The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles is considering changing the format of underage drivers licenses in Ohio to a vertical display of information instead of the present horizontal display.
The change in format will help deter underage drinking and aid store merchants and bartenders when selling alcohol and tobacco, said Julie Stebbins, spokesperson for the BMV.
“I believe we are finding out that it would be effective,” Stebbins said. “Some establishments might have a problem seeing the information, and if it is up and down opposed to side to side that is going to be a clear indicator someone is not going to be old enough to have an alcoholic beverage.”
The major differences between under age and legal age licenses now includes a red background on licenses for those under 21, the large photograph of the license holder on the left side of the license and bold red lettering that reads “UNDER 21.”
The possible change in format could occur as early as this fall, said BMV Registrar Frank Caltrider.
The United Dairy Farmers located at 1680 N. High St. had their liquor permit revoked when cashiers sold alcoholic beverages to people with underage drivers licenses on two different occasions during the last school year, UDF store manager Don Dailey said. The store began its 30 day suspension for those offenses last Tuesday at noon and will not sell alcohol again until Oct. 19.
“Both violations were involving red licenses (underage drivers licenses) so we were at fault,” Dailey said. “The cashiers actually looked at the ID and were confused by the date when they had made the sale.”
Alcohol and tobacco sales together comprise 35 to 45 percent of store sales, Dailey said.
“With the state changing the way they make the licenses it will simplify matters for us and it will be much easier to see,” Dailey said.
If the change is made, IDs of the current format will remain in circulation for a few years and still pose a challenge to cashiers, Dailey said.
“Bars typically are not well lit, someone flashes a license and whether someone pays attention to it carefully or not is suspect and is sometimes claimed as a defense,” Caltrider said. “I think it’s going to be less arguable if we go to the vertical license.”
Caltrider said the change will bring no expense to the BMV because of the software used to produce Ohio licenses.
However, out-of-state drivers licenses, foreign passports and fake IDs will remain a problem, many store employees, bartenders and students said.
“The problem we have is actually at the table,” said Tarsa Favata, a manager at bw-3. “A lot of times someone who is 21 will buy three drinks and give those to their underage friends. When they get back to the table, they are actually handing over the beer over to some one that is not 21.”
Most establishments and stores that sell alcohol have books providing information for verifying fake IDs and the legitimacy of out-of-state licenses. “But when it takes you five minutes to look through the book it gets a little rough. There are customers who get upset,” Favata said.
Panini’s Bar and Grill assistant manager Greg Gould said he did not think the change in drivers license format will have any affect on underage kids drinking.
“Generally speaking underage kids don’t buy alcohol anyway,” Gould said. “Someone over age buys it for them.”
Gould said there is a large amount of illegal drinking.
“I would say there are a lot of underage kids who drink,” Gould said. “Would I say that it is a problem? No. I actually don’t know why kids aren’t allowed to drink when they are 18. Is it a pain in the ass being in a bar that has 18 to 21 year kids that are coming in and having to deal with that? Yes. Are we willing to deal with that? Yes.”
Twenty-year-old Tera Nagley, who is an allied medicine major and Kate Sealscott, a psychology major who is also 20 said that their friends buy alcohol for them at bars as well as from stores.
“Sometimes we can just get them, but we never tried to buy them at stores,” Nagley said.
Both students said nothing will really change with a different drivers license format because they don’t use their licenses anyway.
Joyce Bell, 20, a marketing and accounting major said altering licenses will not have a large affect.
“I don’t think it will make a difference only because the IDs were already different for people under 21,” Bell said. “It says in big bold letters that you are under 21, just changing it from horizontal to vertical is another difference but I don’t think it is going to make that big of an impact on how people look at the licenses.”
Blake Miller, 20, an undecided junior, said he uses a fake ID that is an out of state license with a picture of someone that looks similar to him.
“Usually if we go to bars we drink before we go so we are already drunk and we won’t have to buy beer there,” Miller said. “They are pretty strict in there. Sometimes they don’t even card you, or I use my fake ID.”
Becki Layton, legislative aid for Ohio Sen. Doug White, who proposed the possible change, said it is more of a convenience for industries and merchants that sell alcohol.
“People are going to find alcohol. Most people think it is a great thing except those who are under 21. Most states have told us it has been very effective,” Layton said.
At least eight other states have already issued the format and other states are looking into it as well. Caltrider said he could not recall a bad comment from other states who have already switched formats.
The change in format, which is now being sponsored by the Ohio Grocers Association, will probably happen in late fall or early winter but there is not set date. This revision is a product of the Ohio House of Representatives Budget Bill, which requires the BMV to consider a difference in license format but does not mandate that change must be made, Caltrider said.
Once the design of the new underage license has been complete, the BMV will send it to law enforcement agencies around Ohio, Chiefs of Police, as well as the Retail Merchants Association, to check for mistakes and to see if the IDs causes any difficulty, Caltrider said.
