Publix shoppers can now renew vehicle registrations in less than two minutes at one of three stores in Hillsborough County offering a self-service kiosk through the tax collector’s office.
Hillsborough County Tax Collector Doug Belden announced the “Florida MV Express” program’s expansion Tuesday morning inside the grocery chain’s Shoppes of Citrus Park location at 7835 Gunn Highway. The bright blue and yellow automated kiosks are also up and running in two other Publix locations: Plant City’s Walden Woods store at 2202 James L Redman Parkway and the Lake Brandon Plaza Publix at 11255 Causeway Blvd.
The kiosks were provided to Hillsborough County free of charge from developers Intellectual Technology Inc., in exchange for the proceeds from a 2.25 percent fee on credit or debit card payments, Belden said. Kiosks inside the tax collector’s branch locations accept cash payments at no additional charge.
Vehicle registration kiosks have long been mainstays in grocery stores in California, Colorado, Hawaii and at least a dozen other states. But bringing the customer service innovation to Florida first required about two years of negotiations with the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, rewrites to state legislation and another year of negotiations with Publix executives, Belden said.
“This is huge for us,” Belden said Tuesday. "Especially as our county continues to grow, we’ve been looking for ways to take the pressure off of our customer service representatives in different ways with emerging and cutting-edge technology. You can’t just keep building more branches.”
Belden’s office became the first agency in Florida to adopt the automated kiosks with a soft launch in early February at four of its busiest tax collector locations: in Brandon, Drew Park, North Tampa and Ruskin.
Since then, those four kiosks have processed more than 20,000 vehicle registrations, Belden said. The three Publix kiosks, only operational for a few days, have already renewed 160 vehicle registrations.

​Belden said he hopes his office can find ways to expand the kiosks’ uses and locations. For now, the kiosks can only renew vehicle registrations for personal vehicles and trailers that don’t require an IRS Heavy Vehicle Use Tax or a new license plate to be issued. They can’t renew registrations for autonomous vehicles, government vehicles, boats, mobile homes, National Guard or personalized license plates and cannot switch to specialty license plates.
It’s a promising start, said Brian West, the supermarket’s Media and Community Relations Manager.
“Hillsborough was the first county in Florida to do this, but for Publix, these are the first stores in our entire footprint to have these kiosks — and we operate in seven states,” West said.
Of all the transactions conducted by the tax collector’s office, renewing vehicle registrations is by far the most common, Director of Branch Operations Dale Hoffman said. The department processes an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 registration renewals a month and more than 1 million a year. And even though the tax collector’s office offers renewals online and by mail, last year about 640,000 renewals were conducted in person at the tax collector’s branch locations.
On average, fewer than 50 employees work through 1,000 customers a day at any one of the agency’s satellite locations, Hoffman said.
“We’re excited because we’re always working to streamline things, reduce wait times and get people in and out of our offices more effectively and efficiently,” Belden said. “This is a huge step forward in this public-private partnership and if it’s is a success, this has the potential, like in other states, to be all over the place.”
Unlike the online renewal process, which can take several days for processing, the new kiosks allow customers to walk away with a new registration card and license plate sticker in less than two minutes, Belden said.
Similar to ATMs, the self-serve kiosks feature large touch screens with easy-to-follow prompts in both English and Spanish. Customers only need proof of insurance and their renewal notice or most recent vehicle registration card to complete the transaction and can pay the renewal fee and any applicable late fees with cash or by debit or credit card.
Customers can use the kiosks to process renewals up to three months early, or pay a late fee if their current registration is expired. The kiosk won’t renew vehicle registrations for customers with outstanding insurance, driver’s license or toll violations, said Nancy Millan, the office’s director of community relations.
Now that the groundwork is laid, the Polk County Tax Collector’s office has already introduced kiosks to its Davenport and Lakeland branch locations.
In the Citrus Park grocery store, the new kiosk fit perfectly in a row with a Florida Lottery vending machine, an ATM, kiosks for coin counting and check cashing and a Redbox movie rental machine.
It’s just the latest in an arsenal of add-ons the supermarket uses to attract customers, West said. In Citrus Park, shoppers can take cooking classes, pick up prescriptions at a drive-thru pharmacy window and video conference with physicians across the country using the store’s “Walk-In Care” telemedicine kiosks.
“The grocery store industry is one of the most competitive in the world,” West said. “So anything that might provide an extra service for our customers is just one more reason why they should come back he next time they need to pick up groceries.”
Officials said the machines are as secure as ATMs, fully encrypting transmitted data and, like the tax collector’s branch offices, immediately deleting personal data from its memory.

