From August, you can no longer go to a bpost post office or post point in Belgium to cancel a license plate. From then on, the license plate must be sent to the Vehicle Registration Service (DIV) or handed in in Brussels.
Bpost “takes note” of the decision of the FPS Mobility. It also specifies that the removal of license plates is a small part of the agreement with the government and that the delivery of new license plates remains with Bpost. “We continue to fulfill our obligations,” Bpost says.
Send or deposit
As of August 1, the procedure for deleting a license plate in Belgium will thus change. From then on, the plate to be deleted, the one with the DIV logo, legally situated on the back of the vehicle, must be sent to the DIV address: DIV – 1212 Brussels.
The plate may be folded to fit into an A4 envelope, but may not be cut into pieces. The postage cost is at least 6 euros. A more time-consuming alternative is to deposit the license plate in a collection box at the DIV or at FPS Mobility and Transport, both located in the Vooruitgangstraat/Rue du Progrès in Brussels, near the North Station.
Not always necessary to cancel
The FPS stresses that it is often not necessary to cancel the license plate. Those who exchange the vehicle for another vehicle of the same category can keep the plate. However, the registration must be done within four months.
“This option is still underused,” says the government department, “although it does save the consumer time and also money.” A new registration certificate for the existing license plate (26 euros) is at least half the cost of the whole process of having the old plate cancelled, applying for a new plate, having a front plate duplicated, and so on.
DIV also points out that this is good for the environment because, for example, less import of aluminum (which is becoming increasingly expensive), and less waste to process.
Bpost pays the price for overcharging
The fact that the DIV is taking over the procedure from Bpost is no coincidence. The delivery and deletion of license plates was one of three contracts with the government for which Bpost was discredited for a time, as was the processing of traffic fines, because the company may have overcharged for those services. According to Bpost’s estimate, the government may have been overcharged €75 million for these three contracts.
During Bpost’s investor day on Tuesday, CEO Chris Peeters said the postal company is also interested in continuing to provide the plates in a subsequent tender. “We will fight to win that because it is a service with real added value,” Peeters said.
