| 2024-10-05 |
The 4th annual Abbotsford (ABC) License Plate Meet was held today with approximately 62 collectors in attendance. Fun was had by all, and to see the group picture, Click here. |
| 2024-08-19 |
ICBC has begun issuing 'L' suffix plates for Commercial Trailers (now that the 'K' series has been exhausted). We have posted an example seen in the wild to the Commercial Trailer page and to see it, just Click Here! |
| 2024-07-28 |
The 15th annual Okanagan Valley License Plate Meet was held in Summerland today with approximately 20-25 collectors in attendance. Fun was had by all, and to see the group picture, Click here. |
| 2024-05-07 |
Confirmation today that the first set of passenger plates from the "WA0-00A" series have been spotted, right on schedule! The next milestone should occur sometime in mid-winter 2025 when the first plates in the last block, being the "XA0-00A" series begin to be issued. Stay tuned! |
| 2024-05-04 |
For the perfectionists in the hobby, a rare plate type surfaced today when a series of 12 unissued plates from the 1976 Farm Tractor series came to light. The 1970s aren't usually associated with hard-to-get types, other than the Special Agreement plates, but for whatever reason, 1976 plates in the F00-001 to F01-000 series were so rare it wasn't even known if they had actually been manfactured let alone distributed to MVB offices. To see the plates, Click here. |
| 2024-04-01 |
Realtors! You usually vex us terribly here at BCpl8s.ca, but we admit this is a good one and appreciate the money spent to improve the production quality of the video! Happy April Fool's Day, and please note that BC license plates are not getting a new design or slogan in 2024! To watch the video, Click here! |
| 2024-02-14 |
Some exciting news from the Corportation today, the next format of license plates after plate number XX9-99X has been issued sometime in 2025 will be A00-1AA! That said, we here at BCpl8s.ca are disappointed for two reasons. First, ICBC is still not at a point where it is able begin issuing 7-character plates. Second, the process that we had to go through in order to obtain this arcane bit information from ICBC was utterly ridunculous and very disappointing from an organization that encourages its policies holders to follow the rules (of the road)! To read more, Click here. |
| 2024-01-27 |
A fun posting on social media today; a Mudlarker walking along the Fraser River today found an old 1964 BC plate that appears to have been unearthed along the banks of the river by shifting currents (or something like that). For psoterity, we have posted a screenshot of their find, to see it, Click here. |
| 2023-12-29 |
Inspired by the province's current engagement on expanding the Specialty License Plate Program, we here at BCpl8s.ca decided to update our Specialty License Plate page which, we ashamedly concede, has been stagnant since the "Affinity" license plate program was moth-balled in 2017. To see the fruits of our labours, Click here. |
| 2023-12-11 |
Hey-ho! What is this? A survey from the province asking if there is any interest in expanding the Specialty License Plate options! We encourage everyone to chime in on one of the most important policy questions facing the province; Specialty Licence Plate Program Expansion. Don't waste time, the survey closes January 31, 2024! |
| 2023-10-14 |
The 3rd annual Abbotsford (ABC) License Plate Meet was held today with approximately 50+ collectors in attendance. Fun was had by all, and to see the group picture, Click here. |
| 2023-09-13 |
Confirmation today that the first set of passenger plates from the "VA0-00A" series have been spotted, right on schedule! The next milestone should occur sometime in Spring 2024 when the first plates in the "WA0-00A" block begin to be issued. As there are not many combinations on the current AA0-00A base left, we asked the good folks at ICBC what the plans are for the next series after plate XX9-99X is issued, but they wouldn't spill the beans. Stay tuned! |
| 2023-08-31 |
Another new spotting for the BC Parks plate bases today; the "PJ" prefix was spotted for the Kermode Bear base. |
| 2023-08-01 |
A new spotting for the BC Parks plate bases today; the "RG" prefix was spotted for the Porteau Cove base. |
| 2023-07-23 |
The 14th annual Okanagan Valley License Plate Meet was held in Summerland today with approximately 20-25 collectors in attendance. Fun was had by all, and to see the group picture, Click here. |
| 2023-06-16 |
Big news! Another plate type that has only been read about in newspaper articles but never seen in modern times (i.e. since the dawn of the internet) has come to light! In 1938, the province introduced three new prefixes; PW (Public Works), PN (Doctors) and PF (Forestry). Of these, no PF plates were known to have survived, until now! The 1938 "PF-91" was found in a collection of plates that had been assembled decades ago and stored in a garage for the past 40 years. To see the plate, Click Here! |
| 2023-06-02 |
Another one bites the dust! The Newfoundland Government announced today that they too would be discontinuing the use of registration decals to validate license plates, effective June 15, 2023! This leave only Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI using annual registration decals. |
| 2023-05-31 |
BC Parks announced today that 400,000 Parks plates have now been sold since being released in January of 2017! Apparently, this has resulted in over $33,000,000 being raised through sales of the plates for various BC Parks initiatives. We are going to reach out to ICBC and see if they have a breakdown of sales by designa type. When we get more info we'll post it to the site. Stay tuned ... |
| 2023-05-09 |
Confirmation today from one of our Field Spotters that the Passenger Transportation Board is cutting its own path and defying current trends by continuing to issue registration decals (dated 2024) for use on taxi plates. Of interest, the decals are green which leads us to believe that had ICBC issued decals for 2024, they would have been green as well. To see the latest decal, Click Here! |
| 2023-04-24 |
Word today that it is Back to the Future for Motorcycles with the last of the unused "J" prefixes from the 1980s having now been exhausted, ICBC is issuing a new format; 0000A0! To see one of the first examples spotted in the wild, Click Here! |
| 2023-03-31 |
ICBC debunked the misinformation circulating on social media about the risks of being ticketed in other jurisdictions if displaying an out-dated decal on your license plate. "ICBC said customers should not have concerns traveling to other jurisdictions in Canada as law enforcement is “well informed” there is no need to display an insurance decal on a B.C. licence plate." To read more, including historical parallels (pre-internet) to these rumours, Click Here! |
| 2023-03-30 |
It is not even April Fool's Day yet, but I guess someone couldn't wait and tried springing a joke on social media about being ticketed in Washington State if you drive their with expired decals on your licence plate. To read more about it, Click Here! |
| 2023-02-17 |
Further to a request for more info on the vanity plate stats provided last month, the Corporation has advised that 7,280 applications were received in 2020 of which 71.8% of slogans were approved (5,227) and 28.2% were refused (2,053). In 2021, the total number was 10,355, of which 58.5% of slogans were approved (6,054) and 41.5% were refused (4,301). The numbers for 2022 are reported below. Interestingly, the number of applications received by ICBC between 2020 and 2021 increased by 42.2% (+3,075), but declined by 8.6% (-888) between 2021 and 2022. |
| 2023-01-22 |
Confirmation today that the first set of passenger plates from the "TA0-00A" series have been spotted, right on schedule! The next milestone should occur sometime towards the end of summer when the first plates in the "VA0-00A" bloc begin to be issued. Stay tuned! |
| 2023-01-19 |
Thanks to the good folks at ICBC, we received copies of the list of rejected and approved personalised slogans for 2022 - along with the main media outlets in the province today! Apart from the wide variety of slogans applied for, there were some interesting stats provided, including ICBC receiving 9,467 slogan requests in 2022 with 3,135 being rejected (i.e. 33% versus 67% being approved). To read more about it, Click Here! |
| 2023-01-11 |
Thanks to the good folks at ICBC, we received an update on what happened to the “T” block of plates for the Commercial Truck series; the Corporation did not issue these as there is a "current exclusion" with “T” plates have been reserved for various other types of plates including Transport, Quarterly logging and Trailer Floater. |
| 2023-01-11 |
Thanks to the good folks at ICBC, we received an update on where the BC Parks plates are going after the current block is exhausted, which is expected to happen in the coming month for the Purcell base with the issuance of PV9-99X; it will proceed to RP0-00A. That means RH0-00X to RN9-99X has been set aside, possibly for the Kermode Bear design? And, we further assume, the rest of the "R" the Purcell and Porteau designs. Stay tuned. |
| 2023-01-01 |
A New Year and a chance to look back on 2021. According to our site statistics, there were 104,109 page views on BCpl8s.ca in 2022, which represents a decrease of 4.95% over site visits in 2021. As always, the most popular page is the Main page at 15.72% followed this year by (2) Consular at 9.17%, (3) Decals at 3.46%, (4) Passenger at 3.39%, (5) Passenger 2014-2025 at 3.29%, (6) Temporary Permits at 2.84%, (7) Personalised Plate Spottings at 2.38%, (8) Registration Data at 2.23%, (9) Single Plate Debate at 2.07% and (10) Collector at 1.72%. |
| 2022-12-25 |
Today, we were able to tick off as complete a task that has been on our to-do list here at BCpl8s.ca for the past 12 months; posting a page on the Windshield Stickers (also known as Temporary "Extension" Licences) issued by the province in 1933 & 1934. Currently, there are no known remaining examples of these stickers/decals, but we remain hopeful that one day a specimen will surface. To read more about them and why they were used, Click Here! |
| 2022-12-13 |
A surprising confirmation today that the first set of commercial truck plates with an "V" prefix have been spotted! We are wondering what has happened to the "T" block of plates and will be making some enquiries with ICBC on this. Next stop would seem to be the "W" prefix sometime in early 2024. To see when the previous letters were rolled out, Click Here! |
| 2022-11-16 |
In announcing a new license plate design for Prince Edward Island today, Cory Deagle, the Island's Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, said “it has been almost a decade since Prince Edward Island introduced a new license plate design and it is time for a refresh.” Almost a decade he says! Meanwhile, in British Columbia, the Socreds "Spirit Flag" is going on 37 years! We cry ... |
| 2022-11-03 |
A couple of spottings for the BC Parks plate bases today; the "RF" prefix was spotted for the Porteau Cove base and the "PH" prefix was spotted for the Kermode Bear base. At current rates of issuance, the "RG" and "PJ" prefixes will be seen around August of 2024, meaning the current Kermode Bear allotment will likely be exhausted by late spring of 2024 (e.g. "PJ999X"), while the Purcell base will likely be exhausted by February of 2023. At this point, it is anticipated that the Porteau Cove base will continue after "RG999X" into "RH000A" and then through the rest of the "Rx" prefixes. |
| 2022-10-22 |
The 2nd annual Abbotsford plate meet was held today and attended by about 35 collectors in attendance. We hear that fun was had by all in attendance, and to see the group picture, Click here. |
| 2022-10-14 |
It is not often a unicorn is spotted in the wild, but we think that is what might have happened tonight in Langley by one of our plate spotters. To see what they saw, Click Here! |
| 2022-10-02 |
One for the ages, ICBC let a spicy (or fecal) combination of letters and numbers get out into the wild recently. To share in our astonishment, Click Here! |
| 2022-09-02 |
ICBC announced to its employees today that it will be vacating its head office in North Vancouver (151 West Esplanade Avenue) sometime in the next 3-5 years. The reason given is that most employees no longer work at the office on a full-time basis and it is only 20-40% occupied on a daily basis. More importantly, however, is that significant maintenance costs are coming due in the next 10-20 years ($184 million) and it makes more sense to sell out and move to cheaper locations. |
| 2022-08-31 |
We are now able to report on the breakpoints for decal wells ceasing to be used on the various Parks plate bases; for the Purcell base it is somewhere between PT099T and PT710W, for Cove base it is somewhere between RE780K and RE059L and for the Kermode Bear it is going to be somewhere above PG610R. |
| 2022-08-18 |
Almost a month after the first personalized plates without a decal well were spotted, the first regular passenger plates without the decal well were spotted in the Lower Mainland and were in the "SG0-00R" block. To see the new design, Click Here! |
| 2022-08-10 |
The final block of plates set aside for the Purcell base (Parks plate) in 2017 was spotted today with "PV6-15B" seen in Vancouver traffic. Exhaustion of these plates (e.g. PV9-99X) will probably occur in February of 2023, and we are not sure where the Purcell base is going to go after that ... |
| 2022-08-10 |
A story out of Prince George today regarding peeling license plates and the possibility of being fined $230 for not having them replaced. Two things in the article were of note, first that peeling plates could be replaced free of charge at any Autoplan Agent (news to us) and second that the problem tends to be common on plates issued between 2007 and 2012. We are going to make some inquiries with the good folks at ICBC to see how they know these dates. If you want to read the article, Click Here! |
| 2022-07-31 |
The 13th annual Okanagan Valley License Plate Meet was held in Summerland today with approximately 20-25 collectors in attendance. Fun was had by all, and to see the group picture, Click here. |
| 2022-07-24 |
Further to the news last month that the design of license plates was going to be changing with the removal of the debossed wells for registration decals, the first plates without these wells have now been spotted. Interestingly, the plates are personalized plates, but we are going to make enquiries with the Corporation to see when this change will start appearing on regular passenger plates. To see the new design, Click Here! |
| 2022-06-14 |
Interesting scoop from CHEK News today that ICBC is planning to change the design of license plates following the elimination of registration decals on April 30, 2022! We here at BCpl8s.ca put this same question to the Corporation back in February of this year and were advised that "while there have not been any changes to the decal well as of yet, this is being taken into consideration." Similarly, there was no plans to change the design of plates. It appears some new directions have been set over the past 4 months. |
| 2022-06-02 |
Confirmation today that the first set of passenger plates from the "SA0-00A" series have been spotted, right on schedule! The next milestone should occur sometime in early 2023 when the first plates in the "TA0-00A" bloc begin to be issued. Stay tuned! |
| 2022-06-01 |
Thanks for the good folks at ICBC, we have been able to obtain the more detailed lists, which include some reasons, for the rejection of vanity slogans in 2020 and 2021 and have posted them to the following page (see the "Lists of Rejected Slogans" column near the top of the page): Click Here! |
| 2022-05-23 |
Kudos to CTV News Vancouver for for putting additional time and resources into their most recent story on personalized plates in BC, by obtaining a more detailed listing of rejected slogans from the Corporation, including the reasons for the rejections (the story is a definitive improvement over their December 2020 entry). To read their most recent take, Click Here! |
| 2022-05-12 |
Some out-of-province news today, the State of California has decided that if you can beat them, might as well join them. While apparently on the legislative books for over a decade, a provision that allows for a self-adhesive sticker or magnet in the same shape and design as the State's license plate to be used by drivers on their vehicles. These types of alternate plates are popular in BC amongst men with sports cars and, for us here at BCpl8s.ca, is another sign of the growing irrelevance of the traditional license plate as technology continues to advance ... |
| 2022-04-30 |
It is done! The era of registration decals on the back of BC license plates came to an official end today. Collecting BC plates will never be the same again as displaying plates by year is no longer possible. We are sad. |
| 2022-03-17 |
Big news today in Canadian license plate circles; the Supreme Court of Canada has decided to not take up the case of Lorne Grabher and his "GRABHER" license plate, which was revoked by the Nova Scotia Register of Motor Vehicles in 2016. As this likely marks the end of the saga, we are curious if Nova Scotia will cancel its vanity license plate program in the near future? We suspect the costs of defending the case far exceeded any revenues generated by the sale of vanity plates and the risk of having defend a similar case in future are probably not worth the risk. This has certainly been an expensive lesson for the province about downside of allowing people to put slogans on license plates! |
| 2022-03-11 |
ICBC published its "Bulletin 30" today, which provides some "considerations" related to the discontinuation of licence plate decals and printing changes for its law enforcement & road safety partners. Of interest, police are being advised to expect a range of paper quality as drivers begin printing off their own registration papers. In addition, "vehicles may be seen on highway legally displaying an expired decal, a decal that is blocked out with black marker, or covered with any color of plain material (e.g. a blank white sticker) that may or may not be reflective. ICBC is requesting customers to not use decal coverings that are mirrored or that have graphic(s), character(s), or pattern(s)." We have archived the Bulletin and if you would like to read it, Click Here! |
| 2022-02-25 |
