Vehicles required to be registered with the Department of Licensing (DOL) must display license plates or decals assigned by DOL.
License plates must be:
The Washington State Patrol may grant exceptions to license plate display requirements if the body construction of the vehicle makes compliance impossible.
The display of a single license plate properly attached to a vehicle that has two license plates properly attached may be temporarily obstructed by one or more of the following devices by the cargo the device is carrying:
The display of a single license plate properly attached to a trailer may be obstructed by a device for transporting a forklift used for product delivery purposes. For license plate visibility, the single trailer license plate obstructed by a device for carrying a forklift may be relocated on the trailer or the towing vehicle to a position that is more than four feet from the ground.
For the license plate visibility exception to apply, the device must be installed according to manufacturer specifications or generally accepted installation practices, and the device or cargo the device is carrying must not prevent the license plate from being read from one or more accessible viewing angles when the vehicle is parked, except if the device is a trailer that meets trailer license plate requirements.