Plates

Art_s1 · Jun 8, 2001

Which state do you recommend that I base plate in. I see a lot of trucks with plates for OK, but I wasnt sure. Are there advantages either way? The truck is a 1996 FL 60, with a 16 Ft Box.

geo · Jun 8, 2001

it,s mainly for tax purposes you save in taxes on the truck
if your from a state that has personal property taxes on trucks and cars. i'm from va and it saves me a lot of taxes

RichM · Jun 8, 2001

I along with many others use OK.I live in FL and when I bought my present truck I save about $3700 ,by not having to pay sales taxes. There are a lot of agencies that will do the registration for a fee. I use the Fern Bennet Agency out of Oklahoma City.

ExFedEx · Jun 9, 2001

Good God Rich, didn't you learn about Fern 2 years ago? I switched over to Sel-Way, and after Sel-Way said now they can't help me any more because of Fern's screw up, I have switched over to Truckers Bookeeping Agency, also out of OK. I have been audited by the state of OK & now owe $247 in taxes because I had apportioned plates from Fern & she had me listed as 10,000 lbs when I have a cargo van. I am being taxed for deadhead miles from Ohio to Calif when I first picked up the van. I have no miles in OK so now supposedly I cannot re-register in OK at least as far as apportioned plates go. I am currently appealing the matter. I do have to say, though, that even paying the fine I am still way ahead of where I would be if I had initially registered in Calif.

Fern Bennett has been a two year nightmare that I just cannot wake up from. Try Dana over at Sel-Way Transportation in Ada.
Everybody. Let Fern die on the vine for her screw-ups. She sure has hung a lot of us out to dry.

Eric

mikecop · Jun 10, 2001

I also had problems with Fern Bennett. In 2000 I happened to get a run which took me through Oklahoma City on the last day to renew plates. I stopped at Fern's office, and they couldn't find my file. She sent me to Oklahoma Tax Commission and I got my plate renewed myself, using her office for an Oklahoma address.
This year I went to Sel-Way. They were prompt and efficient. However, they did charge a $450 per year "office space" rental, in addition to the normal charges. You need to make at least one trip into Oklahoma per year to maintain the right to get plates there. Sel-Way's number is 888-909-9500.

There is a nice list of Oklahoma companies which service our needs at http://www.jroman.com/wwwboard/messages/2724.html

Weave · Jun 10, 2001

I use Fern Bennett and agree you really have to watch them! But.. its easy to make a fake trip through OK once a year

You can save money on apportioned plates by only getting the states in which you will travel through frequently. I don't carry many west coast states on my OK plate as I live in NY. If I go into western states that I don't have on my registration I just buy individual trip permits. Saves a little money anyway.

Weave · Jun 10, 2001

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jun-10-01 AT 11:06PM (EDT)[/font][p]Just a silly ques. for Eric- I exclusively run D units but was wondering why you would want an apportioned plate for a cargo van? Vehicles under 26000 lbs gross do not have to have one.
I would think a regular commercial tag for your state would be the cheaper and much easier way to go with a van even if its CA. Let me know what the deal is. Thanks, Weave

ExFedEx · Jun 12, 2001

Weave - When I bought the van they set me up with apportioned plates. In Calif, the sales tax, registration costs, smoke ckeck, DMV fees, all combined are pretty high. By getting apportioned plates in OK I bypassed all those expences. And the weight factor is one of the reasons I am appealling this. Why am I getting audited? I am under 10,000 lbs! When government greed takes control, I guess there is no "open door policy", or union rep you can go to to dispute decisions made by corporate officials. Now there just a big nebulus faceless entity I have to deal with. So I will write one more appeal letter by June 22nd, they will send me one more bill, and then I will probably send them a check.
Oh well, another write off on this years taxes.

Weave · Jun 15, 2001

Now I do understand why you got the apportioned plate, and I have a pretty good idea what OK is getting at, but I'll check with a guy I know who's an approtioned plate guru to be sure, and get back to you. My guess is they are looking at your van as a 10,000 lb truck, which I believe is the minimum GVW they will issue an apportioned plate for. Hence, it comes down to your mileage reporting (or failure to do it) causing the audit, but let me check.
All apportioned plates require annual mileage reports be submitted to the issuing state. OK wants this broken down quarterly. It is the basis of what they will charge you for the registration the second year (and each year after). You must report at least one mile of travel in the state that issues your apportioned plate as it is presumed you live there so they can issue the plate to you. Check back on this string a bit later-
--Weave--

guest · Jun 17, 2001

We also have a "C" truck (26,000#) and have opted for an IRP plate, why? In Michigan where we're plated, we didn't have to pay sales tax, either. We saved about 4 grand on sales tax, but I think the state is getting it back, a little at a time on the fuel tax.

RichM · Jul 7, 2001

I agree about Fern Bennet being a nightmare a couple of years ago.I think she took on a large fleet at the last minute and pushed all of us to the side,however last year I had no problems other then the fact that she wanted a wire tranfser to her bank account.That cost me $38.00 in addition to her normal fee.Her fee was about $80.00 which isn!t bad.I always make several trips through OK so my miles are ok.