The Endless Summer specialty plate is on track to get close to $2 million in 2019, having already raised $1,800,300.00 through November 30, 2019. The total for 2018 was $1,770,000.00.
So far in 2019, Helping Sea Turtles has raised $1,659,864.00, UF $1,925,350.00 and FSU $1,495,875.00. Miami Heat has raised $1,022,950. The total for the Heat in 2018 was $959,475.00. Tampa Bay Bucs has raised $794,175.00
In addition to those mentioned above, other plates that raised more than $50,000 in the month of November, 2019 include Protect the Manatee ($77,950.00), Save our Seas ($76,325.00), Protect the Panther ($75,300.00), Protect Wild Dolphins ($70,400.00), Protect our Reefs ($65,225.00), Protect our Oceans ($62,900.00), Marine Corps ($60,360.00), UCF ($54,625.00) UM ($51,325.00) and Fish Florida ($52,998.00).

​All the plates making less than $1,000 in November 2019 were college plates: Saint Leo University ($925.00), Southeastern University ($900.00), Ringling School of Art & Design ($825.00), Eckerd College ($675.00), Florida College ($675.00), Palm Beach Atlantic University ($550.00), Keiser University ($500.00), Warner Southern ($250.00), Lynn University ($150.00), Saint Thomas University ($150.00) and Florida Hospital College ($100.00).

​December 8, 2019 marks the 39th anniversary of the tragic death of John Lennon and his legacy continues to live on.  The California Association of Food Banks (CAFB)are continuing their effort to create the “Imagine No Hunger” special license plate and nearing the deadline to submit 7,500 registrations to the DMV prior to a January 4th 2020 deadline. In order to complete the process, the CAFB is celebrating the week of December 8th in remembrance of John by providing the opportunity to sign up for the license plate for free, available online at https://californiaimagine.com.
Yoko Ono Lennon kindly authorized the use of the iconic self-portrait image of John Lennon to help the California Association of Food Banks in their ongoing fight to end hunger in California and has stated: “Imagine is a great word to spread around and I was happy to do this because it is helping a very important charity." The California Department of Social Services has sponsored the application on behalf of the CAFB.

​The plate is already on sale in Florida. Michael Towner, CEO of Iconic Legacy states: “The ‘Imagine’ license plate in Florida has already raised over $4.2 million for programs to help end hunger in Florida.” The Florida license plate can be purchased online at https://imagineplate.com/order.html   
The effort in California is facing a looming deadline in January 2020 to complete the presell before the plate will be created by the Department of Motor Vehicles. According to DMV statistics, California’s relatively new black ‘Legacy’ license plate raised over $50 million in 2017-2018 and provides funding for environmental programs.
Nearly 1 in 8 households face food insecurity in California. For the 6.5 million Californians struggling with food insecurity, hard choices must be made between buying food and meeting such basic needs as housing, medicine, transportation, or childcare. 
“Every person driving behind someone with an Imagine license plate will know that person is leading the way to a California absent from hunger,” states Mark Lowry, Director, CAPOC's Orange County Food Bank (www.capoc.org).
New streaming statistics reveal for the first time how the Beatles is appealing to a younger audience. The 1960s group has had 1.7 billion Spotify streams this year so far. The age-group streaming the music is not the baby boomers that fueled Beatlemania, but rather, two generations removed, including many teenagers.
More information, and reserve a license plate now at: https://californiaimagine.com/freeplate/.
Twitter: @hungerCA @CaliforniaDSS @CAFoodBanks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imaginenohungercalifornia/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imaginenohunger/?hl=en
 
