Selecting your combination of characters

Acceptable character combinations

• Slogans with two to six letters and numbers, such as “ME", “YOU", “BYEE", “HELLO", “HOWDOO", “YOU2", “8FREE"

• Letters and numbers may be separated by blank space or hyphen, such as "ME 1", "8-FREE"

• Slogans can have a maximum of seven total characters including spaces and hyphens, such as "HELLO 1", “U-4-ME"

  • Note: motorcycle personalized plates can have no more than six characters including spaces or hyphens (i.e. six characters and no space or hyphen, five characters with one space or hyphen, etc.)

• Any other acceptable combination of letters and numbers, such as “2-BOBBY", "ME 4 U"

Unacceptable character combinations

• Less than two or more than six characters, such as “A", “JASMINE",  “NICHOLAS"

• Characters in combinations that could cause misidentification, such as "i" being possibly misidentified as "1", or  0 = O, 8 = B, 5 = S, 2 = Z

• Characters in a combination that would resemble an existing plate that would create identification issues. For example, if “TIGERS" is already issued, “TIGER5" would be denied because the "S" and "5" could be easily misidentified.

• Symbols other than hyphens. For example, “@", “?", “/", “&", “.", “+", etc.

• Slogans that contain only numbers, such as "962 221", "1426" or "645-354".

• Any character combinations that conflict with formatted sequences of characters currently in use or that ICBC plans to use, such as ABC-123", “123-ABC", “1204-FT", “GT-1234"

• Any single letter as a suffix, preceded by more than three numbers, such as “4352 A", “54635-W"

• Any single letter as a prefix, followed by more than three numbers, such as “A-4321", “B-56543"

• The prefixes “CL", “VA", “VE", “GR", “MC", “MB", “MD", “PG", and “BC" followed by any numbers​

Selecting your slogan

Choose an appropriate personalized slogan. Requests will be declined if it is determined in the opinion of ICBC to be objectionable in any language, including text-messaging abbreviations. If ICBC receives a complaint about a slogan or a plate that has been issued and it is later determined to be obscene or objectionable, in the opinion of ICBC, the plate may be recalled. Note that licence plates are the property of ICBC.

Slogans may be deemed objectionable under the following criteria:

• Human rights discrimination: slogans which express or imply disrespect of race, religion, place of origin, ancestry, colour, gender identity or expression, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, or political belief.

• Sexually suggestive: inappropriate connotations.

• Abusive, obscene, or derogatory language: offensive slang in any language.

• Driving risks: references to speed, speeding, other risky driving behaviour or anything contrary to road safety.

• Drugs/alcohol related: terms describing alcohol or other legal or illegal drugs, including brand names and slang; reference to the use sale, effects, and/or consumption of drugs, alcohol, controlled substances, or paraphernalia used in the consumption thereof.

• Violence/criminal activity/bullying: words associated with weapons or threats; connotations about violence, illegal activity or bullying.

• Intellectual property (such as trademarks): infringement of intellectual property rights such as trademarks, except if the applicant provides written approval of the trademark owner.

• Religion, politics, public figures, dignitaries and law enforcement official: religious, political, law enforcement connotations or falsely suggesting association with an institution such as law enforcement, a church, or government.

References to non-profit advocacy, trade or similar entities may be acceptable, subject to all of the criteria above

Recalls

If ICBC receives a complaint about a slogan or a plate that has been issued and it is later determined to be obscene or objectionable, in the opinion of ICBC, the plate may be recalled. Note that licence plates are the property of ICBC.

Refunds

There shall be no refund of a personalized number plate fee once the application (initial, replacement or renewal) has been received and approved; with the exception, a refund may be granted where a selection previously approved and issued is subsequently determined to be unacceptable and has been recalled.

Retention

If a personalized plate remains inactive for more than one year after the expiry date, the right to the slogan will be lost and the current owner will be required to re-apply with the initial $100 application fee.

Replacements

If your personalized licence plate is damaged, there is an $18 fee for temporary plates while your personalized plates are remade.

If a plate is lost or stolen, notify the police, then ​take the police case number, your insurance documents and, if applicable, your remaining plate to your Autoplan broker​. The record of the missing plate needs to be removed from the police database before it can be reissued. ​​

A declaration must be completed for missing front plate only, no police case number is required.