talked in 2016 when the state was running out of license plate numbers and getting ready to switch to a seven-character plate.
What’s peeling off, he said, is the reflective sheeting applied to the plates. And, if you’re wondering, yes, prison inmates still make our plates.
“That chipping is the sheeting starting to give way to the elements. Once the salt and other materials find their way in between the sheeting and aluminum, the sheeting will start to crack or peel,” Krueger said.
The black paint for the letters and numbers is applied over the sheeting, so when the sheeting peels so does the paint. The sheeting has been used since the late 1960s, but the DMV now is seeing a higher volume of peeling plates. Delaminating is the fancier word.
Here’s the thing. There used to be an automatic replacement program for Wisconsin license plates on the road for about 10 years. New plates would be mailed out.
“With that program removed, the oldest auto plates on the road today are 19 years old,” Krueger said. “Luckily, replacing a plate is easy through the DMV. You can do it through the mail, at your local DMV service center or online.”
It’s $4 for a new set of regular auto plates, and you’ll get a new license number. Old numbers are not reissued. Also, you will get nicked for a convenience fee if you use a credit card or a counter service fee if you show up in person.
You know, maybe the Wisconsin DMV should replace the plates for free. That’s what New York and Illinois did after this same problem occurred there.
Now about that Pulitzer Prize ...