R Plates

mycar

Overview

R (Return) Plates, a new physical car plate, recognises drivers returning to the road after a traumatic road incident.

This ‘People First’ initiative took a largely unseen and unsupported psychological condition and made it visible in order to rebuild affected drivers’ confidence on the road.

Challenge

Despite mental health and trauma topics being on the rise, society was not acknowledging or addressing the psychological trauma that arises from road incidents – where 21% of Aussies lose their confidence to drive.

Worse still, of those Aussies who had been affected by a road incident, only 16% sought professional help. That’s millions of Aussie drivers suffering in silence.

Disruption

In Australia when you’re learning to drive you place ‘L’ (for learner) plates on your car – what if we could create a plate for drivers returning after trauma?

Enter R (Return) Plates – a plate to recognise drivers returning to the road. For the first time, drivers could show others what was going on inside. The R Plate achieves two things simultaneously – pointing out a problem that had been otherwise ignored in society; and encouraging those who had suffered to seek help to overcome their trauma.

The physical plate communicates the issue in real time where it matters, on the road. Each plate has a QR code, connecting drivers with psychological support whenever they need it.

For mycar Tyre & Auto, putting ‘People First’ is at the heart of mycar’s business, so the campaign strengthened their brand promise as well as exposing a blind spot in the way that we as a society deal with road trauma.