Thanks to the good folks at ICBC, we have been able to obtain a list of the Rejected and Approved personalized license plate slogans for both 2020 and 2021! Of interest, 2,053 slogans were rejected in 2020 in comparison to 4,301 slogans that were rejected in 2021!!! This is in comparison to 5,238 slogans approved in 2020 and 6,073 slogans approved in 2021!! Apparently, in these weird times, no one in BC has attempted to get a "COVID" related slogan, but Tesla owners were up to their usual creativity trying to let everyone know that they don't need gas; "BY2GAS", "NO GAS", "EW GAS", "Y GAS", "4GT OIL", etc. In reviewing the slogans that have been rejected, we would like to offer a word of advice that will improve the chances of your slogan being approved; stop applying for 7-character slogans (see below)! To read the lists of approved and rejected slogans, Click Here! |
| 2022-02-25 |
Thanks to the good folks at ICBC, we have some additional information regarding other "potential future enhancements" that we can expect in May of this year along with the elimination of registration decals; none! Take heart, the ability to check personalized slogans and amateur radio call signs online might be coming in future as well as ordering personalized slogans on other base types (e.g. having a personalized BC Parks plate or Veteran plate). While hinted at in the 2013 Licence Plate Contract (awarded to Waldale), 7-character license plates might also be on the horizon after May of 2022, but there are currently no plans to get rid of the "Spirit Flag" logo used extensively by the Social Credit Party in the 1983 election campaign and which has adorned the province's license plates since 1985. |
| 2022-02-22 |
Lo and behold! The Ontario government announced today that they too are eliminating the use of decals on license plates as of March 13, 2022 (yet again BC is upstaged by another province showing how quickly decals can be dispensed with once a decision is made)! This leaves only the Maritime provinces and Nunavut still requiring the placement of a decal on a license plate. |
| 2022-02-20 |
For the first time in the history of the "Spirit Flag" base, a new prefix combination has been issued for the Transporter base. The first plate in the series; TR-0000 was issued back in 1985 and it appears that TR-9999 was issued in January or February of 2022 as the first "TS" prefix has now been spotted. To read more about this rarely seen plate type, Click here! |
| 2022-02-15 |
Lo and behold! The Yukon announced today that they too are eliminating the use of decals on license plates as of March 1, 2022 (once again, BC is upstaged by one of its neighbours showing how quickly decals can be dispensed with once a decision is made)! What's more, Yukoners will be able to print their own registration papers seemingly without the oversight of a third party such as will be happening in BC with the Autoplan Agents. There is a long history of BC & Yukon plate production being intertwined and we can't help but wonder if there was some co-ordination between the two jurisdictions on this matter? To read more about the Yukon news, Click here! |
| 2022-02-14 |
Finally! Official confirmation of something that the province has been hinting will happen for the past two years; the elimination of registration decals from license plates! Effective May 1, 2022, BC motorists will no longer have to stick rectangular pieces of plastic to their rear plates. Honestly, this is a sad day for us here at BCpl8s.ca as collecting dated license plates is a core facet of the hobby and something that has been in-place since 1913 and another, inexorable step by technology in rendering the automobile license plate obsolete. To read more about what all this means, Click here! |
| 2022-01-26 |
ICBC released some very general issuing stats about the BC Parks plate on the 5th anniversary of the plate's release. 300,000 sets have now been issued generating more than $20 million in total revenue. The Purcell Mountain design continues to reign supreme while the Porteau Cove design is quietly catching up in popularity with the Kermode Bear design. To see a more detailed break-down, Click Here! |
| 2022-01-01 |
A New Year and a chance to look back on 2021. According to our site statistics, there were 109,538 page views on BCpl8s.ca in 2021, an increase of 6.4% over site visits in 2020 and we are happy for the greater interest in the site! As always, the most popular page is the Main page at 16.22% followed by (2) Consular at 8.69%, (3) Temporary Permits at 4.63%, (4) Decals at 4.04%, (5) Passenger at 3.36%, (6) Passenger 2014-2025 at 2.86%, (7) Single Plate Debate at 2.78%, (8) Personalised Plate Spottings at 2.36%, (9) Registration Data at 2.18% and (10) Collector at 1.44%. |
| 2021-12-04 |
The inaugural Pacific Northwest ... I mean Abbotsford plate meet was held today and attended by 20-30 hardy collectors who braved floods, snow, ferries and traffic to make the event. Here is hoping this is the start of a regular coastal meet again (Yay!)! We hear that fun was had by all in attendance, and to see the group picture, Click here. |
| 2021-11-10 |
ICBC announced today that it is expecting to run out of driver's licence numbers (DLNs) in 2023 based on current consumption rates. In response, ICBC will be increasing the length of DLNs from 7 digits to 8. It is anticipated that the new, longer numbers will be out by the fall of 2023. |
| 2021-10-25 |
SPOILER ALERT! It is that time of the year again and continuing that great newspaper tradition from the 1920s through the 1960s we are pleased to break the news on the new license plate decals for 2023! The colours are to be black-on-orange (much like the 2018 decals)! When we get our hands on a photo of the new decal we'll update this link. |
| 2021-09-19 |
Confirmation today that the first set of passenger plates from the "NA0-00A" series have been spotted, right on schedule! The next milestone should occur in May of 2022 when the first plates in the "SA0-00A" bloc begin to be issued, which assumes that the letters 'O' & 'Q' are skipped while the 'P' & 'R' blocks have been set aside for the Parks plates. Stay tuned! |
| 2021-09-04 |
The driving.ca website published an interesting story related to the 25th anniversary of ICBC in 1998 and the purchase of a classic 1973 convertible for the event. Of interest to us, the Mustang that was purchased was registered with personalised plates that read "ICBC 25". To read the story, Click Here! |
| 2021-08-25 |
ICBC has begun issuing 'K' suffix plates for Commercial Trailers (now that the 'J' series has been exhausted). When we get our hands on a photo of one of these plates it will be posted to the Commercial Trailer page, just Click Here! |
| 2021-08-17 |
The Wheels.ca website published a story today entitled "A guide to Canada's best, and most lame, licence plates". Not surprisingly, the territorial licence plates for Nunavut and NWT finished first and second in this completely subjective and un-scientific survey comprised of three people. BC's "Flag" logo and Beautiful slogan finished an un-deserved 8th place. If it was still the year 1989 and the Berlin Wall had just fallen I would have expected the plate to finish in the top 3, but it is terribly dated now. Time for a change! To read the article, Click Here! |
| 2021-08-01 |
The 12th annual Okanagan Valley License Plate Meet was held in Summerland today with approximately 30-35 collectors in attendance. Fun was had by all, and to see the group picture, Click here. |
| 2021-06-11 |
In another twist we didn't see coming with the motorcycle base, the first plates displaying a 'J' prefix have been spotted! This is the first time since the mid-1980s that ICBC has issued 'J' prefix plates on the Flag base for motorcycles. For those who remember, the 1979 motorcycle based had run through to J66-999. When the Flag base was introduced in 1985, it picked up at J6-7000 and continued on to J9-999 (and beyond!), which left an used block of 67,000 'J' plates. To read more, Click Here! |
| 2021-05-01 |
ICBC provided some updated sales stats on the BC Parks plates today to mark the sale of 250,000 plates and, no surprise given recent trends, the popularity of the Purcell design continues to grow with it now representing over 37% of all sales. To see the current breakdown, Click Here! |
| 2021-02-06 |
A very special find occurred this past week; a plate type only read about but not seen in modern times (i.e. since the dawn of the internet) came to light in Surrey! Foreign Touring plates were issued to a select group of motorists coming into the province in 1924, so select in fact that only 100 were ordered and it is unknown how many of these were actually issued in 1924. The plate found is No. F-107 and was placed in storage in 1986 and forgotten about until now. To read more, Click Here! |
| 2021-01-01 |
A New Year and a chance to look back on 2020. According to our site statistics, there were 102,903 page views on BCpl8s.ca in 2020, an increase of 14.2% over site visits in 2019. We are at a loss to explain this increase, which comes on the 14% increase in 2019 - possibly more people at home bored surfing due to COVID? - but are happy for the greater interest in the site!
As always, the most popular page is the Main page at 11.50% followed by (2) Consular at 8.06%, (3) Temporary Permits at 6.15%, (4) Decals at 4.53%, (5) Passenger 2014-2025 at 3.21%, (6) Personalised Plate Spottings at 3.19%, (7) Single Plate Debate at 3.11%, (8) Passenger at 2.93%, (9) Registration Data at 2.63% and (10) Personalized at 1.57%. |
| 2020-12-30 |
"Looking for a fun way to end 2020, CTVNewsVancouver.ca reached out to ICBC for a list of some of the [personalized license plate] slogans that didn't make the cut" this year and produced yet another utterly forgettable story in the cannon of rejected vanity slogans in BC. To read more, Click Here! |
| 2020-12-11 |
The provincial government announced today that, starting in May of 2022, motorists will be able to renew their insurance and also apply for Temporary Operating Permits (TOPs) online, with additional online services being rolled out after that date. While the announcement suggests that consultations on the future use of decals remain on-going, its release suggests that some very important decisions may already have been made. To read more, Click Here! |
| 2020-12-07 |
Although unrelated to BC, the Alberta government announced today that, in a mere 3.5 weeks time, it will be phasing out the use of license plate decals to indicate valid registrations. In announcing the change, the Minister of "Red Tape Reduction" (what does that make every other Minister?) stated that "we are bringing Alberta’s government into the 21st century and moving at the speed Albertans deserve." We can't help but wonder if his last reference to speed was an intentional dig at BC and its protracted consultations related to phasing out decals? |
| 2020-11-29 |
Confirmation today that the first set of commercial truck plates with an "R" prefix have been spotted. Next stop will be the "S" prefix sometime in 2021. To see when the previous letters were rolled out, Click Here! |
| 2020-10-24 |
SPOILER ALERT! It is that time of the year again and continuing that great newspaper tradition from the 1920s through the 1960s we are pleased to break the news on the new license plate decals for 2022! The colours are to be black-on-green (much like the 2017 decals)! When we get our hands on a photo of the new decal we'll update this link. |
| 2020-10-23 |
ICBC provided some updated sales stats on the BC Parks plates today and, no surprise given recent trends, the popularity of the Purcell design continues to grow with it representing over 36% of all sales. To see the current breakdown, Click Here! |
| 2020-10-22 |
News today that the City of Vancouver is considering joining Coquitlam, New Westminster, Port Moody, Surrey and White Rock in offering free parking to veterans who have a Veteran license plate attached to their car. Kudos to City staff for recommending against the motion on the basis that it would "not support veterans who travel in other ways, such as by transit, walking or cycling ..." Council approved a one-year trial. |
| 2020-10-19 |
In a year full of milestones, we have another more ignoble one that needs to be remembered; the 10th anniversary of the Guinness World Records company being misinformed and mistakenly proclaiming a 1913 City of Victoria license plate to be the "World's Oldest". To read about this saga, including the plate in question subsequently being offered for $7.8 million in the Middle East (yes, this really did happen), Click Here! |
| 2020-10-15 |
An amusing story being picked up by the various news services today of a driver in the Shuswap who decided to make a trip to the local pharmacy in an un-licenced vehicle and attempted to throw people off by attaching a 1966 BC license plate to the vehicle (HINT: it didn't work and she got busted!). |
| 2020-09-23 |
A shock headline in the news today that delegates to the annual Union of British Columbia (UBCM) Conference had voted in favour of a resolution to change the slogan on British Columbia license plates from "Beautiful" to "Bonnie" in honour of the provincial Health Officer, Bonnie Henry. Fortunately, this was only a mock resolution designed as a test of the voting system ahead of the start of the Conference. |
| 2020-09-17 |
To mark the 6th month since the province declared a health emergency in relation to COVID-19, we have created another page (the first was in relation to Temporary Number Plates) to mark how this crisis has been playing out in the realm of license plates. To read more; Click Here! |
| 2020-08-30 |
An interesting tidbit from the crew in our Statistics Department, with passenger plates having hit plate No. LF0-00A, the current AA0-00A format has passed the half-way point in terms of available combinations. For comparison, this is the same point under the previous 000-AAA format when plates would have switched from the end of the 4th block of a million plates (i.e. 999-KXX) to the 5th block of a million plates (i.e. 000-LAA). |
| 2020-08-18 |
Reports of registration decals being lost in the mail and never arriving to motorists who renewed by phone or email on Vancouver Island made the provincial news tonight. While not a common occurrence, we here at BCpl8s.ca think this reinforces that the province will be phasing out registration decals after 2021 as they continue to modernize ICBC and push the Corporation into doing more of its business online. To read more, Click Here! |
| 2020-08-16 |
It is not often that an online auction of a BC license plate is deemed worthy of being "news", but the gavel fell on a rare 1913 City of Victoria porcelain license plate No. 168 today, and the selling price was $2,850 USD. The same plate had previously been sold online approximately 20 years earlier for the (then) princely sum of $1,000 USD. While we are at a loss to explain the appreciation, we hope all parties to the deal are happy! To read more about the Victoria plates, Click Here! |
| 2020-08-14 |
The Motor Vehicle Amendment Act (No. 2), 2020, received Royal Assent today and the changes to the legislation to allow flexibility in how vehicles are registered (i.e. no more decals) are now in effect. To read more about this, Click Here! |
| 2020-08-02 |
The 11th annual Okanagan Valley License Plate Meet (Gawd, time flies!) was held in Summerland today with approximately 30-35 collectors in attendance. Fun was had by all, and to see the group picture, Click here. |
| 2020-07-27 |
It is not often that the Premier weighs in on a license plate matter in a press briefing, but John Horgan suggested today that Canadians with U.S. licence plates ride the bus, use a bike or change their plates to avoid constant harassment from others concerned about possible COVID spread. |
| 2020-07-22 |
People!! A Saanich motorcyclist was taken into custody today after crashing his ride, a ride which was subsequently found to be sporting a license plate printed from this site (egads!) on paper, wrapped in plastic and edited with a black marker to turn the decal from a 2019 to a 2020. Saanich police commented that "we have seen a few of these fake licence plates, however, this one was not sophisticated." To read more, Click Here! |
| 2020-07-15 |
The legislation announced last month that will eventually do away with the need for BC license plates to be renewed by annual decals was debated at the Committee level of the Legislature today. While the Attorney General David Eby went to great lengths to assure everyone that was listening that the demise of registration decals was not a fait accompli, the writing is certainly on the wall! To read more about what is being proposed, Click Here! |
| 2020-07-09 |
Confirmation today that the first set of passenger plates from the LA0-00A series have been spotted, right on schedule. Next stop will be the MA0-00A series in January of 2021. To see when the previous letters were rolled out, Click Here! |
| 2020-06-29 |
A sad day in the BC license plate collecting community as we learned that one of our own, Tom Lindner of Kitimat passed on the weekend (his "Run" now complete). Tom was an early supporter of this site and many of our first pictures were of his collection. We have placed a short blurb commemorating Tom under our Contributors page. |
| 2020-06-20 |
The provincial government announced today the introduction of Bill 20, the Motor Vehicle Amendment Act (No. 2), 2020, that will, if passed, offer policy flexibility around the use of the decal on B.C. licence plates. |
| 2020-06-13 |
One of our temporary field spotters spotted one of the first temporary operating permits in the "9" block (i.e. 9A0A0A). To read more about TOPs, Click Here! |
| 2020-05-26 |
Press reports came out today of people in eatsern BC leaving threatening notes on cars with out of province (Alberta) license plates and querying why they were in the province when non-essential travel was banned. |
| 2020-03-27 |
As COVID-19 continues to disrupt daily routines, ICBC released Bulletin 26 today, advising of a new license plate type; Temporary Number Plates! These are paper plates in the same mould as the Temporary Operating Permits are to be used on a short-term basis by motorists between registering for new plates and those plates arriving in the mail. If you are wondering why they are using the European reference of "number plates" and not the North American reference of "licence plate", it is because that is the terminology used in the Motor Vehicle Act. To read more about this plate type, Click Here! |
| 2020-03-21 |
