California license plate: Dealer
Issued today Documented since 2026. Dealer plates for car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle, and trailer, issued by California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). One of 14 California license plates.
Format, years and the law
- Format
-
99999, for example123SBX4(9 any digit)The digits are not a series at all: California prints the dealer's own DMV occupational licence number as the serial, so the plate literally names the business that holds it, and it moves freely between that firm's vehicles.
The format above is broad: a registration that fits it has the right shape, which does not show that this series issued it.
- Years issued
- Documented since 2026; the format is likely older than the first year documented. Still issued.
- Vehicle class
- Dealer: trade/garage plates bound to a business, not a vehicle. Issued for car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle, and trailer.
- Colours
-
Characters
#17195E - Size
- 12 × 6 in (305 × 152 mm) · every country's size
- Permitted use
- VC § 11715 via VIRPM 2.090: special plates may be used on any vehicle owned or lawfully possessed by the licensee, including to tow or transport other vehicles, and by a dealer for delivery to a buyer where the sale is consummated at the place of delivery. They may NOT be used on work or service vehicles, on vehicles being moved under a DMV permit from a vessel/railroad depot/warehouse, on an unregistered vehicle transporting more than one load of vehicles for sale, or on a currently-registered dealer-owned vehicle whose former owner filed a release of liability and whose report of sale is displayed.
Legal basis and sources
- VIRPM 2.090: plates bear the firm's licence number (VC § 11714); the § 11715 permitted-use and prohibited-use lists; additional sets and replacements via form OL 22 https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/handbook/vehicle-industry-registration-procedures-manual-2/general-information-licensee...
- en.wikipedia.org https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_California
This plate in your app
The series id is us-ca-dealer. The API returns its format, validation, colours and designs with the rest of California's series:
curl -s https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/us-ca \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $VEHICLESDB_API_KEY" \ | jq '.series[] | select(.id == "us-ca-dealer")'
- Plate image (SVG, sample serial): https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/us-ca/us-ca-dealer.svg
- Blank template, filled on your side: https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/us-ca/us-ca-dealer/template.svg
