Starting July 1 in Texas, paper license plates will be no more. They will now be a thing of the past when buying a vehicle.

House Bill 718 makes it mandatory for car dealerships to issue metal plates upfront before a vehicle is driven off the lot.

"It will be a trial and error type process," General Manager of Mercedes-Benz of San Juan and Vice President of the Valley Automobile Dealers Association Samuel Tijerina said.

When buying a new car, the dealer will provide buyers with a metal license plate, except when it comes to trade-ins.

"The license plate of the trade-ins will stay with the vehicle," Tijerina said. "Those old plates need to be locked away and stored until the pre-owned vehicle gets resold."

Tijerina says the dealership designated a secure room to store the license plates. They've already ordered some ahead of July 1.

"Imagine a mom and pop that doesn't have that extra space, that doesn't have the means to invest in that," Tijerina said.

And if a dealership runs out of metal plates, four different types of color coded temporary metal plates will be given out.

A temporary plate can be issued for an out-of-state buyer or if you want to take a car for a test drive.

"That little extra step the car dealership has to go through because of the change in the new house bill will go a long way to help safeguard the communities in the Valley," Elsa Police Chief Robert McGinnis said.

McGinnis says the new law will help take fraudulent paper plates off the streets.

"I know of several investigations going on as we speak for people who are selling fictitious temporary plates, and it's a problem," McGinnis said.

So far this week, McGinnis says there were two traffic stops where drivers were issued citations for fake paper plates.

He says many times they are used during criminal activity like robberies, thefts and human smuggling cases.

"[The new law] makes it more difficult for the counterfeiting of those paper plates, it's a win for law enforcement," McGinnis said.

House Bill 718 makes an exception for personal plates. If you are trading in your vehicle, you will get to keep your personal plates.

For more information on the new law, click here.

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