What's On Your Plate? - Pontiac Tech

Additional research and Art Provided by Jim Mattison of PHS Automotive Services, Rocky Rotella, Bob Adams, Eric White, Scott Scheel, Larry Kummer, John Chencharick, and Kevin Guido

Authors note: The idea for this feature story came from Jim Taylor of Jim Taylor Engine Service in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. Jim's 40-year history in the hobby has allowed him to put together an extensive research library of original Pontiac documents, including those pertaining to the history of the Ident-O-Plate and Protect-O-Plate programs. Jim tirelessly researched thousands of pages of Pontiac documents to aid HPP in putting this story together.

For the first 37 years of its history (1926-1962), Pontiac Motor Division depended to a large degree upon the penmanship of the dealerships' service writers in filling out warranty and service claims paperwork. Think for a moment about the thousands of Pontiac dealership service writers across the country. Every one of them had different handwriting-some good, some not so good-and Pontiac Motor Division had dozens, or even hundreds, of clerical workers to transcribe all of the handwriting, legible or illegible, from all dealership service claims into its pre-computerized system of records management.

1963-1964
Pontiac Motor Division's Service Department introduced the Ident-O-Plate program for model-year '63. Designed to allow dealers to efficiently and accurately process warranty claims (with an added benefit of being able to easily identify in-warranty vehicles), Ident-O-Plate was Pontiac's first attempt at automating customer and car information into the warranty-service process.

The Ident-O-Plate consisted of two strips of metal measuring approximately 1 1/4-inch-tall by 61/8-inch-wide. The top strip was called the owner plate (also called the name plate) and the bottom strip was called the vehicle plate. Each plate was debossed from the back (the opposite of embossed, meaning the data is pressed into the plate), which explains why the data characters are reversed when viewed from the front. The vehicle plate was organized into an 8-row by 30-column grid that can be decoded.

We...found a need to assist dealers in eliminating excessive paperwork in the handling of their AFAs [Application For Adjustment] and to expedite credits for warranty adjustments. Toward this end, we requested that all AFAs be forwarded directly to Pontiac Motor Division Service Department." In conjunction with this procedure, the Pontiac Ident-O-Plate program became a part of the Owner Protection Plan booklet commencing with '63 production. The Indent-O-Plate contains all pertinent vehicle identification information on one plate. As the Retail Delivery Card for each owner is received at Pontiac, a plate containing the owner's name, address, delivery date, and vehicle identification number, corresponding with the number on the vehicle plate, is made and sent direct to the owner's home. These two plates are placed together on the inside back cover of the Owner Protection Plan booklet, enabling the dealership to imprint this vital information on the AFA or Repair Order. Considerable time is saved compared to the old method of writing this information in by hand-and it eliminates the possibility for error and illegibility. As this program progresses, it will be increasingly easier for customers to obtain service on their cars and for dealerships to handle Repair Orders and AFAs.