MONCTON, N.B. — More than 5,000 New Brunswickers pay for the privilege of having personalized licence plates on their vehicles, and from their vantage point, truckers get to see them all.

Vanity plates, as they’re better known, have been available in N.B. since 1986 and sometimes sport weird, wacky and terribly clever combinations of numbers and letters that allow N.B. drivers to express themselves on the road.

“We want to have something out there that allows a person to express their individuality, but we don’t want them to offend, threaten or alarm another person,” says Charles O’Donnell, director of licensing and records for the Department of Public Safety.

But what are the stories behind the plates we see on the road?

A New Brunswick newspaper is asking for submissions of all of those wacky plate sightings on the province roads.

They are asking you to send in any stories of clever or curious vanity plates and explanations behind them. Also, send in the stories behind the humorous plates you own or know of.

Submissions can be e-mailed to lifestyles@ nbpub.com or mailed in to “Lifestyles Vanity Plates” P.O. Box 2350, Saint John, N.B., E2L 3V8.

The submissions will be published in the newspaper’s Lifestyles section by Nov. 29; gift certificates will be awarded to randomly drawn submissions.