A man in his 30s identified only as "A," living in Nowon-gu, Seoul, recently replaced his vehicle's license plate. His company in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, began implementing a one-in-five driving restriction system this week, and he anticipated a possible escalation to an odd-even system. "I would have to transfer three times to commute by public transit," A said. "My commute time would increase significantly, so I changed the last digit of my license plate number."
Demand for license plate changes is growing, particularly among households owning multiple vehicles, as driving restrictions based on the last digit of license plate numbers spread across the country.
Starting Thursday, a one-in-two (odd-even) driving restriction will apply to government and public institution parking, while a one-in-five restriction will take effect at publicly operated parking lots, according to the central government and the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Seoul is implementing the one-in-five system at 75 public parking lots across the city. Some major corporations, including Samsung and LG Group, have also adopted the one-in-five system for employee vehicles, joining the government's energy conservation measures.
Under the one-in-five system, vehicles are restricted from using designated facilities on specific weekdays based on the last digit of their license plate numbers. Vehicles ending in 1 or 6 are restricted on Mondays, 2 or 7 on Tuesdays, 3 or 8 on Wednesdays, 4 or 9 on Thursdays, and 5 or 0 on Fridays. Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are exempt. The one-in-two system is a stricter measure under which vehicles with odd and even last digits are restricted on alternating days.
Inquiries about license plate changes have risen at local government offices across the country. The Gangseo-gu district office in Seoul reported a roughly 30% increase in license plate change requests since the public-sector one-in-five system took effect. Songpa-gu has been receiving two to three related inquiry calls per day. "Even though the one-in-two system has not been fully implemented yet, demand is growing from people who want to change their plates in advance to prepare for future measures," a Gangseo-gu official said. "On the 3rd alone, there were seven cases of plate number changes."
Online forums are also seeing a surge of posts asking about plate change procedures. One post on an internet community asked whether it was possible to change the last digits of four company-owned vehicles from even to odd numbers.
Changing license plates is not illegal. Under current regulations, plate number changes are permitted when a household's two vehicles both have the same odd or even last digit, when plates are lost or stolen, when a registered address changes, or when a buyer requests a change during vehicle transfer registration.
However, some point out that rising plate change demand could undermine the effectiveness of the driving restriction system. In response, the Seoul Metropolitan Government is rolling out measures to boost public transit use, including a 30,000 won monthly rebate for users of the Climate Card, a flat-rate transit pass, for three months starting this month. "We will continue to develop support measures to encourage voluntary participation by citizens," a Seoul city official said.