Personalised Licence Plates Big Success

Personalised Licence Plates Big Success

More than 40,000 personalised vehicle licence plates were sold last year, bringing in $16.5 million to the state budget, the Ministry of Public Works said yesterday.

General Department of Road Transport director-general Chhuon Vorn said a total of 42,727 special licence plates were sold last year with no province listing but with owners given the opportunity to select their own personalised letters and numbers for their vehicles.

“In our system, there are many people searching for their desired plates,” he said.

Chan Vichet, a resident of Phnom Penh, said that he is looking to buy a special plate because he loves that buyers can select individual names.

“I am searching for the prices of special plates on the ministry’s website. I want to put my own name on the plate and put it on my car to be special. It looks nice and creates a distinct personality,” he said.

According to the ministry, licence plates cost from $500 to $250,000 – with some special plates costing even more.

Pricing and public bidding are based on factors such as the number of digits; words in the English dictionary; the same, consecutive or ascending letters and numbers; reflective numbers or letters; and whether numbers are odd or even.

Personalised plates are printed with “Kampuchea” in Khmer script at the top and “Cambodia” in English at the bottom. A combination of one to eight Latin numbers or letters are printed in the middle.

Each personalised license plate also has a QR Code on the right side that confirms the vehicle’s information.

However, the ministry said pornographic words, temple names, names of leaders, well-known people, or big institutions are not allowed to be used.

Ministry of Public Works secretary of state Koy Sodany said the ministry is trying to find a mechanism to better manage the auction of personalised license plates to effectively manage the national revenue.