Currently, if you want a number plate made for your vehicle, you merely need to show your ID card at one of the distributors and can have a theoretically unlimited number of plates stamped.
Pol Philippe, head of the Direction de la technique automobile: “You may have a case of 4 to 5 number plates in circulation for the same car, [...] which means the wrong owner could get a fine.”
Similarly, number plates should to be removed when the car is sold, to avoid them getting into the wrong hands and potentially even used to perpetrate crimes. “You could have the car circulating on the old number plates and the previous owner could get into trouble.”
There are now plans to regulate this to avoid these situations. Each car would have a limit of three number plates, which is enough to fully equip a car, including a rear luggage or bike rack.
Nothing is decided, however.
The four-digit plates are all in use, with a current wait list of 4,500 people, says Pol Philippe: “We assign 185 of those a year. So it would take 24 years to get to the end of that list.”
There are also some older combinations in circulation: 18,000 vehicles have 2 letters and 3 digits, and 14,000 one letter and 4 digits, while 583 cars have the even older combination of 2 letters, 2 digits and 55 still boast a 3 digit numberplate.
These numbers were communicated by minister for mobility François Bausch following a parliamentary question by Pirate MP Marc Goergen.