Another milestone for the license plate design that was only envisioned to last about 7 years (or to 1991-92), the "Spirit Flag" design (also known as the Social Credit Party emblem) on BC license plates turns 35 today! To read a short blurb about its official unveiling at the Oakridge Mall in Vancouver on this date in 1985, Click Here! |
| 2020-03-18 |
ICBC announced today that it is moving to allow phone and email renewals as part of its response to the coronavirus pandemic. Of note, the Corporation will not require the display of current decals while these protocols are in place, but that valid car insurance is still required in order to operate a vehicle and that a current decal must be attached as soon as it is received in the mail. To read more about it, Click Here |
| 2020-02-28 |
50 years ago today, all passenger vehicles in BC would have been issued plates on the 1970 base and, for the first time, decals indicating the year. To mark the occasion we have started to put together a Gallery showing each type of passenger by year and month (and including some non-passenger) from 1970 to 2020. To see more, Click Here! |
| 2020-02-12 |
10 years ago today, the Vancouver Olympics were opened and tens of thousands of British Columbians were driving around with Olympic license plates on their vehicle. A decade later, 27,000 of the 208,000 Olympic plates issued are still on the road (that is 13%)! |
| 2020-01-29 |
To mark the 3rd anniversary of the BC Parks license plates being launched, ICBC announced today that approximately 182,000 of the plates have been sold! This is an increase of 50,000 since the 2nd anniversary. To read more about it, including the current racehorse between the Kermode Bear vs. Purcell design for most popular, Click Here! |
| 2020-01-01 |
A New Year and a chance to look back on 2019. According to our site statistics, there were 90,123 page views on BCpl8s.ca in 2019, an increase of 14.95% over site visits in 2018. We are at a loss to explain this change but are happy for the greater interest in the site and are looking forward to the day we pass 100,000! As always, the most popular page is the Main page (11.89%) followed by the Consular page (9.96%). Rounding out the top 5 in 2019 were Decals (4.83%), Temporary Permits (4.42%) and Personalized Plate Spottings (3.36%). The page with the greatest increase in interest over 2018 was the Lieutenant Governor page, whose views by the end of 2019 were up 338%. |
| 2019-12-31 |
Further to our post from last August, after 56 years, today is the last day of the provincially issued "municipal" license plate (which was transitioned to a decal in 1987). To read more about this plate type and its history, Click Here! |
| 2019-12-06 |
40 years ago today, the first personalised license plate ("HEALEY") was issued to Richard Rogers of White Rock by then Minister of Transportation Alex Fraser in Victoria. With any luck, we will have some interesting info on personalised license plates in the next few months to share. Stay tuned! |
| 2019-11-20 |
It is a big day for us here at BCpl8s.ca; 20 years ago today we created and posted our first page and images of BC license plates to the internet! Almost 300 pages, somewhere north of 7,500 images, more than 5,000 .pdf documents and thousands of hours of my life later is this marvelous (demanding) site! For fun, and before I completely forget all the details, I have added a bit of a "site history" under our Contributors page. To read more, Click Here! |
| 2019-10-22 |
Confirmation today that the first set of passenger plates from the KA0-00A series have been spotted, right on schedule. Next stop will be the LA0-00A series in April of 2020. To see when the previous letters were rolled out, Click Here! |
| 2019-10-15 |
SPOILER ALERT! It is that time of the year again and continuing that great newspaper tradition from the 1920s through the 1960s we are pleased to break the news on the new license plate decals for 2021! The colours are to be black-on-magenta (much like the 2016 decals)! When we get our hands on a photo of the new decal we'll update this link. |
| 2019-10-12 |
The first Commercial Truck plates in the "P" prefix bloc were spotted today (i.e. "PA-0000" to "PY-9999"). Next stop will be the "R" prefix sometime in late 2020. To see when the previous letters were rolled out, Click Here! |
| 2019-09-19 |
Under the title of "One of these plates is not like the other", the Coquitlam RCMP released a news alert today in relation to some plates seized off a van in June of 2019 that had been called in by a local resident as being "suspicious". Of interest, the "decal" (if you can call it that) was a forgery, and a very poor one at that! To see what they found, Click Here! |
| 2019-08-30 |
The BC Veterans Commemorative Association held a low-key event with Todd Stone, MLA (Kamloops), today to thank him and the rest of the BC Liberal Caucus for their support in the BCVCA's efforts to keep the eligibility for the veterans license plate program limited to veterans. To see some photos of the event, Click Here! |
| 2019-08-21 |
News today from the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) that the Commercial Vehicle License Decal (CVLD) will be wound down on December 31, 2019. For those unfamiliar with this program, it relates to the registration of commercial vehicles and provides minor benefits such as parking in commercial vehicle loading zones. The origins of the plat date to 1963, with the UBCM taking over administration in 1987. To read more, Click Here! |
| 2019-08-07 |
Thanks to the good folks at ICBC, we were able to obtain a copy of the list of all the personalised plate slogans rejected by the Corporation in 2018! There is a lot of interesting information contained in the list, such as the fact that almost 36% of rejected slogans were turned down because they had already been issued (wouldn't it be nice if slogan availability could be checked on-line before submitting an application). There are also a number of head scratchers, such as "CAPS 18" (being a reference to the Stanley Cup winners) and "ECTO-1" (Ghostbuster fans know this one) being rejected as "offensive"! To read the list for yourself, Click here. |
| 2019-08-05 |
The 10th annual Okanagan Valley License Plate Meet (Gawd, time flies!) was held in Summerland today with approximately 40-45 collectors in attendance (a record!). Fun was had by all, and to see the group picture, Click here. |
| 2019-07-13 |
Thanks to a Tweet-out from the Corporation today, we know that there are still around 10,000 passenger vehicles in the province that are still sporting license plates with a serial number in the AAA-000 format. To read more about it, Click Here! |
| 2019-06-09 |
In a twist we didn't see coming, the first motorcycles displaying plates that start with a 'Z' prefix have been spotted. While this makes imminent sense from an alphabetical perspective (as the letter just exhausted was 'Y'), 'Z' has not been used on regular issue plates before (only Amateur Radio and Personalized). To see an example of these plates, Click Here! |
| 2019-06-05 |
The BCpl8s.ca team has decided to relent and branch out into a field we are not that familiar with but has many parallels with vehicle license plates and that is the realm of bicycle license plates! While we suspect that this is going to be a many year project, you can view what we posted to date, just Click Here! |
| 2019-04-19 |
Confirmation today that the first set of passenger plates from the JA0-00A series have been spotted, right on schedule. Next stop will be the KA0-00A series in October or November of 2019. To see when the previous letters were rolled out, Click Here! |
| 2019-04-13 |
A rare example of a No. 1 plate that was actually issued and used on a car (as opposed to known examples from the 1950 & 1960s that were held back by the MVB for display on the wall of their main office in Victoria) came to light today and was subsequently acquired by a BC collector. We did some research on this plate, which we would like to share. To read more, Click Here! |
| 2019-02-01 |
We here at BCpl8s.ca had an opportunity to discuss registration decals with Mike Lloyd at News 1130 this morning. We are looking forward to hearing/reading his piece sometime next week. If there is a link to this, we'll post it here (UPDATE: looks like they decided not to go with the story). |
| 2019-01-29 |
To mark the 2nd anniversary of the BC Parks license plates being launched, ICBC announced today that approximately 130,000 of the plates have now been sold! This is an increase of 30,000 since the last sales milestone of 100,000 was announced on June 25, 2018 (7 months ago, or about 4,285 sets of plates a month being sold). To read more about it, including the current racehorse between the Bear vs. Purcell design for most popular, Click Here! |
| 2018-11-14 |
Breaking News! An image of the new 2020 decals has been obtained and, even better, it comes with a side-by-side comparison with the 2019 decals. When looked at this way, it is possible to see that the colour of the 2020 decals is slightly darker than the 2019 decals, but we wonder if this will be discernable from a distance of more than a few feet? To see what the 2020 decals look like, Click Here! |
| 2018-11-06 |
We have received a clarification from the good folks at ICBC, the colour of the 2020 decals is not the same as the 2019 decals. In 2019, the colours used were black-on-yellow. The official colours for 2020 are black-on-gold. When we have a photo of the new decals we will post it to the " Decals" page. Stay tuned ... |
| 2018-11-06 |
SPOILER ALERT! We have our first spotting of the 2020 decals and, continuing that great newspaper tradition from the 1920s through the 1960s, we are now pleased to break the news on the new license plate decals for 2019! The colours are to be ... black-on-yellow (much like the 2019 decals)!?!?!?! Yes! You read that correctly! The colours are the same as last year! In the almost 50 years that the province has been issuing decals, this is the first time that the same colour has been used in consecutive years. We image that this is much to the consternation of local law enforcement officials. When we obtain a photo, we will post it to the " Decals" page. Stay tuned ... |
| 2018-10-26 |
Despite it being that time of the year again, and much to our chagrin, we are un able to announce the colour scheme for the 2020 decals. We are being told we will have to wait for the decals to start appearing on the street - so, we await with bated breath our first spotting (hopefully sometime in the next 3-4 weeks). |
| 2018-10-13 |
The Orca, a new on-line media outline covering all things BC published a story today about personalised license plates and, guess what angle the choose to take? You guessed it, a review of all the slogans rejected by ICBC between 2016-18. Needless to say, this covers some well trodden territory and doesn't really contribute anything new to our understanding of vanity slogans in BC. To read more about our thoughts on this article, Click Here! |
| 2018-10-10 |
The province released the results of the public consultation regarding the expansion of the Veteran's license plate to include RCMP officers today and, to no one's surprise, the majority of respondents opposed the move. As a result, the province will not be making any changes to the program. To read the Final Report and more on this story, Click Here! |
| 2018-09-24 |
From the BCpl8s.ca X-Files comes independent corroboration today of a mysterious plate types from the 1930s and 1940s that has only ever been seen in photos. While we have nothing concrete to confirm what these plates were used for, we have strong reasons to suspect that they are related to a type of temporary permit that was authorised under the Motor Vehicle Act during this period. Accordingly, we have filed this information under the Temporary Operating Permits page. To read more about it, Click Here! |
| 2018-09-13 |
Confirmation today that the first set of passenger plates from the HA0-00A series have been spotted, right on schedule (based on the predictions made back on December 10, 2017). Next stop will be the JA0-00A series in April of 2019. To see when the previous letters were rolled out, Click Here! |
| 2018-09-05 |
The "Veteran's Licence Plate Eligibility Survey" closed yesterday. No word (yet) on when the results will be posted, but we will be sure to provide a link when they are released. |
| 2018-09-01 |
A spotting in the field today has revealed that, after almost 28 years, Collector motorcycle plates have surpassed the "B9-9999" mark and that the new format is going to be the same as that used on passenger cars but that motorcycles will get their own letter this time; 0P-0000! To see a picture of the new format, Click Here! |
| 2018-08-31 |
Much to our surprise, ICBC has begun issuing 'J' suffix plates for Commercial Trailers. We had assumed that the next letter to be used in this series would be 'E' as this would have picked up where the Corporation left off before it reverted to the "U" suffix in 2015 in order to use up the remainder of the Olympic bloc. When we get our hands on a photo of one of these plates it will be posted to the Commercial Trailer page, just Click Here! |
| 2018-08-19 |
As a result of the BCVCA vs. Legion spat over the definition of a "veteran" (and all the information flowing out of this news story), we have had to undertake a revamping of the Veteran license plate page, which has now been broken down into a number of sub-pages. To see our handiwork, just Click Here!. |
| 2018-08-05 |
The 9th annual Okanagan Valley License Plate Meet was held in Summerland today with approximately 15-18 collectors in attendance. Fun was had by all, and to see the group picture, Click here. |
| 2018-07-30 |
"Veterans threaten to give back special licence plates if RCMP are eligible for same plates"! This is the headline of a story that appeared on Global News this evening and it appears that the BC Veterans Commemorative Association - who administers the Veteran license plate program - is none too happy about the proposed change to the definition of a "veteran" or how this has been handled by the government. In response, the Royal Canadian Legion is alluding to the possibility of no longer allow the poppy symbol to be used on Veteran plates if this change is not made. Ouch! To read more about this brou-ha-ha, just Click Here! |
| 2018-07-23 |
The provincial government has announced it is conducting a Survey regarding proposed changes to the definition of a "veteran" in order that RCMP employees can become eligible for Veteran license plates. To read the announcement, Click Here! To complete the Survey, Click Here! |
| 2018-06-25 |
Another announcement by the province today regarding the milestone of 100,000 BC Parks plates having now been sold. As always, ICBC is quick to attribute this to BC'ers love of their parks, but we still think the real motivating factor here (as with the Olympic plates) is the staleness of the "Spirit Flag" logo on regular issue plates and driver's desire something (anything really) new. Regardless of our opinions, to read more about the milestone; Click Here! |
| 2018-06-21 |
Word of an uber-rare find today - dare we say the find of the decade? - in the form of an actual side light (or lantern) with the license plate number still in place from a vehicle that was first registered in 1911! While we here at BCpl8s.ca have certainly seen many of these in old photos of cars from the 1904-1912 period, we have never actually seen one in-person and have only ever heard rumour of the existence of possibly 1 or 2 in a very private collection. To read more about this piece of BC license plate history; Click Here! |
| 2018-06-13 |
Further to the entry below, we posted an example of a 2019 decal with disappearing ink to the Decal page of the site. We are now keenly watching out more examples of fading 2019 decals and will post these as we acquire them. To follow this story, just Click Here! |
| 2018-06-13 |
Word from one of our field agents regarding a potential ink problem affecting license plates. Naturally, we don't blame you if you think we are talking about the 2019 decals - and we are - but the problem also seems to be afflicting the registration number on the plates themselves. While we are dumbfounded by the statistical odds of this problem affecting two different suppliers to ICBC in the same year, we will continue to investigate this further and would certainly appreciate any other tips. To see what we have on this story so far, Click Here! |
| 2018-06-04 |
The CBC broke a story today about some questionable slogans in Punjabi getting through the censors at ICBC. Apparently some pranksters managed to have some slogans related to excessive alcohol consumption issued (and the sky didn't fall). So, based upon a single complaint, ICBC has apparently revoked the offending slogans and recalled the plates. An interesting tidbit from the story, ICBC confirmed the extent of their censorship department is one person (no pressure!) assisted by a small committee. Really? This is the first we have heard of this committee. While we investigate this further, the CBC's story can be accessed by Clicking Here! |
| 2018-05-30 |
Another confirmation, this time from one of our veteran plate spotters that the Veteran passenger series has rolled over to the "VCA" block (after 14 years). To read more about the Veteran base, Click Here! |
| 2018-04-20 |
Occasionally, a very interesting license plate will appear on eBay and, if you looked away for only a moment today, you probably missed a prototype of the BC Parks plate which we calculated to have been on the auction site for a grand total of 5 seconds before someone hit the buy-it-now button ($150 CDN for those keeping track). Fortunately, we have saved the photos and if you want to see this specimen, just Click Here! |
| 2018-04-03 |
A low-key announcement by ICBC today (on Twitter) that approximately 86,000 BC Parks plates have now been sold, which has resulted in $610,000 going into a new "Student Ranger Program". To read more about the milestone; Click Here! |
| 2018-04-03 |
Another Bulletin was released by the Corporation today (No. 23), this time regarding what to do in those "rare circumstances" (as rare as when you encounter a decal with no ink - we wonder?) when a customer can purchase a "System Wide Outage Temporary Operation Permit (SWOT)" and display this on their vehicle instead of a BC license plate. We here at BCpl8s.ca must confess that we had never even heard of a SWOT before (other than during our last corporate retreat when the team did a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats analysis). For posterity, we have archived the Bulletin, which can be accessed by simply Clicking Here! |
| 2018-03-13 |
Tabernacle!
