Driving with temporary license plates will be illegal Jan. 1

Vehicles sold by California licensed dealers and lessor-retailers after January 1, 2019 will be required to display temporary paper license plates or permanent license plates issued by the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

According to the DMV, dealers must print temporary license plates on special paper that meets DMV specifications.

“Every vehicle that is purchased cannot leave with the usual dealer plates, they need to have a temporary plate that will actually have a number that will identify that sale,” general manager of The Car Lot Juan Salinas said.

On Wednesday, the unidentified man who killed Newman Police Officer Ronil Singh was driving a truck with paper plates that read “AR Auto”. The only description was a grey, extended cab Dodge pickup truck.

This law could help police identify vehicles in crimes like this.

“As soon as a police officer pulls you over, and punches the number on your plate it should show up the registration of who bought that vehicle,” Juan Salinas said.

With temporary plates being required, it should help dealerships too.

“For toll violations and parking citations we get a lot of mail of citations to us so we still have dealer plates,” Juan Salinas said. “So we get the tickets, and this law should eliminate this.”

Several other states have temporary license plate programs including Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

The law goes into effect in California January 1.