When delivering a vehicle to a buyer — whether driving it from your lot to the buyer’s location or transporting it on a carrier — dealer plates can be used on the vehicle during the delivery process. This is an authorized use of the dealer plate. However, once the vehicle is delivered to the buyer, the dealer plate must be removed. The buyer cannot operate the vehicle on dealer plates — the vehicle must have a TLP (Temporary License Plate) issued through the electronic ROS process.
Some dealers use their own employees to deliver vehicles to buyers’ homes or workplaces. The employee drives the vehicle on dealer plates to the delivery location, hands over the keys and paperwork (including the TLP), attaches the TLP to the vehicle, and removes the dealer plate. This is a legitimate delivery process. What you cannot do is leave the dealer plate on the vehicle and tell the buyer to drive on it until their permanent plates arrive — that’s misuse of dealer plates.