Q: Dear Honk: The steam is flowing, and I can’t get this out of my head! Mind you, I have known several people who have used the great states of Arizona and Oregon to register their vehicles. I have reasoned this out thinking that if our state’s registration fees were more reasonable, there would be a lot less scamming going on. But then last weekend happened. I was driving south on the 405 Freeway near the Harbor Boulevard exit in Costa Mesa when I noticed a parade of five, six large Amazon delivery vehicles all with Oregon “apportioned” license plates. Two days later, I received an Amazon delivery at my house in Cypress. The delivery truck had an Oregon plate on it! Now, if I am paying my outrageous registration fees for my two old vehicles, it seems to me that Amazon should be made to do the right thing. Honk, please tell me if I need to “let it go,” and I’ll try to cool down!
– Marcia Ball, Cypress
A: Vehicles with “apportioned” on the plate are in the International Registration Plan, which all states in the Lower 48 participate in, along with parts of Canada, for qualifying commercial vehicles doing business in more than one state.
If you look around for those plates, you will see plenty out there in the asphalt jungle.
The program is for the bigger trucks; smaller ones might be exempt, and even the larger ones might be as well at times.
Honk largely detests quoting from websites; it seems lazy. But the California Department of Motor Vehicles does a fine job of explaining how the plan works on its site, so why should he get in the way?
“If an interstate vehicle operates 50% of its total mileage in California and 50% of its total mileage in Nevada, that vehicle is assessed 50% of the registration fees in each state (rather than paying the full amount in each state),” the DMV explains. “The fees for all of the jurisdictions where the vehicle operates are processed through (the) IRP Clearinghouse by your base jurisdiction (company headquarters).”
The vehicles can use an apportioned plate for more than one other state, and the owners must allow their books to be inspected.
HONKIN’ FACT: It is a 3,022-mile drive from Honk’s house to Josiah Bartlett‘s still-standing abode in New Hampshire, according to Google Maps. Honk is a descendant, eight steps down, from Bartlett, who was the second signer of the Declaration of Independence. Someday, Honk will make it back there, but odds are great he will forego the 44-hour drive for a flight.
HONKIN’ UPDATE: Since January 2018 to now, more than $17.8 million has been collected by the Registration Enforcement and Guidance Program, said Jaime Coffee, a California Highway Patrol spokesperson. Via its web page, Honk explained a couple of weeks ago, anonymous tipsters can provide leads on those who wrongly display out-of-state license plates.
Because those with expired registration tags on California plates are much easier to catch — via cops’ eyeballs on the road and the DMV database — there is not a similar reporting program to nab them.
To ask Honk questions, reach him at honk@ocregister.com. He only answers those that are published. To see Honk online: ocregister.com/tag/honk. Twitter: @OCRegisterHonk