Louisville woman may lose 37-year-old personalized license plate due to Kentucky's new renewal system

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Since 1987, Debra Humphrey has driven around Louisville with her first name on her license plate. It's been a point of pride for all those years, and Humphrey has kept more than 25 of those personalized plates.

"I know it sounds really strange, but it is important to me," she said Thursday. "I really like it."

Humphrey's father bought her the first plate, and she kept up the tradition. But now, 37 years later, Humphrey may have to give up the plate she's coveted, another problem stemming from Kentucky's new system to renew motor vehicle registrations.

Despite recently getting a new registration sticker, Humphrey said the trouble started when she tried switching the plate to her new car.

"When I took the plate in to get it transferred to a new vehicle, they were having problems and they said somebody else had my name on their plate," she said.

Debra Humphrey has held on to a stack of personalized license plates with her name. (WDRB image from July 11, 2024)

Humphrey said she's been to the clerk's office three separate times trying to get the issue resolved.

"It feels so different not to have it on my newer car," she said.

The state launched KAVIS — it's supposedly new and improved vehicle registration renewal system — in January, and it's caused a slew of problems at local branches throughout the state. Dealerships and drivers have had major delays with registrations and titles, something that now takes weeks and usually took 24-48 hours. And car-buyers are currently waiting up to a month to get their titles.

To deal with the issues, two of Jeffe rson County's motor vehicle branches are closed right now to the public. Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw said the temporary closures are because of a significant backlog of work from dealerships stemming from glitches with KAVIS.

"We are constantly finding things with this new KAVIS system that is making it difficult to renew motor vehicle tags for customers," said Ashley Tinius, director of communications for the Jefferson County Clerk's Office.

The West Branch on Amy Avenue and the downtown Branch on South 5th Street closed starting July 8. They're scheduled to reopen on July 22. During the closures, the 30 employees from those two branches will help resolve the backlog from dealerships. Thursday, Tinius said a lot of progress has been made so far.

Debra Humphrey goes through a stack of personalized license plates she's kept for years. (WDRB image from July 11, 2024)

After the two-week closure, the downtown branch will reopen on limited hours — from 8:30 a.m. to noon — with employees continuing to handle the backlog in the afternoons.

Tinius said there several types of specialty plates in Kentucky, and, under the old AVIS system, as long as the plate was a different style, people could have the same combination of letters and numbers.

"Previously, if you had a different style of plate than someone else, you could have the same combination of letters and numbers," said Tinius.

But KAVIS changed that.

"In this case, 'DEBRA' was issued to a UofL plate and a Kentucky Horse Council plate," Tinius said. "That was OK in AVIS, but, with the new KAVIS system, you can not have the same letter combination, word combination."

The clerk's office said it's doing the best it can with the hand that's been dealt. But these types of issues go beyond just Humphrey's case.

"Even with the regular state of Kentucky plates, we're finding that there's still issues," Tinius said. "Even the non-specialty plates, you're getting kicked out of the system."

In the meantime, Humphrey's old plates are in a bag inside her car and the plate on her new car is a random combination of letters and numbers, instead of 'DEBRA' like she wants.

"I hope they can work it out to where everybody gets satisfied," said Humphrey.

Tinius said the office is working with licensing officials in Frankfort to figure out Humphrey's case. She said Holsclaw will speak to a transportation committee next week in Frankfort about KAVIS.

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