​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.

​Friends of Shelby Park and Bottoms hopes to create a specialty Tennessee license plate celebrating East Nashville and the park. To do so, the nonprofit needs to secure more than 1,000 pre-orders for the plate — featuring a Friends of Shelby Park and Bottoms logo and golf, hiking, baseball and kite symbols to represent park activities — by December 2019, the group said in a press release. The plate also has the words "East Nashville" on the bottom, with the "I" dotted with a tomato, a nod the East Nashville's annual Tomato Art Fest, which happens this weekend. The organization will have a booth set up at the festival Saturday where people can pre-order the plate. Tennessee motorists also can pre-order through the organization's website, FriendsOfShelby.org. If group fails to get the 1,000 pre-orders needed, the $35 fee will be turned over to Friends of Shelby Park and Bottoms as a donation. "We are excited for our friends and East Nashville neighbors to sign up for the specialty license plate, which represents the community and Shelby Park, and gives East Nashvillians a way to showcase their local pride while supporting meaningful, long-term improvements in the park," said Paul Hoffmann, president of Friends of Shelby Park and Bottoms.  The state legislature also has to approve the plate, and the group says it plans to approach legislators from the Nashville area in January to ask them to sponsor the effort.

​Nashville, Tenn - In 2016, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or MADD, lost their specialty license plates after not enough of the plates sold to meet the required minimum to keep them in circulation. Now, Sen. Paul Bailey has granted the plate another chance. If MADD can pre-sell 1,000 plates before June 30 of 2019, the design will be put back into circulation.According to MADD Tennessee, the license plates not only raise awareness of the issues of drunk driving, but the proceeds received from each plate help fund the MADD victim services program, providing help to those who have been affected by impaired driving. The specialty plate costs an extra $35 each year.
If you are interested in pre-ordering a plate, visit tnmaddplates.com.

Ever wanted to use your car to show off your love of Dolly Parton? Well, you may want to move to Tennessee, if you haven’t already. The country legend is featured on the state’s new specialty license plates, which feature Parton’s image. For the low cost of $35, fans can get their own limited edition plate for their personal vehicle. The funds raised from the sale of these plates go towards Parton’s Imagination Library, a Tennessee-based nonprofit organization that promotes early childhood literacy by giving free age-appropriate books to children.