- Associated Press - Saturday, September 28, 2019

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) - Never underestimate the appeal of a simple license plate design.

Or maybe more accurately, the public’s dislike for the alternative. Or perhaps an owner’s desire to color-coordinate plates with his or her vehicle.

Whatever the reason, Iowans are smitten with their newest specialty license plate option, the blackout plate. The basic design — white numbers and letters on a black background — has been flying off the shelves in county treasurer’s offices across the state. Some counties ran out of them last week, and suppliers are struggling to keep up with the demand for the materials needed to produce them at the Anamosa State Penitentiary.

“I’ve never seen any kind of plate that’s garnered this much attention. We’ve gone through probably close to 200 in the last week and a half,” Woodbury County Treasurer Mike Clayton told the Sioux City Journal .

Approved by the Legislature in May, the plates became available July 1, but could only be ordered online until Sept. 3, when Iowans could begin to buy them at their local county treasurer’s office.

Sioux County Treasurer Randy Jacobsma thought he’d be safe when ordering 100 sets of the plates.

“We ordered probably more than we thought we’d need,” he said.

Only a short time later, they were half gone, and Jacobsma had ordered more.

“They’ve been extremely popular here. We have a lot of people switching out their plates for the blackout plate,” he said.

The Iowa Department of Transportation reports that 17,500 sets had been issued as of Sept. 10. Of the 75 specialty plate designs available to the public, and another 10 that aren’t, the blackout plate has become the third best-selling specialty plate in just a matter of weeks. Only the University of Iowa plate (31,000) and Iowa State University plate (20,000) are more popular. Both have been around for years.

“It’s kind of an unprecedented demand, and it’s kind of a neat thing,” Daniel Yeh, manager of vehicle services at the IDOT, said of the blackout plate’s instant popularity.

What’s the appeal?

Jacobsma said owners like how the plates look on their black or white vehicles.

And they don’t like the look of the current plate, no matter the color of their vehicle, Clayton said. Iowa last year began phasing out the old blue-and-white plates with an updated version that added a green strip in a grass-like pattern along the bottom.

“A lot of the comments I’ve gotten is people don’t like the new plate design,” Clayton said. “Very few people like them, and that’s why (the blackout plates are) popular.”

And legislators had noticed the popularity of a similar plate. Dordt University specialty plates featured the same white-on-black color scheme, and it had become well known that vehicle owners with no connection to the Sioux Center college were buying the plates and putting black tape over the Dordt reference. Legislators figured if it was so popular, why not offer a regular plate that didn’t have to be doctored?

“It’s really just a look that people like,” Yeh said.

IDOT officials like the plate’s impact on state coffers. Blackout plates with the regular number-letter combination are $35, plus an annual $10 fee. Personalized versions cost $60, with a $15 annual fee. Through the end of August, before their availability at county courthouses led to a surge in sales, the plates had generated $500,000 in revenue for the state’s Road Use Tax Fund, which pays for state, county and city road and bridge projects throughout Iowa.

The state’s roads likely will continue to benefit. Clayton said last week that Woodbury County still had 100 plates in stock, with more on order to meet the expected demand of owners who want to switch over to the blackout plate with the regular number-letter combination. Personalized versions must be ordered online.

Yeh said the plates should be restocked across the state this week. How long sales remain brisk is hard to tell, just as it’s difficult to say exactly why the plate has become so popular.

“We just think that it looks cool,” Yeh said. “If people think it looks cool and they want to purchase them, we’re happy to offer it.”

People are happy with it all right. The proof is there in black and white.

___

Information from: Sioux City Journal, http://www.siouxcityjournal.com

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