I saw a KY plate on a vehicle today that I hadn't seen before, looked to be a new issue. Not being aware of any changes made to them, I looked it up. Like many states, they've decided to turn to a private company to print their plates on flat aluminum, replacing the old school stamped plates that were made in correctional facilities.
The plates will still be made (printed) at the correctional facility, but with modern equipment installed by the private contractor. The state is supposed to save $0.23 per plate ($3.75 vs $3.98) but with additional cost savings due to the reduced need for storage / logistics as the plates can be printed on demand. Cost for personalized plates will drop by a huge margin since there is no manual labor involved in setting up for a custom plate.
Color me unimpressed. With all the design possibilities that come with printed plates, no idea why they went so plain and boring looking. I much prefer the current KY embossed plate with the horse logo, but even that one is a bit plain. Probably going to be stuck with these for a long time, KY doesn't change plates often like other states do (I'm looking at you Indiana.) The last mandatory plate change here was in 2005.
I'm jealous of other states that get great looking plates-- a few that come to mind: NH, AZ, ID, AL, WY, OR, ND, MT, even the new NV plate looks kinda cool.
Image is new plates vs old.
The plates will still be made (printed) at the correctional facility, but with modern equipment installed by the private contractor. The state is supposed to save $0.23 per plate ($3.75 vs $3.98) but with additional cost savings due to the reduced need for storage / logistics as the plates can be printed on demand. Cost for personalized plates will drop by a huge margin since there is no manual labor involved in setting up for a custom plate.
Color me unimpressed. With all the design possibilities that come with printed plates, no idea why they went so plain and boring looking. I much prefer the current KY embossed plate with the horse logo, but even that one is a bit plain. Probably going to be stuck with these for a long time, KY doesn't change plates often like other states do (I'm looking at you Indiana.) The last mandatory plate change here was in 2005.
I'm jealous of other states that get great looking plates-- a few that come to mind: NH, AZ, ID, AL, WY, OR, ND, MT, even the new NV plate looks kinda cool.
Image is new plates vs old.