Personalised Number Plates

By Lisa Cockerill

Personalised Plates

Having personalised plates can make a vehicle be unique to a car owner and add that bit of individuality separating your vehicle from the rest.

Brisbane roads are adorned with vehicles with very creative number plates in combinations of letters and numbers as the original spelling of what they were hoping for had already been taken.

Combinations such as NVME and GR8 are often using with other abbreviations. Some are easier than others to understand the intended words.

Most popular of course is the owners name or initials. Followed closely by the numbers of the year they were born.

Having the make or model of the vehicle as the number plate is common as well.

Colour matching the plates and having characters on them is also popular for car lovers wanting their vehicle to stand out in the car park.

For the vehicles that are going for a sleek look, slim line plates make the necessity of having a number plate less of an eyesore.

Some of the more famous plates are that of the least amount of letters and numbers.

There are categories where Q or A plates are created with a number series following it.

A1 and Q1 being the most popular.

Searching for number plates that are being resold is pretty easy. Log onto www.mrplates.com.auamong other sites such as www.gumtree.com.au and www.ebay.com.au

The following plates have very hefty price tags attached to them.

L1KE1T – $25,000

REBAL – $25,000

429 – $25,500

GODZLR – $35,000

088880 – $40,000

OIO070 – $56,000

SPENCER – $85,000

PONY – $200,000

Some investors are looking at the plates as an opportunity and buying popular number plates and sitting on them until the right buyer comes along desperate enough to want to pay the big $$ for them.

The market does vary depending on how many letters or numbers that the plate has and how popular it is.

Creating your own plate is easily done but it does have a decent price tag attached to it.

To design a new number plate log onto www.ppq.com.au.

Click on Create A Plate

From there is allows you to see how your plate is going to look.

The colour choices are extensive allowing you to pick not only the background colour but have different options of colours for the writing on the plate itself.

For example:

Pink background

Text Options: Black or White

Silver background

Text Options: Black, Dark Blue, Green, Purple, Maroon, Pink and Royal Blue

Black Background

Text Options: White, Green, Grey, Gold, Yellow, Pink, Red, Blue and Orange

The backgrounds can range from being a single colour through to a print of a surfer catching a wave with Endless Summer the bottom slogan.

Other categories are:

General Theme: Aussie Flags, Brisbane city in lights, Checker-plate, Elvis, Star signs, Breast Cancer Awareness logos, Smiley Face, Frangipani as well as 3 dimensional images

Sports: State of Origin, Soccer, Rugby, Fishing and individual team logos

Iconic: Beautiful photos of some of Queensland’s most beautiful scenery

Cartoon: Batman, Hello Kitty, Marvin, Bugs Bunny, Betty Boop and Tweety

European: Slim line plates in Gold, Navy and Silver

Prices for each category do vary. The most expensive starting prices are for the ID for 2 characters.

Maintaining number plates

When it comes to keeping your number plates in good condition the Queensland Department of Transport have guidelines to what is not acceptable for the condition of the number plates

The different types of wear are:

Greying
Crazing
Peeling
Damaged/bent
General wear and tear – not legible

By law, you are required to order replacement plates within 14 days of the plates no longer being roadworthy.

Keeping in mind as well that you can be fined for the number plates not being legible.

How do I replace the number plates?

You will need to attend a Transport and Main Roads Customer Service Centre. In rural areas there are alternative locations such as the Magistrates Court, QCAP offices or local Police Station.

There is a small fee payable for the standard plates. Contact the Department of Transport and Main Roads for all fees for both personalised and standard plates on 13 23 90.

You will need to hand over the plates to the Department of Transport. In the circumstances that the plates have been lost or stolen, an additional form is required to filled out explaining what had happened to the plates.

Do not remove the numbers plates until you have the vehicle at the Customer Service Centre.

TIP: Remember to take a screwdriver with you, as they are not usually available at the Customer Service Centres.

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