LEXINGTON, Ky. — The state of Kentucky is modernizing its vehicle information database at the beginning of the new year. Starting Jan. 1, 2024, plate renewal services at all county clerk offices will be suspended, to allow the state to switch to the Kentucky Automated Vehicle Information System or KAVIS.
Fayette County Clerk Susan Lamb has a message for residents with plates expiring in December.
“I am urging anybody who has their taxes due in December or even months prior, I urge people to come in on or before the 22nd of December,” Lamb said.
Lamb says this will give clerks time to process renewals as the state transitions from Automated Vehicle Information System (AVIS) to the Kentucky Automated Vehicle Information System.
As early as Dec. 29, clerk offices across the state will pause motor and vessel related renewal services, with all county clerks’ offices being out of commission on Jan. 1, 2024 to transfer over 350 million records from system to system.
“When you are getting ready to migrate that many records to a new system, everything has to go down completely,” Lamb said.
Lamb says most people renew their registrations online or via mail.
“In the month of November, we have processed 6,763 mail-in registrations and 4,855 web renewals,” Lamb said.
Anyone who wishes to renew online should do so as soon as possible, as online renewal will be suspended Thursday Dec. 28. Lamb says residents won’t notice much of a difference but says the KAVIS system will streamline operations for clerk staff compared to AVIS.
“It runs real slow at times and most of the times when we have a line here it’s because the AVIS system is running real slow,” Lamb said.
The statewide outage will only affect anyone buying, selling or renewing a vehicle in the state of Kentucky.
“It’s important to note the system change will not impact the issuance of driver’s licenses at the Driver’s Licensing Regional Offices,” said Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky.
If all goes smoothly, Lamb says operations will resume at her office on Jan. 11, 2024 and will reopen to the public Jan. 16, 2024.
“We are going to have to take time to process all of those; we’ll have about nine days of mail which can be anywhere from 300-800 transactions that we get in each of those days,” Lamb said.
Renewal services should be renewed within four to 10 business days after Jan. 1, 2024.
The clerk’s office says other services, including the election office and land records office, will be open.