No plate available? The Land Transportation Office (LTO) has issued guidelines on how temporary and improvised plates should look like to avoid any infractions. Mind you, this is a temporary solution until such time the plate shortage issue is resolved.
So, how should these temporary and improvised plates appear? First, we need to define the difference between a temporary plate and an improvised plate.
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Per LTO Memorandum Circular No. JMr-2023-2400, improvised plates are defined as “plates which may be made by the vehicle owner while awaiting for the replacement of their lost or mutilated plate number”. It adds, “The improvised plate shall contain the assigned plate number of the vehicle and with the words ‘Improvised Plate’ below it.
This shall likewise be applicable for vehicles which were changed to vintage vehicle sub-classification and the words Vintage Vehicle and model year shall be included in the improvised plate.
For temporary plates, those are defined as “refers to plates which shall be issued by dealerships to vehicle owners pending the issuance of the actual physical plate number of a newly registered vehicle”.
The content of the temporary plates shall be the assigned plate number of the newly registered vehicle. In the absence thereof, the Conduction Sticker number (for motor vehicles) or MV File Number (for motorcycles, trailers and motor vehicles without Conduction Sticker) shall be used.
As for the format, the font color will depend on registration type. For private vehicles, the font of the temporary or improvised plate must be in black. Red font must be applied for government vehicles, while it’s yellow font for ‘For Hire’ vehicles. Diplomatic plates must have blue font, and hybrid or electric vehicles use green.
For reference, see the various approved templates for temporary and improvised plates below:
New Registration with Assigned Plate
New Registration w/o Assigned Plate
Previously Registered w/o Assigned Plate
Electric Vehicle with Assigned Plate
Hybrid Vehicle with Assigned Plate
Vintage Vehicle with Assigned Plate
Improvised MV Plate for Lost/Mutilated Plate
Per the LTO, upon issuance of the actual plate number, the validity of improvised and temporary plates will be void.
