Why doesn't the postman have a license plate?
Elliott Plack, USAR
They do have numbers but if one ever hit you and sped away, you might
not see them and then you'd be screwed, as they all look the same.
Shouldn't they have US Gov't tags? Other gov't agencies have tags, so
why don't they?
richard_l_...@yahoo.com
they used to have plates. On the other hand some states, New York
for example, don't require license plates for police or fire vehicles.
Larry Harvilla
As for police vehicles, I can say what two states do for sure: Michigan
does require plates on its police vehicles, though they are of a
different design for each of the State Police, county sheriff, and
municipal police levels of law enforcement. Ohio requires plates for its
municipal police departments and county sheriffs (the sheriff plate
features a yellow Ohio silhouette with the county's number (ordered
alphabetically -- 1. Adams, 88. Wyandot, etc.) in red inside it, and the
vehicle's unit number is the "plate number"). However, the State Highway
Patrol is apparently not required to display "real" plates; they do
carry what look like plates, but all these say is "NEED HELP?
1-877-7-PATROL", the OSHP's statewide dispatch number.
--
Larry Harvilla
E-mail: roads AT phatpage DOT org
also visit: http://www.phatpage.org/
Highways section in progress.
Steve
Umm, those numbers are larger than license plate numbers.
--
Steve Alpert
MIT - Civil Engineering '05, MST '07 (Transportation)
Michael G. Koerner
>
> richard_l_...@yahoo.com wrote:
> > I will take a closer look at the postal vehicles in our area, but
> > they used to have plates. On the other hand some states, New York
> > for example, don't require license plates for police or fire vehicles.
>
> As for police vehicles, I can say what two states do for sure: Michigan
> does require plates on its police vehicles, though they are of a
> different design for each of the State Police, county sheriff, and
> municipal police levels of law enforcement. Ohio requires plates for its
> municipal police departments and county sheriffs (the sheriff plate
> features a yellow Ohio silhouette with the county's number (ordered
> alphabetically -- 1. Adams, 88. Wyandot, etc.) in red inside it, and the
> vehicle's unit number is the "plate number"). However, the State Highway
> Patrol is apparently not required to display "real" plates; they do
> carry what look like plates, but all these say is "NEED HELP?
> 1-877-7-PATROL", the OSHP's statewide dispatch number.
Marked police vehicles in Wisconsin, regardless of type (car, truck,
bus, etc), all carry plates with a 'star' followed by four numbers or a
letter and three numbers. State Patrol cars have their own series of
plates. Unmarked police cars use regular car plates. Also, police
vehicles used by the state's Indian tribes carry plates issued by the
Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs ('US Government').
OTOH, being a Federal agency, I assume that the Post Office's vehicles
don't have plates in much the same manner that military vehicles don't
have plates.
--
___________________________________________ ____ _______________
Regards, | |\ ____
| | | | |\
Michael G. Koerner May they | | | | | | rise again!
Appleton, Wisconsin USA | | | | | |
___________________________________________ | | | | | | _______________
Jay Maynard
> richard_l_...@yahoo.com wrote:
>> On the other hand some states, New York for example, don't require
>> license plates for police or fire vehicles.
Texas requires emergency vehicles to carry standard exempt vehicle plates
(for those owned by governments or tax-exempt organizations; commercial
ambulances carry regular truck plates). Minnesota uses plates with POLICE or
SHERIFF, as appropriate, for police/sheriff cars, and a screened plate with
the state outline and "STATE POLICE", IIRC, for the highway patrol. Fire and
EMS vehicles get exempt plates.
Aside: I wonder what Texas will do when it runs off the end of the exempt
plate series. Texas exempt plates are 6 digits, with 9nnnnn reserved for
trailers, semi-tractors, machinery, and other special vehicles, and they're
well into the 8nnnnn range for regular vehicles now.
Rich Carlson, N9JIG
does each state law enforcement agency (State Police, SOS Police, ICC
Police, DNR Police etc.) have it's own plate series based on the radio
call number of the officer, now they are issuing separate plates for
Sheriff's Police (using the number assigned to each county
alphabetically) and then 1 to 4 digits. Now they even have Municipal
Police plates, as an option for local police agencies. Prior to these
issues local and county police had "M" plates issued to Municipal and
County owned vehicles.