MEDIA CONTACTS only:
Michael Towner
Iconic Legacy
(424) 346-3467
[email protected]
[email protected]
MULTIMEDIA/IMAGES /AUDIO(PRESS KIT):
https://www.imagineca.com/press-kit.html
 https://youtu.be/0SiIQjjZlRE
 ###

​The Tennessee Department of Revenue is now added functionality to their website to offer Tennesseans the ability to apply for a personalized license plate online, rather than through a paper application. 
The online application, available at personalizedplates.revenue.tn.gov, allows residents to select from more than 100 types of Tennessee license plates that are available to personalize. After selecting their plate design, customers then type in their desired configuration on their plate. They will know immediately if the configuration is available, based on a red or green box that will appear around the plate.
Customers can pay the $35 personalized plate application fee online, and later pick up their plate at their local county clerk’s office. Additional fees will apply at the county clerk’s office when a customer picks up the plate. Specialty plates also require an additional $35 fee.
The Department partnered with Business Information Systems (BIS) on the online personalized plate application. The Piney Flats, Tenn., based company also developed the Department’s Vehicle Title and Registration System, and it supports technology across all Tennessee county clerk offices.
There are more than 56,000 personalized plates on Tennessee roads. The $35 personalization fee helps support the Tennessee Arts Commission.

​The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is making major progress toward introducing a modernized license plate manufacturing process in late 2020 after entering into a recent agreement with Intellectual Technologies Inc. Unlike current license plates embossed with raised letters and numbers, the new plates will be flat and printed digitally, reducing the production costs of bulk manufacturing, storage space and unused inventory.
The background graphics and pricing for standard and special license plates will remain the same.
“This new process will modernize outdated technology and make the license plate issuance process more efficient for all stakeholders and vehicle owners,” said Department of Vehicle Regulation Commissioner Matt Henderson. “We are excited to have a vendor on board to make this initiative a reality next year.”
Newer plates will gradually replace older license plates that have lost their reflectivity, making them easier to read by humans and electronic tolling devices. Motorists will continue to visit their local county clerk’s office to register their vehicle and leave the office with a new standard license plate featuring a new alphanumeric combination.
Using an “oldest first” approach, in late 2020 vehicle owners with license plates older than eight years will be part of the first phase of drivers offered the new plates when renewing registration. This is expected to take up to one year to complete. In year two, all other drivers will be offered the new plate design. Once a motorist receives a new plate, a sticker will be given during the annual registration visit until it is time to renew their plates again in five to seven years.
Under the current process, the state must account, store and handle over 300 license plate types at over 145 locations and two warehouses. The new process will eliminate the burdensome storage of multiple plate types at warehouses. This will save the cabinet production costs by only printing and producing standard and specialty license plates that are needed instead of mass production.
Kentucky Correctional Industries will continue to manufacture the license plates, print the requested amount and ship them directly to county clerk offices.

​The apple of Washington's agricultural eye may soon adorn thousands of cars across the state.
The Washington Apple Commission is proposing a specialty license plate to celebrate Washington apples. Apples are the state’s leading agricultural commodity, the commission says. Buying the new license plate would support the Washington Apple Education Foundation, which mentors and gives scholarship training to college-bound young people from farmworker families. 
“Funds generated through tis endeavor will help driven students from tree fruit communities attend college and successfully graduate with a career plan,” says WAEF Executive Director Jennifer Witherbee said in a statement.
State Sen. Brad Hawkins (R), who represents Chelan, Douglas, Grant and Okanogan counties, will be introducing the bill to legislation in January. “I’m a big supporter of Washington apples and believe this bill will bring awareness to the industry and help raise money for local scholarships," the senator said.
The design would need 3,500 signatures of support in order to be considered. Funds would send ag-industry students to college.