By Robert Kittle
The South Carolina DMV has started issuing new license plates with a much different look from what you’re used to seeing. The state now has almost 400 different plates, all of which are different. The new design uses one template, a white background with black letters and numbers, with the difference being varying emblems on the left side of the plates.
So far, the DMV has issued the new design to all state lawmakers. Last Friday, it started issuing the new design to veterans and those buying specialty plates from colleges and universities. The state’s current “sunrise” plates, the most common, will start being replaced with the new design in 2018.
DMV director Kevin Shwedo says one of the reasons for the new design was complaints from law enforcement groups that they had trouble reading the sunrise plates, especially at night. “I would encourage people, go out tonight and take a look when you’re on the highway at the sunrise plate and tell me after dark how visible those numbers are to you,” he says. “And then take a look at another plate that’s passing by, you’ll find it out there, that has got a black and white background and you will be able to distinctly tell the difference, in terms of being able to read the numbers.”
The other problem he heard from law enforcement was about the fact that South Carolina has nearly 400 different specialty plates, all of which have different designs. “The veteran’s plate is blue. It has a white star on it and it says VT. And the most common misperception there is that it’s a plate from Vermont as opposed to a plate from South Carolina,” Shwedo says.
Veterans designed the new plates for themselves, using the white background and black letters and numbers. Colleges and universities also had a say in designing their new plates.
Twyla Smyth was at the DMV in Columbia Monday to get a new license plate. She likes the new design. “I think it’d be a lot better, ’cause you can read the tags,” she says. “I can’t see a tag that goes by right now, but if it was black and white I could.”
She says that caused a problem once when she was out driving. “This guy just went flying out around us, zigging in and out of traffic. And when I got to the red light, he had done hit another car,” she says. She was going to call the police to report him after he first passed her and started weaving in and out of traffic but she couldn’t read any of his license plate, she says.
The new design will not cost taxpayers any additional money, Shwedo says. The DMV sets side $2 every two years from each license plate so when it’s time to replace it the DMV can do so at no additional cost to drivers or taxpayers.
You can see all the plates the DMV offers and the new designs here.
