License plate law changes time to get new tag

In January, Mason Treat was pulled over due to a lack of a license plate by Canadian County Deputy Jose Tayahua-Mendoza. While he had all the proper documentation, he didn’t have a tag due to state law requiring private sellers to maintain possession.

While stopped, a driver of a pickup truck hauling a trailer of steel fell asleep, veered off the side of the road and hit Treat and Tayahua-Mendoza, severely injuring both.

On September 1, the Oklahoma legislature passed a law reducing the length of time drivers can use temporary paper tags, according to a press release.

Nancy Davidson, Motor Leasing Agent at Lawton-Ft. Sill Tag Agency, said if a customer buys a vehicle from a dealership, the tag agency will send an email saying the temporary tag is coming in the mail.

“If you buy a vehicle after Sept. 1 from a dealership, they have two days to report that sale to us,” Davidson said. “We have to mail them a plate or they keep their old plate, but we mail them red stickers. In that case, we have 10 days to do that, so they’re going to have a temporary tag on their vehicle. They get to ride on that tag for 60 days. Before that time, they need to come in and transfer it into their name.”

The new law helps to eliminate the time a paper tag is “flapping around on a car,” Vanessa Friedrich, Office Manager of the tag agency said. 

“It also helps the toll people because before, with the paper tag, they didn’t know who’s running that toll,” Davidson said. “Now they do.”

With this new law, Davidson said it doesn’t affect how they’ve done business. 

“They used to have 30 days to transfer it, now they have 60 days,” Davidson said. “It’s been that way since November of last year. So really it doesn’t affect them other than they’re getting an email.”

People are confused nonetheless.

“People, for one, don’t know that you can keep your tag from a previously owned vehicle,” Davidson said. “They still don’t know that, and that’s been in effect for a while. They have to tell the dealership that when the dealership supplies that information to us. They have to relate that to us or we don’t know, and we would be giving them a new hard plate. A lot of customers are mad about that because they had some that was left on their tag where they’ve already paid for it. They don’t want another tag.”

For more information about the law, go to readysettag.com.