ICBC sifted through thousands of personalized licence plate applications last year, and while many were approved, several thousand were rejected by the insurance corporation.
In 2023, ICBC received a whopping 9,500 personalized licence requests. Some 73 per cent of those requests were approved, but 27 per cent – or about 2,600 plates – were rejected for a range of reasons.
Some were denied for being discriminatory or sexually suggestive, while others were rejected for including abusive or derogatory language.
Some of the standout rejected licence plates included “SO-HIGH,” “2FAS4U,” “DNT HIT,” and simply “UNSAFE,” according to ICBC.
“ICBC’s dedicated team meticulously reviews every application to ensure each slogan is appropriate to display on a B.C. licence plate,” said Sandy-Anne Dodig, ICBC’s manager of insurance operations support in a release Thursday.
“A personalized licence plate can be a creative way to express yourself, and we encourage drivers to review the criteria and guidelines on icbc.com prior to applying,” she said.
Other plates that were rejected included applications that were the names of existing brands, or that broached topics of violence, criminality or bullying, such as “GLOCK,” “PORSCHE” and “POISON.”
Many more plates were rejected for mundane reasons, such as the slogan already being taken, exceeding the plate’s character limit, incomplete applications or missing payments, or trying to get a plate for a vehicle that is not eligible for a personalized number plate.
ICBC says personalized licence plates are available for all regular passenger vehicles, vans, motorcycles, light trucks and motor homes.
ICBC’s list of the top 20 rejected personalized licence plates can be below. The full list can be found here.
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- YSO SLO
- 2FAS4U
- OMG MOV
- FRBALL
- SO-HIGH
- UNSAFE
- DNT HIT
- IXLR8
- FAST
- ROCK1T
- CRASH1
- UNVXD
- NO LAW
- YS OFSR
- UNDCVR
- XRCIST
- AMEN
- TARGET
- TSN
- PORSCHE
Adam Chan
