Club permits come with their own vocabulary, most of it acronyms. Here is what each one actually means, in the order you are likely to meet them on a form.
Club permit also club rego, red plates, club plates
VicRoads' limited-use registration for vehicles more than 25 years old. Lets you drive 45 or 90 days a year instead of paying full registration. All four names refer to the same thing.
45-day and 90-day permit
How many days a year you can drive. As of July 2026, 45 days costs $91.50 a year in VicRoads fees and 90 days costs $176.40. You choose when you apply and can change it at renewal.
Approved club
A car club VicRoads has authorised to endorse club permit applications. Only an approved club can sign the club section of your paperwork. Traf's Club Inc appears on the VicRoads list under T.
Classic and Historic
The eligibility category covering vehicles more than 25 years old. The large majority of club permit vehicles sit here.
Veteran and Vintage
Categories for older vehicles again, generally those built before 1931. They carry their own conditions rather than the standard 25 year rule.
Compliance plate
The metal plate showing when the vehicle was certified for Australian roads. This is the date VicRoads uses to decide whether it is old enough, not the build date.
Build plate build date
When the vehicle was actually manufactured. On imports this is often years earlier than the compliance date, and it is the compliance date that counts for eligibility.
VIN Vehicle Identification Number
The 17-character identifier carried by vehicles built from around 1989. Older vehicles have a chassis number instead. Either one needs photographing for your application.
RWC Certificate of Roadworthiness
The inspection certificate you need before a new club permit application can be started, for any vehicle built on or after 1 January 1949. Valid for 30 days, so get it done once you are ready to apply rather than months ahead. Not needed at all if you are switching clubs.
CPA Club Permit Application
The VicRoads form that puts a vehicle onto the scheme. Your club completes and signs its section confirming your membership.
VESD Vehicle Eligibility and Standards Declaration
The declaration that must accompany every club permit application, confirming the vehicle meets the standards required. VicRoads will not process a CPA without it.
VSI 8 and VSI 33 Vehicle Standards Information
VicRoads information sheets setting out which modifications are allowed without further approval. If your changes sit inside these, you do not need a VASS certificate.
VASS Vehicle Assessment Signatory Scheme
An engineering approval certificate for modifications beyond what VSI 8 and VSI 33 allow. Also often needed for replicas and some imports. An existing certificate or blue VASS plate usually still counts if nothing has changed since.
Statutory write-off
A vehicle recorded on the Victorian or an interstate written-off vehicles register as unrepairable. It can never be issued a club permit, at any age, through any club. Worth checking with a VicRoads Vehicle Report before buying.
TAC charge
The Transport Accident Commission component of the annual VicRoads fee, and the largest single part of it. Trailers and caravans do not pay it, which is why they cost so much less.
Standard and slimline plates
The two club permit plate styles. Standard is $44.20 for a set, slimline is $215 and sits lower and shorter. Motorcycles and trailers take a single plate at $22.10 and have no slimline option. All one-off costs.
Club permit plate number
The number on your plates, in the format 0456·H1. It stays with the vehicle when you switch clubs, along with your permit number and renewal date.
Logbook
The book recording every day you use the vehicle. Carried in the vehicle, or on you for a motorcycle or trailer, and produced if you are stopped. Entries in non-erasable blue or black pen only.
Use day
Any calendar day you drive more than 100 metres from the garage address. One entry covers the whole day however many trips you make, and it has to be written before you set off, never after.
Garage address
Where the vehicle is kept. The 100 metre rule is measured from here, so it needs to be where the vehicle actually lives rather than wherever your mail goes.
Hire or reward
Using the vehicle commercially, particularly carrying goods for payment. Not permitted on a club permit at any time, regardless of how many days you have left.
Financial member
Someone whose club membership is paid and current. Your permit is only valid while you are one, and clubs are required to tell VicRoads when a member lapses.
Renewal endorsement
The club's annual signature confirming you are still a financial member. Without it, VicRoads will not renew the permit.
PPV Probationary Prohibited Vehicle
A vehicle P1 and P2 drivers generally cannot drive unaccompanied. The same rules apply on a club permit as on full registration. Most unmodified classics fall well outside the restrictions.
Still not sure what something means?
Text the president and ask. $5 for your first year, and meetings are never compulsory.