The results for ALPCA's 2017 "Best License
Plate Award" have been released and British
Columbia's BC Parks optional base plate
finished 6th. To see how the voting shaked out, Click here. |
| 2018-02-24 |
Confirmation today that the first set of passenger plates from the GA0-00A series have been spotted, right on schedule (based on the predictions made back on December 10, 2017). Next stop will be the HA0-00A series in September of 2018 (and JA0-00A by April of 2019). To see when the previous letters were rolled out, Click Here! |
| 2018-02-05 |
The
nominations for ALPCA's 2017 "Best License
Plate Award" have been released and the BC Parks optional base plate has made the cut
along with other Canadian plates from Manitoba
and Prince Edward Island. To read about it, Click
here. |
| 2018-01-15 |
The final tally is in from our Statistics Department; approximately 673,000 passenger license plates were issued in 2017, which represents an increase of 0.7% over the total number of passenger plates issued for 2016. |
| 2018-01-07 |
The first plates in the new Collector series (0M0-000) are beginning to be spotted on the roads. When we get our hands on a photo of one of these plates, we'll be posting it to the Collector page, so be sure to Click Here! |
| 2017-11-01 |
SPOILER ALERT! It is that time of the year again and continuing that great newspaper tradition from the 1920s through the 1960s we are pleased to break the news on the new license plate decals for 2019! The colours are to be black-on-yellow (much like the 2015 decals)! When we get our hands on a photo of the new decal we'll update this link. |
| 2017-10-04 |
The Merritt Herald ran a story today regarding a recent donation of some nice 1942 BC plates to the Merritt License Plate Museum. To read more about it, just Click Here! |
| 2017-09-22 |
The spotting of "TRUMP" personalised BC plates on various social media platforms prompted us to do some research which turned up some surprising past decisions by the MVB and ICBC regarding the ability to put a political figure's name on your plate. To see what we came up with, Click Here! |
| 2018-08-06 |
The 8th annual Okanagan Valley License Plate Meet was held in Summerland today with approximately 15-18 collectors in attendance. Fun was had by all, and to see the group picture, Click here. |
| 2017-07-12 |
Confirmation today that the first set of passenger plates from the FA0-00A series have been spotted, right on schedule (based on the predictions made back on December 10, 2017). Next stop will be the GA0-00A series in February of 2018. To see when the previous letters were rolled out, Click Here! |
| 2017-07-01 |
10 years ago this month (sometime) the province released a re-designed Consular base incorporating the red background that was common on the diplomatic plates used by Ontario for decades. To read about this event, just Click Here! |
| 2017-06-28 |
An update on sales of the BC Parks plates was released today (the pending defeat of the Liberals in the Legislature seems to be un-sticking government news) and, according to ICBC, "an astounding 37,000" have been sold, "smashing sales projections" to reach a milestone that was not expected to be crossed until 2022 (or five years ahead of schedule). To read more, Click Here! |
| 2017-06-09 |
With the exhaustion of the 'LV' bloc on the current Veteran Commercial Truck base expectations were that the next suffix bloc in the series would be "LW" but in a surprise twist the Corporation has gone backwards to the "LT" suffix. Apparently there were still combinations available in the LT suffix, so this had to be used first. |
| 2017-06-01 |
Further to our post on March 22nd, the Corporation released a Bulletin (No. 20) today updating the letters that are to be used on the Collector passenger and motorcycle plates when the current 'B' bloc is exhausted. Instead of the letter 'A', the letters 'M' and 'N' will be used on passenger plates with the letter 'P' being put aside for use on motorcycle plates. We assume this will result in an updated Licence Plate Identification Guide soon. To read the Bulletin, simply Click Here! |
| 2017-05-22 |
With the exhaustion of the 'X' bloc on the current motorcycle plates, the Corporation has begun issuing plates starting with a 'Y' prefix (i.e. "Y00-000"). |
| 2017-05-15 |
Usually there is a purpose to the Bulletin's that ICBC issues on various plate related matters. With Bulletin No. 19, however, we are not quite sure what the purpose is other than to maybe remind everyone that there is such a thing as Consul plates (as there is no information about these plates on the Corporation's site) and maybe to note the pending 10 year anniversary of the Consul plates re-design in June(?). To read the Bulletin, simply Click Here! |
| 2017-04-16 |
Ten years ago today the province issued the Olympic license plate; the first non-restricted specialty plate offered to motorists in British Columbia! Over the course of the 3+ years it was available for sale, 196,305 plates were sold (or is that 208,000?). A decade on and there are still approximately 59,000 cars sporting the plates, which is about 30% of the original total. Feel like reminiscing with us? Then Click Here to read more! |
| 2017-04-03 |
The long anticipated news of a specialty license plate program in British Columbia was finally made by the Corporation today with the release of a Request for Expressions of Interest (REOI) from potential sponsor organizations to help guide the development of the program with a formal call for applications likely occurring in the fall of 2017 (with plates available for purchase in 2018). To read more, Click Here! |
| 2017-04-02 |
Five months into the program and we have some issuing information on the Memorial Cross plates. According to the Corporation there have been approximately 18 passenger plates issued and 8 commercial truck plates. While there have been a few spottings of these plates in the wild (including a grainy photo that could also be a sasquatch) we are still waiting to acquire a high quality photo. If you have one, please drop us a line. |
| 2017-03-26 |
The CBC has run a story calling out the province and ICBC for misleading motorists purchasing one of the new BC Parks plates about how much of there $50 fee is actually going to the BC Parks Enhancement Fund. To see what all the fuss is about, Click Here! |
| 2017-03-25 |
After many years of neglect, the BCpl8s.ca team has finally devoted some resources to updating our page on Temporary Operating Permits (TOPs) - those ephemeral paper counterparts to the more traditional metal license plate. To see what we have been up to, Click Here! |
| 2017-03-22 |
An interesting tidbit in the new Identification Guide from ICBC reported on below, the Collector plates, which are nearing exhaustion under the current B00-000 format have been updated in the Guide to reveal a new serial format! While we are waiting to be truly surprised with the first 7-digit plate in BC, alas, it is not to be the Collector which will be moving to a 0A0-000 format (which is much the same as the 0B0-000 format used on the Off-Road Vehicle plates and explains why these plates started with a "B"). To read more, simply Click Here! |
| 2017-03-22 |
ICBC was kind enough to forward the most recent iteration of their "BC Licence Plate Identification Guide" (March 2017), a copy of which can be accessed from the BCpl8s.ca main page, or just Click here! |
| 2017-03-19 |
ICBC "tweeted" some more sales information about the new BC Parks plates today. In less than a month since the announcement of 5,000 plates being sold, the Corporation has now moved over 10,000 of the plates! We are trying to tweet ... I mean tease some numbers out of them to see if the Kermode is still the most popular. To read more, simply Click Here! |
| 2017-03-16 |
ICBC released one of their intermittent Bulletin's today (No. 18), which provides an update on the pending closure of the Corporation's Burnaby Warehouse, or what we like to call the epicentre of British Columbia license plates. This is the place where plates are received by ICBC from Waldale, stored and then shipped to various Autoplan Agents across the province for issuing to motorists. It is also the place where all license plates returned to Autoplan Agents (and others) are returned and checked by ICBC before ultimately being send off for recycling? We have posted a brief blurb on this, to read it simply Click Here! |
| 2017-02-22 |
In what we are taking to be a sign of the times, ICBC "tweeted"(!) today some sales information pertaining to the new BC Parks plates. In less than a month over 5,000 of the plates have now been sold! After a little prompting, the tweeters at ICBC were also kind enough to provide a breakdown of this number by design. Any guess as to which has been the most popular? To see if you are right, simply Click Here! |
| 2017-02-07 |
The Corporation released one of its Bulletin's today in order to address an emerging problem with some of the 2017 decals, namely disappearing ink (or, as ICBC prefers to call it; "fading" ink). To read more about this, simply Click Here! |
| 2017-02-06 |
Following a little sleuthing on various social media platforms, we have been able to identify the photographer of the Kermode Bear and Purcell Mountain images used on the BC Parks base. To find out who it is, simply Click Here! |
| 2017-01-29 |
Today is the day that the BC Parks plates go on sale! In an attempt to track down some of the cooler letter/number combinations, one of our dedicated field agents has been compiling known combinations at various Autoplan Agents throughout the province. To see if there is anything cool near you, simply Click Here! (NOTE: this info will get very dated, very fast and we are not planning on updating it) |
| 2017-01-18 |
Christmas in January! Ministers Todd Stone and Mary Polak unveiled the design(s) of the new BC Parks plates that had been announced back on November 28th at an event at Jack Poole Plaza in Vancouver this morning! Unfortunately, the plates will not go on sale until January 29th but we have updated the BC Parks page with the Kermode Bear, Purcell Mountain and Porteau Cove designs and a whole bunch of other information too. To read and see more, simply Click Here! |
| 2016-12-30 |
Interesting story in the Merritt Herald this regarding the Off-Road Vehicle (ORV) plates. Of the estimated 200,000 ORVs in British Columbia, around 105,000 have now been issued ORV plates. To read the whole story, simply Click Here! |
| 2016-12-10 |
First sighting of a passenger plate with an "EA0-00A" pre fix today by our Director Plate Spottings. This is slightly ahead of schedule and we are now anticipating that the first "FA-" passenger plates will be hitting the roads sometime in late June or early July of 2017! |
| 2016-11-28 |
When it rains, it pours! In one calendar month, the provincial government has announced the creation of two separate specialty license plates! First was the Memorial Cross Recipient plates we covered below, and then came today's announcement regarding the creation of a plate as part of the government's BC Parks Future Strategy. While details are scant at this point, what we do know is that sales of the plate will be reinvested in provincial parks and that the design is to be unveiled in the coming weeks. As more details become available we will be sure to post them. To visit our page, simply Click Here! |
| 2016-11-10 |
In time for Remembrance Day, the provincial government announced a new restricted specialty license plate today; Memorial Cross Recipient! Eligibility for the plates is restricted to family members (or other "loved ones") of members of the Canadian Armed Forces who have died while in service (so we are, hopefully, not expecting this to be a common plate type). To mark the birth of this new plate, we have set-up a new page on BCpl8s.ca. To access it, simply Click Here! |
| 2016-11-01 |
Global News Vancouver ran a video segment on ICBCs Personalized Number Plate (PNP) Program (check the Licence Plate Identification Guide, PNPs are what vanity plates in BC are formally called) during the 6pm New Hour show today. While we firmly subscribe to the old adage that any news coverage of license plates is good coverage, we wonder if Global could not have pushed the envelope a little bit more than they did and explore a different angle than one that has been covered numerous times by the print media over the past decade? To see the segment as well as our suggestions for future PNP stories, Click Here! |
| 2016-10-24 |
SPOILER ALERT! It is that time of the year again and continuing that great newspaper tradition from the 1920s through the 1960s we are pleased to break the news on the new license plate decals for 2018! The colours are to be black-on-orange (much like the 2013 decals)! To see the new decal, Click Here! |
| 2016-09-23 |
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (UK, not Ontario) are due to touch done in Victoria around 4pm today, so the social media team here at BCpl8s.ca is preparing for a blitz of images of the Royals touring the province in their motorcade, including the photos of the distinctive red plates that have been used in the past. As these images come in, we will be posting them to the site. To see what we have, Click Here! |
| 2016-09-20 |
Thanks to the good folks at ICBC, we have been able to procure the statistics used to establish Langley as the hot rod capital of BC mentioned in the previous post. To read more about which communities rate highest for Collector plates, Click Here! |
| 2016-09-18 |
An interesting article in the Langley Times to coincide with the semi-annual Drive-In; according to ICBC Langley is the hot rod capital of the province on the basis that it has the highest proportion of Collector plates issued to residents per capita of any community in BC. According to the article, there is roughly one car with a Collector plate for every 100 residents in the City and Township of Langley. To read the article, Click Here! |
| 2016-08-09 |
Ha-ha! Although our query to the media folks at ICBC was recently rebuffed, it appears the Vancouver Sun has had much more luck, running a story today about " ICBC rolls out massive computer system project for brokers". As we thought, "it’s the last step in the corporation’s $400-million “transformation” project, which started several years ago and replaces technology up to 40 years old." Absent from the announcement, however, is anything to do with the specialty license plate program. |
| 2016-08-08 |
No news on "Transformation 2014", but the media folks alerted me to an announcement regarding an expansion of the Collector plate to modified vehicles up to an including the 1974 model year (previously, it was only to 1958. Apparently, this will "allow eligible modified vehicles within the “muscle car” era into the program". To read the official news release, Click Here! |
| 2016-08-05 |
Rumours are starting to fly about potential delays on the system used by Autoplan Agents to register vehicles this month! Could this finally be the start of the "Transformation 2014" computer system upgrades coming to the Vehicle Registration Department? When we find out more, we will post to this page. |
| 2016-07-30 |
The seventh annual Okanagan Valley License Plate Meet was held in Summerland today with approximately 15-18 collectors in attendance. Fun was had by all, and to see the group picture, Click here. |
| 2016-07-08 |
Great story on the Driving.ca web-site regarding the early history of the Collector plate. Sure wish I had tracked down Russ Fraser when I was working on the book. Oh well ... will properly attribute parts of this story when I add it to the Collector page. In the meantime, to read it for yourself, Click Here! |
