Aluminum shortage leads to license plate road rage at Nebraska DMVs

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) - An aluminum shortage is leading to a shortage of license plates for some Nebraska residents, leading to anger directed at local DMVs.

Due to the pandemic, the amount of aluminum on the market went down, and earlier this year the state of Nebraska was having trouble obtaining the amount of aluminum needed to produce all of the license plates that each county would need for the entire year.

Generally the state produces license plates a year ahead of when they are distributed to drivers, however, with the shortage this made it impossible for Nebraska to stock all of their DMVs with the necessary plates.

For the affected counties such as Gage, Dodge, Saunders, Madison, Hall, Buffalo, Platte, Adams, Lincoln, Dawson, Cass, Scotts Bluff, Washington, the amount of plates each county would need for three months was delivered in December, and then resupplied in March.

This led to not all plate number variations being available, with led to some being very upset that they were unable to obtain the same plate number when turning in expired plates.

There is no state law requiring that new plates need to match expired plates.

There were delays for people who ordered personalized license plates, however, these were short and resolved quickly.

The supply of aluminum has started to increase again. With this, the state of Nebraska has ordered license plates for the next six years for each county, so that if a shortage arises in the future the public will not be effected.

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