A few of
the past posts in my blog were about the differences between Greece or Europe and
Australia on transport and traffic issues. Traffic signs, tolling road
infrastructure, roadside memorials and most recently World Cup logistics, my
Greek origin and my Australian living allowed me to easily point out such
differences. One of the
first differences to spot, which I didn’t have the chance to write about, was
personalised plates or vanity plates as they are also known. Australia is one of the now many countries
that allow vehicle owners to customise their license plates altering their
colour, fonts, and even the numbers and letter on the plate. Greece on the
other hand, allows only for standard license plates issued by the Ministry of Infrastructure,
Transport and Networks that nowadays follow the EU standard for licence plates.
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| History of Greek Plates (source) |
Slogans on
the bottom of the plate, is another difference between the standard plates of
Greece and Australia. In Australia similar to USA every state has it’s own
slogan that is used as a promotional pitch. Queensland uses the trademark
Sunshine State while a few years ago the plates wrote The Smart State.
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| History of QLD plates (source) |
Victoria
has the Stay Alert Stay
Alive slogan while the
previous wrote The Place to Be , On The Move and Garden State. Currently
New South Wales standard plates don’t have any slogan but in the past they used
The Premier State, The First State and Towards 2000. South Australia also has no
slogan but they used to have the slogan The Festival State. WA used to have the slogans State of
Excitement, Home of the America’s Cup and The Golden State but they abandoned
all slogans during the beginning of the 90’s.
Personalised plates come in a variety of forms, colours and slogans and they can be almost fully customised. Depending on one’s preferences, those plates can cost up
to $3500 for a new one that spells KYRIAKO or $500 for an Endless Summer theme. From there, the laws of free market can skyrocket
the price of a plate.
It has been reported that the owner of the Q1 plate, that is supposedly the most sought
after plate in Queensland, refused an offer of more than a million dollars for his plate. The Q8 plate was in the market a couple of years ago and the auction close at $220,000 more than 17 times the amount the owner spent to buy it, back
in 1988.
Personalised
plates have now become more than another way of revenue for transport
authorities around the world and a means to fund road safety projects, like we do in Queensland. They have become an investment similar to buying artwork. I am
just wondering why Troika and the rest of Greece’s lenders haven’t requested
this “reform” from the Greek government as a way to repay debt. But then again, with so many car owners handing back their plates because they can no longer afford having a car, or at least a licensed car, maybe the calculated revenue would have been very low.