| 2016-06-27 |
An interesting tidbit from Pierre Delacote today; if you happen to have an amateur radio plate and would like to find out some information about who had the call sign (and plate), this can be searched by Clicking Here! |
| 2016-06-20 |
First spottings of the new 2017 decals that we reported on back in February are starting to be seen around the province. In time, we will have come real-life specimens posted to the Decals page, so check back soon to see what these look like. |
| 2016-05-20 |
Confirmation today that the first set of passenger plates from the DD0-00D series have been spotted, right on schedule (well, actually, two weeks early, but that is probably well within our margin or error). Next stop will be the EE0-00E series in February of 2017. |
| 2016-05-13 |
So, it has begun! A chance finding on the internet of an announcement by BC Golf and the Allied Golf Association (AGA) of British Columbia that they are pursuing a "Canada's Golf Capital" specialty license plate with ICBC with any monies raised to purportedly be equally split between marketing and youth engagement in the sport. Even more interesting, the announcement is suggesting such a plate will be available in the Fall of 2016 ( UPDATE: this claim is false). Check out our main page in a few months time for a link to specialty plates in BC. In the meantime, to read about the BC Golf and AGA Announcement, Click Here! |
| 2016-04-24 |
Yawn! A bunch of dudes with sport's cars don't like the aesthetic of a front license plate and, therefore, want the province to do away with them and have started a petition to this end. To view the petition, Click Here. |
| 2016-04-08 |
We here at BCpl8s.ca are celebrating a rare occurrence today, the completion of an oddball run of annual plates - this time for Commercial Trailer - for the years 1921 through to 1973! Fortunate smiled upon us with an email from a friend of the site who noticed we had a blank space for 1922 and that they happened to have a 1922 in their collection (unissued no less and likely from the stash that was found in Clinton all those years ago). To see the newly completed Commercial Trailer run, Click Here! |
| 2016-03-26 |
The
32nd Annual Pacific Northwest Regional License Plate
Meet was held today, as always, in Burnaby. Fun
was had by all who attended and we are looking forward
to next year, which is tentatively scheduled for
March 25th, 2017. To see the group picture, Click
here. |
| 2016-02-06 |
Thanks to a friend of the site, we have been able to obtain a seemingly RARE copy of Wrigley's 1932 "Automobile and Truck Owners' Directory of Greater Vancouver"! For those unfamiliar with these directories, they list every registered vehicle in the City of Vancouver by plate number and include the owner's name and address and vehicle type. Needless to say, we promptly scanned this directory with OCR enabled, meaning you can search it at your leisure! To access the directory (which clocks in at 50mb in size), just Click Here! |
| 2016-02-03 |
ICBC has posted one of their irregular Bulletins related to vehicle registration issues, this time seeking to clarify what to do as 2016 is a Leap Year (they issued a similar Bulletin in 2012). Of interest to us plate geeks, the Corporation is alternating the appearance of the 2017 decals, starting with those issued for expiry in "July 2017". The rounded corners seen between 1999-2009 are making a comeback, while the font is being reduced, the green altered slightly and the visibility of the hologram increased. To read more about it, Click Here! |
| 2016-01-11 |
Another one for the "X Files" thanks, again, to Rick Pilotte of Esquimalt whose hawk like eyes caught an oddity which appeared in the April 2004 issue of the Number Plate Collectors Club (NPCC) of Australia Newsletter; namely a photo of Verne Schuldt (since deceased) holding a 1917 BC plate No. 14401! This plate is significantly higher than the total of 13,000 thought to have been issued and we here at BCpl8s.ca would dearly like to obtain a high quality version of this plate - assuming it can be tracked down! To see more, Click Here! |
| 2015-11-02 |
25 years ago today, the province announced the introduction of the Collector license plate program. To read more about this plate type, Click Here! |
| 2015-10-30 |
SPOILER
ALERT! It is that time of the year again and continuing that great newspaper tradition from the 1920s through the 1960s we are pleased to break the news on the new license plate decals for 2017! The colours are to be black-on-green! To see the decal, just Click Here! |
| 2015-10-15 |
It seems to finally be happening! No more delays or extensions for the registration of off-road vehicles and the in the lead-up to the November 1 deadline, the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations staged a media event on the front steps of the Legislature to get the word out the people need to get their vehicles registered. The results, well, we don't know yet, but we here at BCpl8s.ca sure appreciate the cornucopia of photos and videos, some of which we have posted, just Click here! |
2015-09-03 |
We here at BCpl8s.ca have our own version of the X-Files and have long heard rumours of a "non-compliant" version of the Prorate plate that was issued shortly after Waldale won the plate contract from ICBC back in 2002. Well, thanks to a serendipitous search of the Francoplaque web-site (being the home of French plate collectors), we have found our smoking gun. To read more, Click here! |
| 2015-08-28 |
Another neat story in the Vancouver Sun today from John Mackie regarding the impending retirement of John Tanner from the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre . The best part about the story was Tanner's recollection of "the license plate fiasco" that got him fired from CKLG in 1970. To read more, Click here! |
| 2015-08-20 |
Not something you see very often as the Delta Police posted some images of doctored/altered license plates and decals on their Facebook page today. We have captured the images and placed them Here for ease of access and your viewing enjoyment! |
| 2015-08-11 |
ICBC was kind enough to forward the most recent iteration of their "BC Licence Plate Identification Guide" (November 2014), a copy of which can be accessed from the BCpl8s.ca main page, or just Click here! |
| 2015-08-02 |
The sixth annual Okanagan Valley License Plate Meet was held in Summerland today with approximately 15-18 collectors in attendance. Fun was had by all, and to see the group picture, Click here. |
| 2015-07-11 |
Word from our Director of Plate Spotting today that the "D" suffix used on Commercial Trailers has been exhausted and, as expected, the series has shifted back to the "U" suffix last seen on the Olympic Commercial Trailer base in 2007 (of which only about 227 were issued). We are assuming that the series is starting somewhere after the Olympic bloc, with the lowest number seen to date being in the 0300-0U range. Are you interested in the Commercial Trailer base? Then Click here! |
| 2015-06-18 |
As we mentioned back in March, an important case involving specialty license plates was being considered by the US Supreme Court. Well, today the decision came down and the States have the ability to deny requests for such plates, meaning Texas will not have to issue a plate displaying the Confederate Battle flag. Similarly, North Carolina will not have to make available a plate for pro-choice advocates, while New York will not have to issue a plate for choose life advocates. For an overview of the case, we recommend the SCOTUSblog site. Otherwise, a Google search will probably tell you everything you need to know. |
| 2015-05-31 |
In a surprise move, ICBC appears to have used the occasion of the Utility Trailer plates running out of combinations under the "UAA" prefix to implement a minor redesign of the plates. While the new prefix starting at "WAA" is not that surprising, what is surprising is that the redesign does not appear to have followed the Corporation's own internal (and unconfirmed) policy regarding plate redesigns. In addition, the "Beautiful" slogan has been dropped from the plates - a first since its introduction in 1986. To read more about all the changes, Click here. |
| 2015-05-20 |
News today from the province that mandatory licensing of ATVs has been deferred from June 1, 2015, to November 1, 2015, in order to allow additional time for certain details to be worked out by bureaucrats. The more surprising element, however, is word that an "ICBC-issued numbered sticker" will now be an option for off-roaders not keen on affixing a metal number plate to their vehicle. To read more about it, Click here. |
| 2015-04-24 |
Right on schedule, the first "BA0-00A" plates are starting to be issued, meaning the Corporation has already burned through about 360,000 plates of the new series in about 8 months! The next milestone should occur in November of this year when the first plates in the "CA0-00A" bloc begin to be issued. Stay tuned! |
| 2015-03-28 |
The
31st Annual Pacific Northwest Regional License Plate
Meet was held today, as always, in Burnaby. Fun
was had by all who attended and we are looking forward
to next year, which is tentatively scheduled for
March 26th, 2016. To see the group picture, Click
here. |
| 2015-03-23 |
A big event in the world of license plates today with the US Supreme Court hearing oral arguments in the case of The Sons of Confederate Veterans vs. the State of Texas with the issue being the ability of an issuing authority to control the images that appear on specialty license plates. A fantastic overview of the legal issues at question has been provided on the SCOTUSblog site, while an audio recording of the event can be found on the Supreme Court's web site. A decision - which will be the first one since the Court last considered license plate in the 1977 case of Wooley v. Maynard - is expected sometime this summer. |
| 2015-03-10 |
A spotting on the road today of a motorcycle plate with a "W" prefix! To read more about motorcycle sequences, Click here! |
| 2015-02-28 |
The
province announced today that it is extending the use of Passenger Carrier license plates to limousines and party-buses. According to the media release, this "eliminates the competitive advantage that General Authorization limousine licensees previously had, which allowed them to set rates, work anywhere in the province, and add vehicles to their fleet at any time" (what the province is proposing to do about the "private car" rideshare Uber is less clear). To see some photos from the announcement, Click Here! |
| 2015-02-21 |
Dave Doroghy, the Director of Sponsorship Sales for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games (2005-2010) has released a very interesting reflection on the role he played in helping to create the Winter Games license plate! To read Dave's column, Click Here! |
| 2015-02-20 |
We are pleased to announce the Grand Opening of Don Schneider's "Merritt License Plate Museum" this coming March 1st in the Nicola Valley city of (where else?) Merritt! The BCpl8s.ca team has been helping Don build a small web presence for his museum, which can be found by Clicking Here! The grand opening party will be from 11am to 3pm and contact details for Don can be found on the web-page. Don is a regular contributor to this site and having seen some of the gems of his collection we encourage those who will be finding themselves in the Merritt area on the 1st to stop by and check out the past 100 years of BC plates! |
| 2015-01-03 |
This Week in History - brought to you by the Vancouver Sun! Way back on January 3, 1967, the Sun ran a headline proclaiming "Who says alcohol and automobiles don’t mix?" (gawd, sometimes I think I was born 30 years too late - I kid!). According to the Sun, "the red on white plates, which were rolled out to commemorate Canada’s centennial, were so popular the motor vehicles branch had to 'call in extra men from the government liquor store staff' to cope with a rush." In all the research I did for the book, I thought I had read everything in the Sun ever printed about license plates, but this is one article I have not yet seen. To read the Sun's summary, including a nice plug for my book (at the end), Click Here! |
| 2014-12-31 |
We will be marking a moment of silence this evening for AirCare, the provincial vehicle emissions testing stations who, all those many years ago, prompted the government to introduce day deals onto the middle of our license plates in order to help ease the month-end crush of motorists swarming the limited testing stations in the Vancouver area in order to get the all-clear (so to speak) and thus be able to renew their insurance. Apparently, AirCare has become a victim of its own success as cars now run much cleaner than 20 years ago while all the big polluting hogs have been run off the road (or moved out of the Fraser Valley). RIP AirCare... |
| 2014-12-15 |
Thanks to their incredible powers of observation (and a mathematical mind I simply don't possess), our Chief Statistician was able to decipher a very interesting trend in BC license plate combinations - a trend that ICBC recently confirmed - and which I can share with you now (rather belatedly). In short, you will never see a plate in the new sequence which will have the No. 4 as the third character (i.e. AA4-00A). Why is this? To find out, Click Here! To also find out about some other interesting letter / number exclusions, Click Here! |
| 2014-12-06 |
35 years ago today, the first personalised license plate ("HEALEY") was issued to Richard Rogers of White Rock by then Minister of Transportation Alex Fraser in Victoria. |
| 2014-12-03 |
Today, I had the pleasure of speaking with Stephen Quinn, host of CBC Radio's "On the Coast" show, for about 5 mins on the subject of British Columbia license plates - which was all prompted by his noticing the new serial format. A clip of our conversation can be accessed by Clicking here!! (I hope this link works) |
| 2014-11-17 |
Five years after announcing their imminent release, the government finally unveiled the Off-Road Vehicle licence plates today! In all honesty, we are not entirely sure about all the differences between these plates and the existing Restricted plates, but as we work our way through it, you can read about it by Clicking here!! |
| 2014-11-12 |
ICBC was kind enough to forward the most recent iteration of their "BC Licence Plate Identification Guide" (May 2014), a copy of which can be accessed from the BCpl8s.ca main page, or just Click here! |
| 2014-11-12 |
SPOILER
ALERT! It is that time of the year again and continuing that great newspaper tradition from the 1920s through the 1960s we are pleased to break the news on the new license plate decals for 2016! The colours are to be black-on-magenta! While we have yet to see the actual decal (photos to follow as soon as possible) we are guessing this is going to look a lot like the 2003 decals. |
| 2014-11-06 |
In the lead up to Remembrance Day ceremonies next week, the provincial government made an announcement regarding the 10th anniversary of the Veteran license plate and the fact that 50,000 (well, 51,400 to be exact) plates have been issued over the past decade. Interestingly, the break-down is 36,000 passenger plates; 8,700 commercial truck plates; and 6,700 motorcycle plates. To see a photo of Minster Rich Coleman (who was in the room 11 years ago when the plates were first pitched to the government) just Click Here! |
| 2014-10-17 |
