Valhalla Island

Something I noticed almost as soon as I entered the state of Virginia in the US was the abundance of personalised car license plates. Every second car had one and they were often quite extreme, 6 or 7 alpha characters, something you rarely see in Australia. Later I was informed personalised plates in the majority of US states go for a flat fee of about $30, much, much less than the same in Australia.

In Queensland, for a three alpha character, two numeral custom plate, it costs $440. For any less or more characters the price goes up from there.

When you consider that the alternative is completely free and serves the exact same purpose it’s hard to believe anyone pays at least $440 for a change of characters. It’s not like other consumables where you’re going to purchase something and the decision is whether you spend more money for something a little nicer. It’s not like a $440 difference between a 30″ and 40″ television, where the advantage is obvious and it’s relatively not much more than you’re already spending.

Personalised plates give you nothing, it doesn’t make your car drive more smoothly or more comfortable to ride in. They do nothing at all, it’s only an identification number, albeit a publicly displayed number.

Where it’s only $30 for any combination you like it’s easier to understand, there’s larger scope for something fun and it doesn’t cost much at all. Queensland Transport must not be able to believe that people are actually shelling out so much money for something that they already hand out for free.