As for federal vehicles, they are exempt from state licensing
requirements. While the GSA does issue license plates for agencies they
work for, such as DHS, Interior and others, the USPS does not use GSA
for procurement. Each marked postal vehicle will have a USPS assigned
number in blue sans-serif font on it that indicates the year it was
purchased as well as it's unique identifier. IIRC the first digit of the
number is the last digit of the year it was purchased. Thus a number of
123456789 would indicate the vehicle was purchased in 2001 or possible
1991.
This numbering system is used only for marked USPS vehicles. Leased,
contracted or special use vehicles (Postal Inspectors etc.) will have
license plates issued by local authorities.
--
Rich Carlson, N9JIG
rich#n9jig*com
Change the # to @ and the * to .
SP Cook
Larry Harvilla wrote:
for police or fire vehicles.
>
> As for police vehicles, I can say what two states do for sure:
Michigan
> does require plates on its police vehicles, though they are of a
> different design for each of the State Police, county sheriff, and
> municipal police levels of law enforcement. Ohio requires plates for
its
> municipal police departments and county sheriffs (the sheriff plate
> features a yellow Ohio silhouette with the county's number (ordered
> alphabetically -- 1. Adams, 88. Wyandot, etc.) in red inside it, and
the
> vehicle's unit number is the "plate number"). However, the State
Highway
> Patrol is apparently not required to display "real" plates; they do
> carry what look like plates, but all these say is "NEED HELP?
> 1-877-7-PATROL", the OSHP's statewide dispatch number.
>
Ohio state cop plates used to read "CB CH 9", back during the CB radio
craze.
In WV, it used to be simple. State police get flat white plates with
black numbers, with the numbering being the cops badge number. All
other state owned vehicles have green plates with white numbers, with
the name of the agency or "State Motor Pool" on the plate. The cars
also got a green and white front plate that read "STATE CAR", even if
the vehicle was not a car. This included all other cops, like weight
enforcement, natural resources, university cops, and so on.
Counties got red w/ white, including county cops. Cities got blue w/
white, including city cops. Volunteer fire departments got white w/
black if the community raised the money for the equipment (if it came
out of state or county money, it got regular state or county plates).
The the state police got new plates that are multi-colored with the
police patch on them and a random number (cuts down on citizen
complaints of bad driving by the random taxers). This made all of the
other cops jealous, so now all cops, except cities, get plates that
have their uniform patch on them.
In my state the cops all buy their wives vanity plates that read "MRS
###" and their parents "### DAD" or "### MOM" with the # being their
badge number, and then put their union sticker on the plate, which acts
as an exemption from the random tax.
SP Cook
SP Cook
Rich Carlson, N9JIG wrote:
> As for federal vehicles, they are exempt from state licensing
> requirements. While the GSA does issue license plates for agencies
they
> work for, such as DHS, Interior and others, the USPS does not use GSA
> for procurement. Each marked postal vehicle will have a USPS assigned
> number in blue sans-serif font on it that indicates the year it was
> purchased as well as it's unique identifier. IIRC the first digit of
the
> number is the last digit of the year it was purchased. Thus a number
of
> 123456789 would indicate the vehicle was purchased in 2001 or
possible
> 1991.
>
> This numbering system is used only for marked USPS vehicles. Leased,
> contracted or special use vehicles (Postal Inspectors etc.) will have
> license plates issued by local authorities.
>
This is correct, for vehicles actually involved in mail delivery.
Vehicles owned by the postal service have the system as described;
vehicles owned by contractors have whatever plates are appropiate, as
these are not government property. BTW, you will always see "US MAIL"
on these contractor vehicles, which is because of the intent
requirement to involke federal jurisdiction. 18-wheelers that haul
mail from town to town have the destination on them, with a code that
is similar to airport codes. For example, I pass a truck that reads
"HCR 245 - GSO - CIN" every day here in WV. That is Highway Contractor
Route # 245 Greensboro to Cincinnati. It has Arkansas plates, which is
where the trucking company w/ the contract is based.
However vehicles used for other purposes get GSA plates with the code
letter "P". These would include upper management's perk cars, Postal
Inspectors not involved in undercover work, and so on. I once saw a
postal service tow truck, towing a broken postal truck, and it has GSA
plates.
The only time states will issue plates to federal government vehicles
is for undercover purposes.
SP Cook