We are going to file this entry under "Absurd"! Word today that Rhode Island (yes, Rhode Island!) is attempting to usurp the "Beautiful" slogan for their new license plates to be issued in 2015. You gotta be kiddin me! Rhode Island? Utah's dalliance with the "bee-Utah-ful" slogan a couple of decades ago was a little more credible but just as misplaced (maybe not so much as Rhode Island) as, clearly, everyone associates British Columbia and "Beautiful" as being synonymous (okay, maybe not motorists in the "Belle Province" but we won't mention that). Come on Rhode Island, is there even enough of you to be beautiful? Aren't you really just part of Connecticut? To read more about this hilarity, Click Here! |
| 2014-08-15 |
THEY ARE HERE! The first of the new AA0-00A format plates are now appearing on the roads and the best new nickname that we have heard is that of the "Royal Mail Postcode" format to describe the new placement of numbers and letters (thanks W.Mc.). We have posted a couple of photos that have landed in our in-box on the appropriate page, to see these just Click Here! |
| 2014-08-02 |
The fifth annual Okanagan Valley License Plate Meet was held in Summerland today with approximately 10-12 collectors in attendance. Fun was had by all, and to see the group picture, Click
here. |
| 2014-05-01 |
Not quite plate related, but ICBC announced today that they are replacing the sequential order of driver's licenses with a totally random sequence. To read more, Click Here! |
| 2014-04-30 |
It is not often that our headlines here in BCpl8s.ca correspond with the headlines in the mainstream media, but just such an intersection occurred today with Ted Chernecki of Global BC News doing a story on the impending switch-over to the new AA0-00A serial format. To view the story, just Click Here. |
| 2014-04-25 |
Its official! The Corporation announced today the official switch in the numbering system on passenger license plates to AA0-00A after the current 000-AAA format is exhausted in June. A couple of interesting factoids from the "Bulletin"; the Flag graphic is being retained, the current series will last for an estimated 8-10 years (how disappointing), the use of a dual decal well on passenger plates seems to be official, and Automated Licence Plate Recognition (ALPR) systems across the province are in the process of being recalibrated to read the new format ahead of the June release. To read more, we have archived the Bulletin on BCpl8s.ca, just Click Here. |
| 2014-04-16 |
Thanks to fellow BC plate aficionado Jeff Banerd (EDIT: and others!), we have our first photographic evidence of the surplus Olympic allocation being used on the "Flag" base, just Click Here for a photo. |
| 2014-04-12 |
Kudos to our in-house statistician! Their estimate of the 000-AAA format being exhausted by April 14, 2014 has essentially been confirmed with word that - surprise, surprise - left over combinations from the Olympic allocation are now appearing on vehicles (these would be plates in the 000-MJG through to 999-MXX bloc). This explains why ICBC is advising that the 000-AAA format will not be exhausted until June and not our earlier estimate of April. Stay tuned for photos! |
| 2014-04-02 |
Recent news from the Corporation regarding the exhaustion of the current 000-AAA passenger format is that the plan remains to go to a 'AA0-00A' format and that plates in this new serial be shipped to Autoplan Agents in early to mid-June. Stay tuned for more details! |
| 2014-03-29 |
The
30th Annual Pacific Northwest Regional License Plate
Meet was held today, as always, in Burnaby. Fun
was had by all who attended and we are looking forward
to next year, which is tentatively scheduled for
March 28th, 2015. To see the group picture, Click
here. |
| 2014-03-24 |
The
province's new Off-Road Vehicle Act received Royal Assent from the Lieutenant Governor today. While we are assuming that this means that the legislation is now in effect, it appears that ICBC has not released any information about ATVs and similar types of off-road vehicles are now to be registered despite the Act requiring the Corporation to issue - under Section 10 - "a number plate, decal or sticker". We look forward to see if this is going to result in a new license plate type! |
| 2014-01-18 |
As combinations continue to click off the 000-AAA series and no news on the status of Transformation 2014 is forthcoming, keen plate spotters are waiting with interest for the change-over to the new AA0-00A series which ICBC informs is what is coming next. Our Stats Department here at BCpl8s.ca is predicting that plate No. 999-XXX is due to be issued on or around April 14, 2014. Until then, we can report that a plate in the WSW bloc with a 'BMR1' hologram has recently been spotted (meaning the base plate - prior to being stamped - was produced in July 2013). Will we see new dies when plates from the new contract (finalised in September of 2013) being to be issued? |
| 2013-11-17 |
It has been a while since we added any new content in relation to a particular plate type but we are happy to report that two specific types of plates have been elevated to the status of having their own page! Yes, I am talking about the "Foreign Touring" decals issued in the 1920s, which can be read about by Clicking Here; and the National Parks plates issued out of Golden in the 1930s (and possibly in the 1920s as well) along with a sub-section on those nifty little buffalo shaped radiator badges put out by Parks Canada from 1925-1940, all of which can be read about by Clicking Here! |
| 2013-10-25 |
SPOILER
ALERT! It is that time of the year again and continuing that great newspaper tradition from the 1920s through the 1960s we are pleased to break the news on the new license plate decals for 2015! The colours are to be black-on-yellow! To see an example, Click Here! |
| 2013-09-03 |
Word today from the Corporation on the final revenue generated by the Olympic plates between April 16, 2007 and December 31, 2012 was $11.6 million. |
| 2013-08-23 |
A fantastic photo within the Vancouver Archives on-line collection was uncovered by our Director of Archival Research today and confirms the practice of painting numbers on vehicles, particularly motorcycles, in the pre-provincial era! To read more, Click Here. |
| 2013-08-03 |
The fourth annual Okanagan Valley License Plate Meet was held in Summerland today with approximately 10-12 collectors in attendance. Fun was had by all, and to see the group picture, Click
here. |
| 2013-07-27 |
An interesting photo that landed in our inbox last month has made us begin to question our assumptions about the use of porcelain in the pre-provincial era. While nothing has been conclusively proven, and may never be, the possibilities are intriguing. To read more, Click here. |
| 2013-07-25 |
Blink and you probably missed it! What, you ask? A Request for Quotation (RFQ) from ICBC regarding the Vehicle Licence Plate Contract, which came out on July 3rd and closed July 24th at 3pm. What's more, the Corporation is expecting to have a winning bidder by August 6th and for the contract to run for a period of six (6) years. If we were betting men and women here at BCpl8s.ca, our money would be squarely behind the Waldale juggernaut. While we wait with baited breathe for the winner to be declared, we will be spending the next two weeks adding interesting information from the RFQ to the site, such as the need for license plates to have space for 7-8 characters and that "Promotional plates may also be
introduced during the term of the contract"!!!!! For posterity, the RFQ is being archived on BCpl8s.ca, to find it just Click here. |
| 2013-07-09 |
Better late than never! ICBC
was kind enough to forward the most recent iteration
of their "BC Licence Plate Identification Guide" (2012),
a copy of which can be accessed from the BCpl8s.ca
main page, or just Click
here. |
| 2013-07-04 |
The fourth annual Okanagan Valley License Plate Meet will be held in Summerland on August 3rd with a projected start time of around noon. If you are interested in attending please drop Ron Garay a line at rgaray@direct.ca. |
| 2013-03-30 |
The
29th Annual Pacific Northwest Regional License Plate
Meet was held today, as always, in Burnaby. Fun
was had by all who attended and we are looking forward
to next year, which is tentatively scheduled for
March 29th, 2014. To see the group picture, Click
here. |
| 2013-03-05 |
After much neglect, a major update of the "Highs" page has finally been completed! We encourage all readers to pay a visit and see if they can top any of the plates shown and, if so, to consider sending us a photo (we promise to make more timely updates in future). To see how "High" we got doing this update, Click Here. |
| 2013-03-01 |
Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday ... Big day today, as it is the 100th anniversary of the first provincially issued license plates on March 1, 1913, following the adoption of a series amendments to the Motor-traffic Regulation Act, one of which included a requirement that the "Superintendent of Provincial Police shall also issue and deliver to the applicant at the time of the issue of any licence under the provision of this section ... two number-plates for each motor ... having thereon the licence number of such motor, the initials 'B.C.' and the year of issue." |
| 2013-01-01 |
It is that time of year again to look in the rear-view mirror and consider the big license plate stories of the past 12 months! It seems to us that the biggest story of the year was the decision by the Privacy Commissioner to wade into the emerging debate over the use of information collected by ALPR technology (i.e. those cameras on police cars that scan license plates), and the implications of this technology as a driving force in the design and use of license plates in the coming years.
Honourable mentions go out to the expanded Military Veteran's license plate program, the "beginning of the end" with the issuance of plates from the last bloc of 000-AAA "Flag" plates; and the re-designed decals for 2013. |
| 2012-11-01 |
SPOILER
ALERT! It is that time of the year again and continuing that great newspaper tradition from the 1920s through the 1960s we are pleased to break the news on the new license plate decals for 2014! The colours are to be black-on-green with a couple of new modifications including the full date (i.e. "2014") and a vertically aligned "BRITISH COLUMBIA". To see a graphic representation of the new decals, Click Here. |
| 2012-10-19 |
The first plate (i.e. 688-LXW) from the 16th bloc of the "Flag" graphic was spotted on the roads of Langley today! For those not familiar with BC's licence plate numbering system, this is the last bloc of 1,000,000 plates in the 000-AAA format which was begun in 2001, and represents plates in the 000-LLL through to 999-XXX range and, even more importantly, heralds the likely end of this format by early 2014! We here at BCpl8s.ca have it on good authority that ICBC will likely be switching to a AA0-00A format for passenger plates until "Transformation 2014" is complete and their computer systems upgraded, after which BC will likely follow the lead of its neighbours in Alberta and Washington State and introduce a 7-digit format. |
| 2012-08-04 |
The third annual Okanagan Valley License Plate Meet was held in Summerland today with approximately 13 collectors in attendance. Fun was had by all, and to see the group picture, Click
here. |
| 2012-07-21 |
We here at BCpl8s.ca are pleased to announce a partnership with the BC Archives (which are part of the Royal BC Museum) in which we have been granted approval to post images of the Motor Vehicle Branch Registers used between 1904 and the early 1920s. This represents fourteen different volumes with information on the pre-provincial era as well as the first 17,000 numbers issued. This project will take many months to complete, but the first Registers are available now and can be found under the Vehicle Registration Data Archive, or simply by Clicking Here. Be sure to check back in future for more updates. |
| 2012-07-04 |
The third annual Okanagan Valley License Plate Meet will be held in Summerland on August 4th with a projected start time of around noon. If you are interested in attending please drop Ron Garay a line at rgaray@direct.ca. |
| 2012-06-29 |
News from the Province today that the Veteran license plate program is being expanded to include current serving members of the armed services. For us here at BCpl8s.ca, if active military personnel can qualify for these plates are they really "Veteran" plates anymore, or should they be re-named to "Military" plates? To read more about it, Click Here. |
| 2012-06-06 |
For those interested in the progress of "Tales from the Back Bumper", the draft manuscript was submitted to Heritage House today, but it seems that an editor is not going to be available until September, so looks like I have the summer off to focus on a few side projects, one of which I hope to be announcing shortly (and it relates to the Registration Data Archive). |
| 2012-05-23 |
Word from one of our Full-patch BCpl8s.ca members today that the next letter to be used on the motorcycle plates following the completion of the 'S' prefix is the letter 'U'! To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time outside of the utility trailer base that the letter 'U' has been used (yes, this letter does appear on the personalised and ham radio plates). |
| 2012-03-31 |
The
28th Annual Pacific Northwest Regional License Plate
Meet was held today, as always, in Burnaby. Fun
was had by all who attended and we are looking forward
to next year, which is tentatively scheduled for
March 30th, 2013. To see the group picture, Click
here. |
| 2012-01-07 |
If you are like me, you have been waiting a long time for the annual announcement of the new colour scheme on the decals. I am not sure what happened this year and why we are so late in getting our hands on the colours, hopefully we can obtain the 2014 colours a lot sooner. Anyway's, without further ado, the 2013 decals are black-on-orange, Click here to see them in living colour! If we didn't know any better (and maybe we do), it would appear that the Corporation has reverted to a rotating colour scheme and that we will not be seeing a blue decal in the foreseeable future. We wonder, however, if the orange on the 2013 is presenting enough of a contrast with the pink of the 2012 decal? Driving around in the dull light of winter it is hard to distinguish the two ... |
| 2012-01-05 |
Interesting tidbit of information from the Corporation today, apparently a further $2.45 million was collected from the renewal of 2010 Winter Games (also known as Olympic) license plates in 2011. Considering that the average renewal cost is $25, this equates to roughly 98,000 Olympic plates still on the road in 2011. While impressive, it does represent only 50% of the total number of Olympic plates that were issued between 2007 and December 31, 2010. It will be even more interesting to see what this tally is by the end of 2012, which is the last year the $25 fee will be collected. Happy New Year VANOC and many happy renewals! |
| 2012-01-01 |
It is that time of year again to look in the rear-view mirror and consider the big license plate stories of the past 12 months! Unlike the cornucopia of stories from which we could pick in 2010, the number of stories in 2011 has been considerably lower key. That said, we have decided the Corporation's formal announcement of "Transformation 2014" is the biggest story of the year as it has the potential to usher in significant changes to the way we think of licence plates in this province. Unfortunately, from what he have been able to ascertain from the Corporation, Vehicle Licencing and Registration will be one of the last Department's to have their computer systems upgraded. So, we will probably not see any new developments until the end of the "transformation" in, coincidentally, 2014, which is only 730 days away (we can't hardly wait)!
