Find a vehicle's details from its number plate

Introduction

A Dutch number plate is enough to fill in most of a vehicle record. The app asks the Dutch national vehicle registry (RDW) for the make, model, colour, weights, dimensions, fuel and the date the safety inspection expires, and writes them onto the vehicle for you.

There are two ways in, and they behave differently enough that picking the wrong one costs you. RDW Import builds a brand-new vehicle from a plate. Enrich data refreshes a vehicle you already have. The RDW Import screen is small: one box labelled license, a Search button and Cancel.

You come here when:

• a Dutch car has arrived and you would rather not type twenty technical fields;
• you want the safety-inspection expiry date filled in correctly rather than guessed;
• an older record is missing its weights, dimensions or type-approval number;
• a plate was recorded wrongly and the record needs rebuilding from the real data.

Words this screen uses

The two routes

Both ask the same registry. Use RDW Import for a vehicle you do not have yet, and Enrich data for one you do.

How to use

Configuration

There is no settings screen for the registry lookup — no key to enter, nothing to switch on. What it does need is the same groundwork any new vehicle needs: a default pickup checklist has to exist, or Search stops with Please set up a default pickup checklist first. and puts you on the checklist screen instead of creating anything. See Set up pickup and return checklists, and Add a vehicle to your fleet for the rest of the groundwork.

Before you start: the registry only holds vehicles registered in the Netherlands, so a foreign plate returns nothing however it is typed. Any staff account can use RDW Import; Enrich data is for a company administrator only. If you cannot see that button on a vehicle, ask a company administrator to run it.

Using the registry lookup

From the main menu, open Assets. With the Vehicles tab selected, click RDW Import, above the list. A small screen opens with a single box.

1. Type the plate into the license box. Dashes and capital letters make no difference — the app strips the dashes and matches in capitals either way, so ab-123-c and AB123C find the same vehicle.

2. Click Search. Cancel beside it closes the screen without creating anything.

3. Read what comes back. One of five things happens:

   What you see	What it means	What to do
   The vehicle record opens, filled in	It worked	Carry on below
   Asset already in database	A vehicle with that plate is already in your fleet	Find it in the Vehicles list and use Enrich data on it instead
   Could not find vehicle.	The registry has no record for that plate	Check the plate, or add the vehicle by hand
   Cannot find make / model. followed by the make and model it found	The record still opens, but with Make and Model blank	Carry on below, then fill both in yourself
   Please set up a default pickup checklist first.	Groundwork missing	Create a pickup checklist, then start again

4. Check the record and press Save. Nothing has been stored yet. Search builds the vehicle and shows it to you; the vehicle only joins your fleet when you press Save at the bottom of that screen. Closing it instead throws the whole thing away.

To refresh a vehicle you already have, you work on a different screen. Open the vehicle from the Vehicles list and click Enrich data, in the row of buttons across the top. There is no confirmation and no preview: it fetches, overwrites and saves in one go. If the vehicle has no registration number you get Please fill in a valid registation number first. — the app's own spelling.

Key details

What the registry fills in, and what it leaves alone.

So anything you decided — where the car stands, what it is called, what it costs — is safe. Anything the registry knows better than you is replaced.

Fuel only ever arrives as one of four values. The registry's Dutch words become Petrol, Diesel or Electric, and anything else becomes Other. The Fuel list on the vehicle record also offers Gas, Hybrid and AdBlue, but the registry lookup never picks them — so a hybrid comes back as Other and you set it yourself.

The two routes disagree about makes and models. Search only matches against makes and models you already have, and leaves both blank when it cannot — that is the Cannot find make / model. message, and the record still opens. Enrich data creates the missing make and model instead and adds them to your lists permanently.

Enrich data saves immediately. Unlike Search, there is no draft stage and no Save to press afterwards. Whatever it fetched is on the record the moment the button finishes.

A worked example. A 2019 petrol hatchback on plate AB-123-C has an inspection expiry of 14 March 2027 in the registry. Typing ab123c into license and pressing Search opens a vehicle record with the make, model, colour, a kerb weight of 1,180 and ASI showing 14 March 2027 — and Registration number set to exactly what you typed, ab123c, not the tidied version. Press Save and it joins the fleet. Run Enrich data on that same vehicle a year later and every one of those technical fields is fetched again and overwritten, including ASI.

What to do next. A vehicle created this way still needs the things the registry knows nothing about: its damage diagram, its checklists and its vehicle class. Work through Add a vehicle to your fleet — the eight fields Save insists on are listed there.

Q&A

Why has the safety-inspection date gone blank after I used Enrich data? Because the registry had no expiry date for that plate at the moment you asked, and Enrich data copies that emptiness onto the vehicle rather than leaving your date alone. A date you typed in yourself is erased the same way. The vehicle then drops off the inspection due list, so nothing reminds you it is coming up. Re-enter the date in the ASI box on the vehicle record and press Save, and avoid running Enrich data on vehicles whose inspection date you maintain by hand.

Why did Enrich data appear to do nothing at all? Two causes, and neither shows you a message. The registry is asked twice — once for the vehicle and once for its fuel — and if the second answer comes back empty, the whole update is abandoned and not one field is written. And if the registry cannot be reached at all, the failure is recorded quietly and the screen simply returns. Try again later; if it keeps happening for one particular plate, that vehicle's fuel record is missing from the registry and you will have to fill the fields in by hand.

Why does Search say the vehicle already exists when I cannot see it in the list? The check covers every vehicle your company has ever had, switched-off ones included, and it ignores dashes and capitals — so AB-123-C matches a record saved as ab123c. Clear any filters on the Vehicles list and look again, including inactive vehicles. If you find it, use Enrich data on that record rather than creating a second one.

Why did a three-character plate go through instead of being rejected? The license box accepts whatever you type — there is no length check, so a partial plate is sent to the registry as-is and comes back Could not find vehicle. That message means the plate was not found, not that it was too short. Type the plate in full and search again.

Why are Make and Model empty on a record that searched successfully? Search will not invent them. It matches the registry's make and model against the lists your company already has, and when either is missing it tells you what the registry said — Cannot find make / model., with both names — and opens the record without them. Save will refuse until you fill both in, so pick them on the vehicle record, or add them first from the Make and Models screen on the Assets landing page.

Why has a make I did not want appeared in my lists? Enrich data adds the registry's make and model to your company's lists whenever they are missing, and does it permanently — there is no undo on that part, and it happens whether or not you wanted a new entry. Search never does this. If you care about keeping those lists tidy, prefer RDW Import and add makes deliberately.

Why is there no vehicle after I pressed Search and closed the screen? Search only prepares the record. Until you press Save on the vehicle screen it opens, nothing has been added — closing that screen, or pressing Cancel on it, discards everything the registry sent.

Why does the registry find nothing for a car I can see in the yard? It only covers vehicles registered in the Netherlands. A German, Belgian or any other foreign plate returns Could not find vehicle. no matter how it is typed, and there is no second registry to try. Add the vehicle by hand instead — see Add a vehicle to your fleet.

Why can I not see the Enrich data button? It is restricted to a company administrator, as is the Link button beside it. The RDW Import route is open to every staff account, so you can still create vehicles from a plate; refreshing an existing one needs an administrator.

Related pages:

• Add a vehicle to your fleet — everything the registry cannot fill in
• Set up pickup and return checklists — the checklist Search insists on
• Search for an available vehicle — what makes a saved vehicle bookable