CU5T0M: What's the story behind people's personalized Sask. licence plates?
CBC
Kanishk Gadhvi still remembers when he first learned about custom licence plates in Saskatchewan.
As a new Canadian who had only recently arrived from India, he saw one hanging on his friend's wall — before his friend had even bought the car — and knew he wanted one too.
"The next day … I used my savings," he told CBC's Kirk Fraser, explaining how he got his "GADHVI" custom plate.
"It was pretty windy and snowing out there, but still I walked my way to the Harvard Western [insurance broker], and I was like, 'Is this slogan still available? Let's get it.'"
Gadhvi, who has now been in Saskatchewan for four years, is one of almost 56,000 people with active registrations for personalized licence plates in the province, according to Saskatchewan Government Insurance, though that doesn't include plates that aren't actively registered.
Custom plates account for less than five per cent of the total registered plates, which number about 1.2 to 1.3 million, according to SGI.
Gadhvi said back home in India, people don't get the chance to customize their plates with slogans — they only have the option to choose numbers.
He said he requested his last name for his licence plate slogan because it's a point of pride for him.
He also followed his friend's example and bought his custom plate before he purchased his car — something that's not uncommon, Gadhvi said.
He said he knows of others who will buy the plates and hang them up on their walls at home as motivation to work hard in order to buy a nice car to go along with the plate.
The plates are "almost like a tattoo for your vehicle," said Tyler McMurchy, the media relations manager for SGI.
"Vehicles are sort of an extension of your personality," he said, and the reasons for getting a custom plate "are almost as individual as the plates themselves."
Tammy Barilla said her husband bought her mother a licence plate that read "TMI" because she would often use the phrase — an abbreviation meaning "too much information" — and because he called her "the mother in law," which could also be abbreviated to TMI.
Tracy Kleiner said she and her husband share complementary licence plates — "LAS YQR" and "YQR LAS" — based on the airport codes for Regina and Las Vegas, because they share a love of going to the Nevada city.
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