Honourable mentions go out to the redesigned motorcycle licence plate (although why the provincial government failed to also redesign the Veteran cycle and Utility Trailer plates continues to escape us); the ditching of the "Best Place on Earth" slogan by our new Premier Christy Clark (now, "Canada Starts Here"); and Heritage House Publishing for having the incredible foresight to see the merits of a book on BC licence plate history (sorry, couldn't help blowing my own horn). |
| 2011-11-08 |
First the first time in almost four years are can announce that ICBC
was kind enough to forward the most recent iteration
of their "BC Licence Plate Identification Guide",
a copy of which can be accessed from the BCpl8s.ca
main page, or just Click
here. |
| 2011-09-28 |
Much to our surprise, ICBC has begun issuing 'D' suffix plates for Commercial Trailers. We had assumed that the next letter to be used in this series would be 'E' as the Corporation would be looking to reserve the 'D' for the Dealer plate type. Such an approach is what occurred with the Prorate base when the 'P' prefix was exhausted and the series was flipped to a 'P' suffix in mid-2010. To see the new suffix, visit the Commercial Trailer page. |
| 2011-09-20 |
If you have been looking to follow BCpl8s.ca on Twitter, you will know that our uptake of this new micro-blogging service has been rather slow and, it would seem, this reluctance to embrace social media has cost us an important scoop. It would also seem that Vaughn Palmer (Vancouver Sun columnist and host of Voice of BC) tweeted back in May that, under the new leadership of Christy Clark, the provincial government had formally dropped "The Best Place on Earth" slogan (but not the logo)! This is not surprising as something similar recently happened in New Brunswick following the election of a new provincial government. One can only assume that British Columbia license plates will now remain "Beautiful" for another 50 years ... |
| 2011-07-30 |
The second annual Okanagan Valley License Plate Meet was held in Summerland today with approximately 15 collectors in attendance. Fun was had by all, and to see the group picture, Click
here. |
| 2011-07-04 |
It is not often that an unknown plate appears, but that is precisely what happened today as Jon McKillop of Vancouver has turned-up a hitherto unknown Trailer license plate from 1921 - which predates what was previously thought to be the first year of issue for these plates by two years (i.e. 1923)! To view a picture of this latest, coolest find, Click Here. |
| 2011-06-26 |
After many months of work, the Penticton chapter of BCpl8s.ca is proud present a new section of the site devoted to the history of Yukon Licence Plates! As this is an on-going project, many of the pages are still under construction, but we hope to continually be adding new information and images for your viewing enjoyment. Given the designs that various BC Premiers have had to annex the Yukon Territory over the years, this seemed like a natural extension for BCpl8s.ca, not to mention British Columbia firms supplied the majority of Territory plates throughout the 20th Century! |
| 2011-06-25 |
If anyone is looking for a way to make $100, a chap on UsedVictoria.com is looking for a photo of a Victoria carriage displaying one of the City's porcelain licence plates, unfortunately, the catch is that the photo has to be from the 1880s, which is problematic as these plates were not issued until 1913. To read more, Click Here. |
| 2011-06-18 |
Thanks to the efforts of one of our plate spotters, who also happens to be an avid golfer, we are aware of a change the Province has made to the licencing of golf carts, namely that it is no longer necessary to insure such vehicles where the carts have to cross a road in the course of play. For the official government media release, Click Here. |
| 2011-06-01 |
Although we have yet to see one on the roads of the Okanagan, word today that ICBC has redesigned the motorcycle plate at the bequest of law enforcement agencies who were having troubles reading the small dies used on the plates. Of note, the new plates will display larger dies, will use the dual decal box seen on the Olympic and Consular bases as well as the new government logo (i.e. the "BC Mark in place of the "Flag") but will retain the "Beautiful" slogan. Look for the changeover around the S59-000 mark, and for a picture by Clicking Here. |
| 2011-05-04 |
In thinking about the implications of ICBC's recently announced "Transformation 2014" this morning, I found myself contemplating that odd quote from Donald Rumsfeld about there being "things we know we know ... things we do not know ... [and] unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know" . We know ICBC is running out of combinations for the Flag graphic; yet we do not know exactly when this will occur; but what unknown unknowns may be lurking in the shadows at ICBC? We'll assign "Transformation 2014" to the list of former unknown unknowns (although we concede that there were numerous references to it in ICBC's 2009 Annual Report), and from what we have been able to glean from news reports it is principally about upgrading the Corporation's computer systems (and potentially making some Claim's Adjuster's redundant in the process). When rolled out to the licensing and registration department (presumably by 2014?) could "Transformation 2014" remove the systems limitation that has prevented the introduction of seven digit plates (be they personalised or passenger)? Only the next three years will tell ... |
| 2011-04-07 |
Things that make you go "hmmm ..." Earlier this week a 21 year-old woman was kicked off a Skytrain (Public Transit) for sporting a button that stated "Fuddle Duddle Yoga" (or something to that effect). Eager to find other examples of government sanctioned bureaucratic censorship, the media quickly zeroed in on vanity license plates with The Vancouver Province newspaper trotting out that tired old "expose" of rejected slogans (how many different iterations of this same story have we seen in the past 10 years?) The story can be read HERE, but what we found infinitely more interesting was that The Province did a Wikileaks inspired dump of the information it obtained from ICBC (through a Freedom of Information request) on its web site! To scan through the full list of slogans rejected by the Corporation between 1990 and 2010, Click here. |
| 2011-03-27 |
A nice surprise was waiting in my Inbox upon my return from the Burnaby meet, the new series Prorate plate with the dual-decal box (how many of these did I pass on the Hope-Princeton today?). Click here. |
| 2011-03-26 |
The
27th Annual Pacific Northwest Regional License Plate
Meet was held today, as always, in Burnaby. Fun
was had by all who attended and we are looking forward
to next year, which is tentatively scheduled for
either March 24th or 31st, 2012 (whichever date doesn't conflict with the Nevada meet). To see the group picture, Click
here. |
| 2011-03-15 |
Interesting story out of New Brunswick today where the newly elected provincial government has decided to drop the previous administration's license plate slogan "Be ... in this place". Click here to read more. We here at BCpl8s.ca always thought this to be a rather troublesome slogan as we have generally considered "The Place to Be" is in the State of Victoria (in Australia)! Nevertheless, could this be a parable for the eventual fate of "The Best Place on Earth" slogan here in British Columbia - be it at the hands of the Christy Clark Liberals or a new NDP administration? |
| 2011-03-13 |
After many months of hard slogging, we have completed a rather significant update to the Registration Data Archive through the addition of eleven (yes, 11!) years of new information - primarily the years 1945-1955, but with some other adjustments in the 1920s and 1930s. To sift through the new numbers, just Click Here. |
| 2011-03-05 |
Word has started to trickle in that ICBC is now using 3M reflective sheeting with security date code holograms, also known as "virtual security threads" (which should be visible when the plate is viewed at a 30 degree angle). These holograms have been used in other jurisdictions across North America since at least the 1980s, but are a new feature to BC plates. Thanks to the diligent efforts of our Senior Manager of Plate Spotters, we have been able to narrow down the possible introduction point of the hologram to the 000-TAN to 300-TAN range. To see exactly what we are talking about, Click here! In case you are interested, "BST1" is seen to be the code, which now appears to add a whole new wrinkle to collecting BC plates ... |
| 2011-02-22 |
A terrible piece of reporting on the Guinness World Record story appeared in the Burton Mail today as the newspaper attempted to report on the adventures of former local boy, John Roberts, by slapping together a bunch of quotes from the Times Colonist, Victoria News and Globe & Mail and posting it as "news". Unfortunately, they seem to have missed the recent development that the record was revoked; have misquoted Eric Taylor; and this really made us scratch our heads, posted a picture of the No. 1 plate despite the column proclaiming the No. 6 to be the World's Oldest. You can read it all for yourself, just Click here. |
| 2011-02-06 |
Interesting spin on the "world's oldest licence plate" story by the Globe and Mail today. So much left unsaid, but isn't that always the case. To read more, Click here. |
| 2011-02-04 |
What a pleasant surprise it was to find out that CBC Radio's venerable As it Happens decided to revisit their story on the so-called "World's Oldest Licence Plate" this evening. To listen to the clip, you will need to jump through a few hoops. First, follow THIS LINK and jump ahead on the .mp3 to about the 23:00 min mark. Good luck. |
| 2011-02-02 |
Word arrived in our inbox today that the new series of Prorate plates appear to no longer be stamped with the dual decal box commonly found on the Olympic passenger base. We eagerly await confirmation of this news with a picture from the field. Stay tuned ... |
| 2011-02-01 |
" Brake put on Victoria's claim to oldest licence plate" indeed! We would like to commend the Victoria Times Colonist for printing a follow-up to their original October column and the more recent decision by Guinness World Record's to revoke the award and close the category due to the difficulty in determining what actually constitutes a license plate. |
| 2011-01-28 |
Kudos to the Victoria News for running the story "Guinness revokes license plate record". It turns out the 1913 City of Victoria No. 6 porcelain license plate is not the "World's Oldest" after all (surprise!). To read more Click Here. |
| 2011-01-14 |
Thanks to the good folks at ICBC he have a final breakdown on the number of Olympic plates sold over the three year course of the program. The total number of plate sets sold was 196,305 (almost double what Ipsos-Reid predicted would be sold!). Even better, we were able to get a break-down on the different types of plates sold - which is always important to collectors: Passenger vehicles: 154,515 (78.71%); Commercial Trucks: 35,931 (18.30%); Motorcycles: 4,989 (2.54%); Utility Trailers: 557 (0.28%); Commercial Trailer: 227 (0.12%); and Farm Trucks 86 (0.04%). |
| 2011-01-01 |
With 2010 firmly in the rear view mirror, and feeling inspired by the Canadian Press, we here at BCpl8s.ca have decided to name John Roberts our Newsmaker of the Year! There is no denying the media publicity generated from Guinness World Records awarding the designation of the "World's Oldest" to Mr Roberts' No. 6 City of Victoria porcelain license plate (despite the fact the plate originated in 1913) as the story has gone global!
Honourable mentions go out to David Hersch of Nelson (he of the rejected "DR SEX" vanity plate); the staff of the Abbotsford Autoplan Agency allegedly visited by a "scammer" who used his iphone to take pictures of the 2012 decals (just imagine what this scoundrel will do now that the '12 decal can be downloaded directly from this site!); and News 1130 for scooping us on the new serial format to be introduced in 2013. |
| 2011-01-01 |
Out of interest, we decided to undertake a census of all the license plate pictures currently featured on BCpl8s.ca, and came up with a total of approximately 4,070, which is an almost 100% increase over the last time we did a similar count a couple of years back. Our resolution for 2011 is to hit 5,000! |
| 2011-01-01 |
As surprising as it may be, BCpl8s.ca actually has a fairly good number cruncher at our disposal and according to their calculations, approximately 601,000 sets of passenger plates were issued by the Corporation in 2010, which represents an 8% increase over 2009 figures and the largest single year-over-year increase since informal records were started in 1994. At this rate, it is anticipated that the current 000-AAA format will be exhausted in early 2014. |
| 2010-01-01 |
Well, after three-and-a-half years we have finally reached the end of the Olympic license plate program. Despite it being the Saturday after New Year's, ICBC found the time to update their web site and announce that 196,000 sets of plates have been sold. We are hoping to obtain a more detailed breakdown from the Corporation in the coming days and will post what we can. |
| 2010-12-29 |
Thanks to the diligent effort of our most decorated plate spotter, we are able to bring you a very crisp image of the new magenta 2012 registration decals. To take a gander at this year's offering, just Click Here. |
| 2010-12-15 |
It is not often that we are able to add a new page regarding a specific type of license plate to the BCpl8s.ca archive of information, but that is precisely what we were able to do over the course of the past month when the Chauffeur Badge page was created from scratch thanks to the collaborative efforts of Ron Garay and Pierre Delacote. |
| 2010-11-21 |
Do you happen to have $8 million USD kicking around? If so, the so-called "world's oldest license plate" can be yours. Interested? Click Here to read more. |
| 2010-11-03 |
We feel the need to comment on the announced resignation of the Premier, Gordon Campbell, today and to recognise his administration's contribution to the province's licence plates through such measures as the introduction of the Veteran (2004), Passenger Carrier (2005) and Olympic (2007) plates; the redesign of the Consular plates (2007); the ever shrinking decal (2005) and non-expiry decal (2006); the change in manufacturer from Astrographic to Waldale (2002); and allowing collectors to obtain true "SAMPLE" plates instead of the souvenir "BC-0000" (2002). We can't help but wonder, however, if this also marks the end of the "Best Place on Earth" slogan, which would be fitting in a way as the issuance of the license plate bearing that slogan are scheduled to conclude next month. |
| 2010-10-22 |
Much to our dismay, the story of the 1913 City of Victoria porcelain licence plate being the "world's oldest" has been picked up across the CanWest News Service (being printed as far afield as the Montreal Gazette) and even by other news media sources such as UPI, the Yahoo! Canada web site and CBC's venerable "As It Happens". To their credit, however, the Times-Colonist printed a story outlining our concerns. To read more, Click Here. The bun fight continues... |
| 2010-10-19 |
It was with some incredulity that we read in the Times Colonist today that the people behind the Guinness World Records have proclaimed the City of Victoria to be the "birthplace of the licence plate"! You can read the full article in the T.C. by Clicking Here. While we here at BCpl8s do not doubt that the City was attempting to regulate hackney carriages in the 1880s, it is drawing a rather long bow to suggest that this is directly related to the porcelain plates that have commonly been accepted as being issued in 1913 (more information on this topic is contained on our Municipal page). It is on like Donkey Kong... |
| 2010-09-21 |
SPOILER
ALERT! It is that time of the year again and continuing that great newspaper tradition from the 1920s through the 1960s we are pleased to break the news on the new license plate (decals) for 2012! The colours are to be black-on-magenta. When we see the first decals on the roads we will be sure to post an image, so check back later. |
| 2010-07-31 |
The first of what may become an annual license plate meet in the Okanagan Valley was held today. Thirteen collectors were able to attend and fun was had by all. To see the group picture, Click
here. |
| 2010-06-20 |
A visit to local collector Graham Casey has resulted in a number of new plate pictures that have been posted to a number of different pages on the site. |
| 2010-06-04 |
Tis the season ... our senior plate spotter has relayed news that the Prorate / Apportioned base has finally been reversed after plate number "0006-0P" was seen crossing the Alex Fraser Bridge this afternoon. This is not much of a surprise as the Prorate base now joins the the ranks of the Passenger (2001) and Commercial Truck (2008) plates as those types whose format has been reversed as ICBC attempts to prolong the life of the "Flag" base. |
| 2010-05-25 |
