DVLA’s non-public plate money cow: Revenues from gross sales revealed

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is raking in £260million a year from selling and transferring personalised number plates to vehicle owners, This is Money can reveal.

Revenue from this lucrative revenue stream has tripled in a decade as demand for private plates grows in popularity.

But where does this money go?

In 2012-13, the DVLA made £100.2million from a combination of personalised registration sales and auctions, cherished plate transfers and assignment fees.

Most recent data obtained via a Freedom of Information request issued to the agency by transport policy and research organisation RAC Foundation shows it earned £260.1million in 2022-23.

Some £150.5million of this was from plate sales, which accounted for 58 per cent of the DVLA’s personalised registration revenues that year.

A further £72.4million (28 per cent) came from cherished transfer administration charges, when motorists remove their private plate from one vehicle and assign it to another or want to add it to a car have put a personalised registration on retention.

The remaining £37.2million (14 per cent) comes from assignment fees, the DLVA told RAC Foundation.

While the figures show private number plate sales and management is a profitable cash cow for the Government, revenues have declined more recently.

Earnings from private plate sales and handling peaked in 2021-22, with the agency taking a whopping £302.9million in total that financial year.

This was driven predominantly by a spike in plate sales, which came to £181million over the 12-month period, which accounted for 60 per cent of revenues.

According to revenue records shared by the DVLA, it has earned some £2.09billion from drivers buying and transferring private plates in a decade.

The DVLA says it has millions of personalised registrations available for drivers to buy online or via its auctions.

It currently has around 60 million private plate combinations available on its searchable database, with prices starting from £250 each, which includes VAT and an £80 assignment fee.

The agency also hosts several online private registration plate auctions each year.

This tends to include those identified as most popular, usually spelling out names and words using the latest age-identifying prefixes – currently the ’74’ plate age mark available from 1 September.

These auctions also include the most desirable combinations of letters and numbers as well as short character registrations, which are considered most lucrative of all.

Bidding takes place over a seven-day period of the auctions being live.

In 2023 alone, it sold 17,823 registrations via these sales with buyers spending almost £49million (including fees and taxes). 

‘Our auctions include distinctive dateless, current and older style registrations with starting prices from just £70,’ the DVLA says on its website. 

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: ‘In a world where it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd it’s easy to understand why some people are attracted to personalised number plates – call them cherished plates, vanity plates, or just a bit of fun.

‘Whether it’s a pet name for the car (‘AH21 PET’ yours for £399) or your own initials (‘LO07 DFT’ a snip at £599) there’s plenty to choose from.

‘Clearly this has become big business, for the DVLA and all the resellers which have sprung up, and for the Treasury it is definitely a nice ‘LL17 TLE’ earner.

‘But the right personalised plate can also prove a good investment for drivers – with the value of vehicles typically falling the moment they leave the showroom this might be the only bit of the car that’s actually worth more.’

The DVLA is just one source drivers can use to acquire and sell private and cherished plate, with various businesses offering services and registrations.

Businesses operating in the sector value the British personalised number plate industry to be worth over £2billion. 

Where do earnings from private plate sales go?

Given the sizable revenue generated from private registration plate sales and management, This is Money contacted the DVLA to ask where these funds are redirected and spent.

A spokesman for the agency told us: ‘All money raised through the sales of registrations is passed to HM Treasury with a proportion of the revenue retained by the Department for Transport.’

The proportion held back for the DfT – and what it is spent on – was not clarified.

What are the most expensive private plates sold at auction by the DVLA?

The DVLA first started selling private number plates in 1989 and its auctions have been increasingly popular.

Incredibly, one plate sold that year still sits among the 10 priciest that the agency has sold.

‘1 A’ changed hands in December 1989 for £160,000, which is good enough for tenth in the list of most lucrative DVLA registration sales ever. 

The most expensive of all is ’25 O’, which reached £400,000 (excluding fees and taxes) on 27 November 27 2014.

It is a good furlong ahead of second place’s ‘1 D’, which changed hands for £285,000 in March 2009.

The most recent big hitter came in December 2021 when ‘DEV 1L’ – the same number plate used on Cruella De Vil’s iconic car’ – was won at auction for £240,000, some £308,000 when you include fees and taxes.  

All five of the most expensive DVLA-sold registrations went for in excess of £200,000.

However, these all pale in comparison to the biggest figure paid for a number plate globally.

The record price came in April last year when a driver splashed out an incredible £12million on a very special Dubai plate.

The ‘7’ plate sold at a Dubai charity auction for a record 55million Dirham – that’s around £5million more than the previous record held since 2008.

The DVLA hosted its final live, in-room auction last year, with the agency now conducting sales exclusively online.

Five reasons people spend big on private plates

Names, initials and words

Number plates that spell out – or almost spell out – names, initials and words are the most common reason for why people splash out on private registrations. 

People either wish to express their individuality and personality, or an investor knows that certain words will continue to rise in value.

The Prince and Princess of Wales drove away from their wedding with ‘JU5T WED’ on the rear number plate of King Charles III’s Aston Martin Volante.

Businessman Afzal Khan reportedly turned down £10 million for his ‘F1’ plate he bought for £440k in 2008.

Investment

Investors go where the returns are good, and the performance of private number plates is pulling investors away from traditional investments. 

With higher returns than wine, watches, jewellery and classic cars and art, it’s not surprising that personalised plates are creating bidding wars.

One specialist said a plate can double in value in 12 months.

Buyers turn over plates very quickly, and unlike investments like cars or art there’s no storage costs. You can even drive your car with your plate on without it losing any value!

Covering up a car’s age

While you can’t customise and display a plate that makes your car look newer than it is, you can put private plate on that conceals the age of your car. 

You don’t have to drive around with an age-identifiable DVLA plate.

Power symbols

There’s inner confidence and then there’s needing to prove it. 

Drivers with private plates resembling status such as success, money, or influence such as ‘BO55’ use short words or acronyms to project the image of themselves they want out there.

Sentimentality

Some people have a locket with a photo in, others a tattoo. But for some drivers, a private plate is the best means to remember and commemorate special dates, events or references to loved ones.

And because these evoke personal memories, many believe it is worth paying a lot of money for the personalised number plate combinations they really want.