Information on CBE service delivery Portugal

Functional contact: eucaris@ml.igfej.mj.pt
Technical contact: eucaris@ml.igfej.mj.pt

Main characteristics of the Portugese vehicle register:

  • A license plate in Portugal is registered to a vehicle. If the ownership changes, the license plate remains with the car
  • A license plate to a car can change in several situations :
    • In the license plates of vehicles can be used the 23 letters of the Portuguese alphabet from “A” to “Z”.
      Letters “W” and “Y” are not allowed. Until a while ago the letter K was used (now it is not allowed) to start the license plate of used vehicles that had been imported. In this case, and because of many owners considered that the inclusion of that letter represents a signal of discrimination and devaluation of the vehicle, they could apply for change the license plate.
    • In case of import of historic vehicles, in case of it is issued a general license plate number, the owners may apply for the issue of a license plate number of that time, for example, at the time of the production of the vehicle, changing the license plate of the vehicle.
    • When it is requested the cancellation of a license plate, in cases, for example the owner leave the country and get a residence in another country, if he returns back to Portugal, he should have to ask for another issuance of license plates, and the number will change
  • The rule is that the license plate does not contain any regional code. However the vehicles registered in Azores and Madeira (these Archipelagos constitute autonomous regions with political and administrative statutes and self-government bodies) have a set of two letters in the license plate that is related to the initial region [ex.: AN (Angra do Heroísmo, a Region from Azores) or MA (Madeira)] combined with two sets of two numbers each, separated by dashes. Given the autonomy of the Regions, these license plates are issued by the competent agencies [with similar competences like the Institute of Mobility and Transports, which is the competent authority in Portugal (Continent) for the emission of the license plate].
    However, the composition of the license plate does not differ from the one that is given in the continent, in other words, those letters (for example, such as the letters “AN” or “MA”) can also appear in the license plate issued in the Continent (but here, it is not related with the residence of the owner).So, when the residents of the Archipelagos transfer their residence to the Continent, or sell the vehicle to a person who has residence in the Continent, the number of the license plate remains the same.
  • The holders and owners are registered in the Portuguese register. Normally, the owner is registered and this data is returned in the certificate registry, as well as on the online registry certificate. This last one is the online service which enables the access to the permanently updated information present in the motor vehicle registry.
    However, in some cases, such as if there is a leasing contract or in case of usufruct, people request these registries, and the registry office shall register the contract, the lessee or the user, and those ones are the holder. In those cases the certificate in paper or the online registry certificate has the information of both (holder and owner).
    The public agencies and state services and other legal persons of public law in pursuit of the respective legal and statutory duties, as well as judicial authorities and police for the purpose of investigation or court proceedings, as well as the entity who has the traffic surveillance powers, all those entities can access the database of the vehicle registration and therefore access to the information about holders (please pay attention to the fact that the vehicle registry database does not have the historical information about the holders) and owners. On the other hand the registration certificate is issued on behalf of the holder’s and sent to the holder´s residence/registered head office, but also that document that allows the vehicle’s circulation, has information about the owner.
  • The Portuguese registers contain information on cars, trailers, agricultural and industrial vehicles, mopeds, trucks, buses and motorcycles

Additional Information:

  • Portugal expects to send 10.000 to 100.000 CBE requests per year
  • The Portuguese police will not send mCBE requests (CBEMultipleOHByRegNumAndDate) in the (near) future.
  • Portugal will use the following CBE case codes:
    1 = Speeding
    2 = Drink-driving
    3 = Non-use of seat belt
    4 = Failing to stop at red traffic light
    5 = Use of forbidden lane
    10 = Driving under the influence of drugs
    11 = Failing to wear a safety helmet
    12 = Illegally using a mobile phone or any other communication devices while driving
  • Portugal processes the incoming CBE requests on a daily basis outside office hours (starting from 18:00)

Data Overview (Restricted access)