News 1130 out of Vancouver has broken the story that ICBC is running out of license plate combinations ... well, actually that isn't news as we have been writing about this for years, but the solution ICBC has come up with is one that we have openly dreaded here at BCpl8s.ca - the retention of the six digit serial but no new license plate design! According to ICBC's Adam Grossman, "typically where we see three letters, followed by three numbers - we're actually going to be seeing a sequence of two letters and a number, followed by two numbers and a letter" (i.e. "AA0-00A"). We would point out that typically we see three numbers followed by three letters but that would be splitting hairs ... To read more, Click
here. |
| 2010-05-12 |
What must be one of the last announcements related to the sale of Olympic plates was made by the Corporation today when it released an Information Sheet related to its participation as a sponsor of the Games. Apparently, the tally is now sitting at 184,000 sets of plates issued, with a haul of $10.1 million from sales of the plates being realised by ICBC. To read more, Click
here. |
| 2010-05-12 |
Thanks to our favourite plate spotter, we now know that the 13th million bloc of plates in the LAA to XKK range have been issued and ICBC has moved back to where it left off with the 14th million bloc (i.e. LAL to KXK) by issuing plates from 000-LJL, however, a combination - "REP" - has also been spotted which is from late in the 14th million bloc, so the issuing mayhem we commented on back in 2008 seems to be continuing ... |
| 2010-04-20 |
The Spring Cleaning at BCpl8s.ca continues! We have just finished updated the newly re-named 'Farm' plate page (which replaces the former 'Agriculture' page). To see more, Click
here. |
| 2010-04-12 |
Thanks to some recently acquired photos at the Burnaby Plate Meet and from local collector Ron Garay, we have been able to bring greater coherence to the Motor Carrier page (and deleted the former "Carrier" page in the process). To see the updates, Click here. Also, thanks to some material provided by the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM), we have been to update the Municipal license plate page. To see the fruits of that particular labour, Click
here. |
| 2010-03-27 |
The
26th Annual Pacific Northwest Regional License Plate
Meet was held today, as always, in Burnaby. Fun
was had by all who attended and we are looking forward
to next year, which is tentatively scheduled for
March 26, 2011. To see the group picture, Click
here. |
| 2010-03-21 |
A rather momentous day in the history of BC license plates as the venerable "Flag" design turns 25! To honour the occasion, we here at BCpl8s.ca punched out a short column to mark the event and shopped our work around to the likes of the Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province, Globe and Mail (BC Section) and even the Georgia Straight but, amazingly, not one of these news outlets was interested in publishing our work! In the interests of public disclosure, we are posting the column in its entirety for your perusal - just Click here. |
| 2010-03-18 |
A "BC Coroners Service death panel review" has recommended that the province introduce "different coloured licence plate to motorcyclists who hold a learner's licence." To read a copy of the report, Click here. |
| 2010-02-11 |
We here at BCpl8s.ca wanted to give a shout-out to Prime Minister Stephen Harper for making reference to BC license plates in his "historic" address to the BC Legislature today. His precise words were that "Canadians from coast to coast to coast have known you for decades by the slogan on your licence plates - Beautiful British Columbia." Can one assume that the PM was, on behalf of all Canadians, casting his vote against the favoured "Best Place on Earth" slogan with this speech? To read the full text, Click here. |
| 2010-01-19 |
24 days out from the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics and ICBC announced that they have now sold 175,000 of the Winter Games plates (although, based on the regional breakdown the Corporation provided, the number appears to be closer to 178,000)! To read more about it, Click
here. |
| 2010-01-05 |
We now have a slightly better scan of the 2011 decal on a new issue (13th series) plate, just Click here. |
| 2010-01-03 |
The first "MJA" plate in the Olympic series was spotted on the road today. There is a hypothesis that the end of the series will occur at 999-MJA, as it was initially thought that only 100,000 of the plates would be sold over the course of the program (the last official announcement was that over 160,000 plates had been issued). Accordingly, it will be interesting to see how continued demand is to be met or if the program will be brought to an end prior to its scheduled December 31, 2010, close. Stay tuned ... |
| 2010-01-03 |
Today, passenger plate no. 259-WAC was spotted on the roads of the Lower Mainland. As the previous high in this, the 13th series of the "Flag" graphic (i.e. LAA to XKK) was in the "TKF" range, it can now be deduced that the entire bloc of "V" plates (i.e. VAA - VXX) has been reserved for the Veteran base. This represents a bloc of approximately 400,000 plates, and with only 31,000 passenger plates having been issued to date, and the annual number of plates being assigned equalling about 1,000/year, it is estimated that the Corporation has a sufficient number of combinations for the next 369 years. |
| 2009-12-12 |
Thanks to the assistance and knowledge of local collector Ron Garay, we have been able to undertake an extensive revision of the Trailer license plate pages. The end result is that these pages now better reflect the lineage of Trailer plates over the past 86 years. To see the changes, Click
here. |
| 2009-12-06 |
Thirty years ago today, the first personalised license plate ("HEALEY") was issued to Richard Rogers of White Rock by then Minister of Transportation Alex Fraser in Victoria. |
| 2009-12-02 |
SPOILER
ALERT! It is that time of the year again and the first 2011 registration decal has been spotted on the roads! We had heard rumours that the colour scheme for 2011 was to incorporate a "mustard" yellow, but from the looks of the image we just received from the field maybe "pumpkin" would have been more appropriate. To see more, Click
here (NOTE: it is hoped that a scan of the actual decal can be provided early in the New Year). |
| 2009-11-10 |
The
Provincial Government announced that a new framework
is to be implemented that will require all Off-Road
Vehicle (ORV) riders using Crown land to obtain
a one-time registration with a licence plate for
their machines. While the details are to be worked
out over the next two years, in order to read a
little more about it, Click
here. |
| 2009-11-08 |
Thanks
to some enthusiastic plate spotters, we were able
to obtain some photos of Prince Charles and the
Duchess of Cornwall on their recent visit to Victoria.
To see the plates used on the car chauffeuring them
around the capital, Click
here. |
| 2009-10-30 |
With
the launch of the Olympic Torch Relay, we have been
dutifully deciphering the plates that are being
used on the convoy vehicles supporting the relay.
To read more about it, Click
here. |
| 2009-10-12 |
Our
favourite plate spotter has noticed that the decals
being issued to Commercial Trailers have been slightly
modified (and, for reasons unknown, continue to
be issued with date decals). To see the new decal, Click
here. |
| 2009-09-15 |
Yes,
it was another slow summer, but to break the doldrums
comes the latest announcement from ICBC on sales
of the Olympic plates. With 150 days to go until
the opening ceremony, 162,000 plates have now been
sold. To read more about it, Click
here. |
| 2009-06-26 |
Today
we learned that it now takes eight months to sell
20,000 Olympic plates (remember the heady days of
2007 when that number could be moved in 8 weeks!),
as ICBC finally announced today that they have hit
the 150,000 plateau. To read more about it, Click
here. |
| 2009-04-31 |
|
| 2009-03-28 |
The
25th Annual Pacific Northwest Regional License Plate
Meet was held today, as always, in Burnaby. Fun
was had by all who attended and we are looking forward
to next year, which is tentatively scheduled for
March 27, 2010. To see the group picture, Click
here. |
| 2009-02-15 |
We
have updated some of the information contained on
the passenger plate section related to the period
1913-14. Click
here. |
| 2009-02-12 |
ICBC
quietly announced that the Olympic base has surpassed
140,000 sets as part of a separate announcement
that the Corporation will be allotting approximately
75% of its Winter Games ticket allocation as a reward
to customers. To read more, Click
here. |
| 2009-02-04 |
Unexpected
news was received today regarding a re-design of
the Lieutenant Governor's license plate. Thanks
to Ernie MacAulay for bringing this to our attention,
and to read more about it, Click
here. |
| 2008-10-23 |
It
seems that sales of the Olympic plates are still
chugging along 18 months into the program with ICBC
announcing today that 130,000 plates have now been
issued. To mark the occasion, the Corporation has
launched a new web site linking sales of the plates
to support for athletes, and announced a new contest
for plate holders. To read more, Click
here. |
| 2008-10-14 |
SPOILER
ALERT! I know that for many of us one of the highlights
of the year end is not Christmas or the New Year's
holidays, but spotting the new registration decals
for the forthcoming year to see what colour scheme
ICBC has opted for. Well, this year BCpl8s.ca is
proud to bring you an advance viewing of the 2010
decals! To see more, Click
here. |
| 2008-10-13 |
"Issuing
Mayhem Continues to Afflict ICBC!" Click
here. |
| 2008-08-08 |
In
honour of today's date (and to fill some space in
the "news" section during these dog days
of summer), I thought I would share with you my
own lucky Olympic plate numbers: Click
here. |
| 2008-07-21 |
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| 2008-07-10 |
We
here at BCpl8s.ca were recently asked by the National
Post to contribute some thoughts on Alberta's tepid,
yet still somewhat populist attempt to come up with
a new license plate design. Yes, we felt like carpetbaggers
commenting on Alberta's plates from our perch here
in the sunny Okanagan, but any publicity is good
publicity - especially when it is through the national
media. To read the column, Click
here. |
| 2008-06-06 |
The
Vancouver Sun did an excellent write-up on the hobby
and featured local White Rock collector Bill Hobbis;
Mike Barnsley (the great-grandson of John Barnsley),
and a small acknowledgement of the work of we here
at BCpl8s.ca. To read John Mackie's column, just Click
here. |
| 2008-05-26 |
For
fans of the Registration Data Archive, we here at
BCpl8s.ca are proud to announce that a digitization
of the available records has recently commenced,
and will result in .pdf of copies of those years
for which we have information becoming available
for free download directly from our site. While
this process is expected to take a few weeks, certain
years are already available, just Click
here. |
| 2008-05-24 |
An
emerging mystery has been uncovered in relation
to the new Truck series, specifically the mysterious
disappearance of the separated decal box found on
the early plates in this series! For reasons as
yet unknown, the new Truck series has reverted to
a single decal box! To find out more, Click
here. |
| 2008-05-17 |
After
much delay, we here at BCpl8s.ca finally did some
investigative work into those permanent, "non-expiry"
decals that have been spotted on the back of Commercial
Trailer license plates since 2006. To see the fruits
of our labours, simply Click
here. |
| 2008-05-12 |
Almost
a month after quietly announcing the sale of the
100,000 Winter Games license plate, ICBC has now
issued a formal press release and is making a much
bigger occasion of the event. To read the latest, Click here. |
| 2008-04-29 |
Another
new entry has been added on the Links page, this
time for Eric Taylor's fantastic page on the plates
from BC's porcelain era (i.e. 1913-14). To see Eric's
(and Dave Hollins') historical handiwork, Click
here. |
| 2008-04-16 |
It
is not often that one of these comes along, but
an update to the Links page has been made to reflect
the site that Woody1778 has created to showcase
his collection of BC plates (amongst others), and
to convey a little plate history at the same time
- that Woody is from Edmonton won't be held against
him! To see his handiwork, Click
here. |
| 2008-04-09 |
Well,
they have done it! Without much fanfare, ICBC has
posted on their web site that the 100,000 Olympic
Winter Games plates has now been sold - almost one
year to the day after being released. To read more
about it, Click here. |
| 2008-04-08 |
Tabernacle!
The results for ALPCA's 2007 "Best License
Plate Award" have been released and British
Columbia's 2010 Winter Games optional base plate
finished third. To see how the voting shaked out, Click here. |
| 2008-04-01 |
A
major upgrade to the Keytags page was made possible
today by Pierre Delacote who has graciously forwarded
images of his collection. To see the run from 1946
to the present, simply Click
here. |
| 2008-03-29 |
The
24th Annual Pacific Northwest Regional License Plate
Meet was held today, as always, in Burnaby. Fun
was had by all who attended and we are looking forward
to the twenty-fifth edition tentatively scheduled
for March 28, 2009. To see the group picture, Click
here. |
| 2008-03-08 |
One
of our intrepid plate spotters out in the field
(I won't say where), came across a "first issue"
and managed to click an incredibly high quality
shot of the plate! Click
here to see the plate (Honorary Consular Officer
"HC-001A"), and thanks to John Roberts
for sending in the photo! |
| 2008-03-03 |
ICBC
announced today that 90,000 Olympic Winter Games
have now been sold, and the race is on to reach
100,000 before the end of April. To read more about
it, Click here. |
| 2008-02-20 |
Although
ICBC has made no formal announcement to mark the
occasion, the Truck base has been exhausted and
the series reversed to the "AA-0000" format,
and commencing at "AL-0000". This likely
means that "AA-0000" to "AK-9999"
has been reserved for the Olympic Truck base. To
read more about it, Click
here. |
| 2008-02-04 |
The
nominations for ALPCA's 2007 "Best License
Plate Award" have been released and the 2010
Winter Games optional base plate has made the cut
along with other Canadian plates from Newfoundland
and Prince Edward Island. To read about it, Click
here. |
| 2008-01-27 |
|
| 2008-01-23 |
ICBC
announced today that 80,000 Olympic Winter Games
have now been sold, to read more about it, Click
here. |
| 2008-01-20 |
Apart
from today being my Dad's 61st birthday (Aghast!),
local collector Ron Garay paid a visit to BCpl8s.ca
Headquarters with some of the gems of his collection
including a series of "Repeating Numbers",
which can be seen
here, as well as other plates that plugged some
holes on the following pages: Trailer; Passenger; Dealer; and Reciprocity. |
| 2008-01-09 |
Another
run has been added under the "Great BC Plate
Runs!" section of the site, and includes a
total of 25 plates numbered "1224" from
the years 1937 to 1964 (with only the Totem series
years missing - as per usual). To see the
run, Click here . |
| 2008-01-02 |
ICBC
was kind enough to forward the most recent iteration
of their "BC Licence Plate Identification Guide",
a copy of which can be accessed from the BCpl8s.ca
main page, or just Click
here. |
| 2007-12-29 |
The
Vancouver Sun ran an article on the new Consular
plates entitled "ICBC marks dignitaries red"
by Catherine Rolfsen. You can access the story here: Vancouver
Sun (I am not sure how long this link will stay
active).
We here at BCpl8s.ca were asked to provide some
commentary for this piece, but apparently our contribution
ended up in the Editor's trash bin ... |
| 2007-11-09 |
The
Government of Alberta announces a "Consultation
on Alberta's Licence Plate", with the intent
of coming up with a new design.
While not directly relevant to BC plates, I believe
that this emerging story is important. Stay tuned
for more details. |
| 2007-09-12 |
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| 2007-08-13 |
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| 2007-07 |
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| 2007-06-12 |
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| 2007-04-11 |
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| 2006-11-06 |
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| 2004-06-02 |
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| 2004-02-29 |
100th
Anniversary of the first motor vehicle registration
in British Columbia.
The Victoria Times Colonist publishes a column entitled
"100
years of plates", featuring local collector
Rick Pilotte. |
| 2003-07-23 |
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| 2002-11 |
Waldale
Manufacturing Limited of Amherst, Nova Scotia wins
a low bid competition to manufacture British Columbia
plates for the next five years. |
| 2001-06-18 |
Three
letter/three number combinations on passenger plates
are exhausted and ICBC begins issuing plates under
the 000-AAA format. |
