Finally, personalized number plates in Quebec!
Quebec gets a time of North America and will allow motorists to personalize their license plate starting next year.
By September 2015, motorists can enter a word or combination of letters and numbers seven characters maximum on their license plate.
In doing so, Quebec has not followed suit all American states and Canadian provinces (except Newfoundland and Labrador) that already offer this service to motorists.
"It's been several years that people in Quebec are waiting to have their Personalized plate. They go to the United States and in the rest of Canada and saw that it was possible elsewhere. This is something we had in the backlog ", explained Thursday the great patron of the Society of Auto Insurance Quebec (SAAQ), Nathalie Tremblay, the dimensions of the Minister of Transport, Sylvain Gaudreault.
Based on current rates outside Quebec, it will cost the insured who so desire between $ 100 and $ 250 for a personal inscription. On the projections after the SAAQ, about 80,000 motorists accept each year to pay an additional cost for a personalized plate. This number represents 1.5 percent of quebecois fleet with six million vehicles.
"When I look at other Canadian jurisdictions, they have a membership rate of about 2 to 2.5 percent. As this is a new product for us, we chose to go with a conservative assumption" , said the CEO of the SAAQ.
The nature of combinations of letters and numbers will be left to the imagination of the owners of vehicle as long as the registration is deemed to be "appropriate" and "respectful". A glossary will prevent the errors.
"Someone who wants to" FLQ "or" Nazi "or things like that, it really would not be appropriate," he said Minister Gaudreault, which is present in press conference with a plate on which was displayed his surname.
"There will be a lexicon, there is already a committee was internal to the SAAQ who works above. If we are able to have a Director of marital status in Quebec for first names, I can not believe we will not be able to establish an acceptable lexicon, "said he added.
The SAAQ will launch a public tender for the distribution of new plates and exact acquisition cost to consumers will be established. SAAQ judge premature to anticipate profits but hope, at first, to cover the costs of the new service.
"From the moment we offer or a new product that is not required, our basic premise is to cover the costs, has said Ms. Tremblay. It is too early to say if we're going to sub with the plate because I still do not know my total cost. When I chose my distributor, I will be able to determine at what price we can sell the plate. The idea is not to charge more than what customers are willing to pay. "
It should be noted that the motto "Je me souviens" will remain on the bottom of the Personalized license plate or not.
By Martin Ouellet
