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Committee advances bill to create driveaway plates for vehicle‑transport businesses
Summary
House Bill 188 would authorize "driveaway" plates that stay with a transport company to reduce legal ambiguity and lower insurance costs for businesses that move vehicles before title transfer; sponsors said the change will help keep a driveway business in the state.
Representative Robert Duvall told the committee House Bill 188 would authorize driveaway plates for companies that transport vehicles before the title transfers. He said unclear law and insurance rules have driven at least one Kentucky company out of business. "One driveway company in Warren County had to go out of business in April 2024 due to a deficiency in Kentucky law," Duvall said, and he told the committee carriers and insurers quoted substantially higher premiums under current statute.
Duvall cited insurance figures supplied by a business owner: premiums of about $300,000 per year in Kentucky compared with roughly $120,000 a year in surrounding states. He said the bill lets driveaway companies define the maximum number of vehicles they will transport at any given time and buy plates to match that number, which he said should reduce insurer exposure and lower premiums.
Committee members asked clarifying questions about how the plates are used. Senator Wilson described the operational practice: the plate is assigned to the business, applied to a vehicle for the transport trip, then removed and reused. Committee members also discussed a committee substitute that shifts the administrative responsibility for issuing the plates; Representative Duvall said the Transportation Cabinet and the Motor Vehicle Commission language was adjusted so the cabinet would handle issuance per the substitute.
The committee adopted the substitute and reported House Bill 188 favorably with the committee substitute attached.
