License Plate Data: Best License Plate Datasets & Databases

What is License Plate Data?

License plate data refers to databases including the registration numbers of millions of vehicles for a given location. It’s used for license plate to VIN decoding, which reveals specific details about a vehicle like its make, model, and service history.

What are the sources of License Plate Data?

Much license plate data is collected using AI and ML techniques, specifically image tagging. This is called number plate recognition. This data is often generated automatically, for example in car parks which operate on number plate recognition or in urban areas where cameras are in place for to monitor speeding and traffic emissions. Other license plate data is generated manually, for example as traffic authorities collect information about the vehicles within their jurisdiction. External license plate data providers harmonise these sources in one API

We aggregate data from public and private data sources into one API. No longer do you need to spend countless hours and investments building out coverage across each US state DMV

What is License Plate decoding?

The primary use case of license plate data is for license plate to VIN decoding. This is where an API is used to translate the raw letters and digits of a license plate into a VIN (vehicle identification number). A VIN conveys all of the important data points about a vehicle.

Which companies and industries use License Plate Data?

Within the automotive and transport industry, license plate data helps at all stages of the business journey, from forecasting, manufacture, and pricing, right up to sales and insurance.

Vehicle manufacturers

Vehicle manufacturers can optimize the quality of the vehicles they produce with license plate data. For example, by decoding the license plates of a cohort of their vehicles into VINs, they can identify the amount of times the cars had to be repaired or called into service. With these specs, manufacturers can improve the model so that the next range is more reliable satisfies customers.

Automotive re-sellers

Before purchasing a car for re-sale, automotive re-sellers can run background checks on the vehicle using its license plate data. Buying an external license plate API adds an extra layer o security as re-sellers can cross-check the information supplied by the company selling the car about the vehicle condition against their own database.

Car insurance companies

Car insurance providers also use license plate data in a similar way to re-sellers: to corroborate that the information supplied by a client is correct and run background checks on a vehicle. More widely, they can use license plate to VIN decoding to understand the insurance history of a huge sample size of vehicles to develop competitive pricing strategies.

However, it’s not just companies within the automotive industry who benefit from license plate APIs. Here’s how the data is being applied in other industries:

Marketing

License plate data is used by marketers to understand traffic flow, specifically the make and models of vehicles in a given geolocation. By decoding the plates of vehicles, they’re able to see which automobile brands frequently drive through an area and tie these brands to affluence indicators. Then they can plan DOOH adverts, like billboards for new car ranges, based on the car owners in that area.

Urban planning

Urban planners also use license plate recognition. They apply it to decide on the placement of car parks and road lanes using license plate APIs by decoding them into VINs. From here, they can calculate how big bays must be and how wide lanes must be based on the average vehicle size.

What are the attributes of License Plate Data?

The attributes of any license plate database of course include the raw data listing the license place itself in integer digits and letters. Once this license plate has been decoded into a VIN, the attributes include:

• VIN
• Year vehicle was released
• Make of the vehicle
• Model of the vehicle
• Engine type
• Body style of vehicle e.g. Sedan
• Transmission type e.g. Automatic
• Fuel type

  Where can I buy License Plate Data?

  Data providers and vendors listed on Datarade sell License Plate Data products and samples. Popular License Plate Data products and datasets available on our platform are PlateToVIN - License Plate to VIN HTTP API with VIN Decode by PlateToVin Ltd.

How can I get License Plate Data?

You can get License Plate Data via a range of delivery methods - the right one for you depends on your use case. For example, historical License Plate Data is usually available to download in bulk and delivered using an S3 bucket. On the other hand, if your use case is time-critical, you can buy real-time License Plate Data APIs, feeds and streams to download the most up-to-date intelligence.

What are similar data types to License Plate Data?

License Plate Data is similar to Vehicle Location Data, Commercial Vehicle Data, Car Data, VIN Data, and Electric Vehicle (EV) Data. These data categories are commonly used for Business Intelligence (BI) and Automated Parking Systems.

What are the most common use cases for License Plate Data?

The top use cases for License Plate Data are Business Intelligence (BI) and Automated Parking Systems.