The Importance of Private Number Plates

To circulate in any country, all vehicles must be provided with identification plates. The obligation began in France in 1865 and gradually spread to all other countries. At first, only a rear plate was envisaged, but soon cars also had a smaller plate at the front, at least in countries with higher traffic rates.

There are many reasons why vehicles have had to undergo registration, which was initially reserved for real estate. On the one hand, the Administration has to guarantee in some way the rights of vehicle owners, as well as those of other citizens; on the other, the registry data allows to control taxes. In some cases, in order to exercise a specific control, the registration is carried out by the police themselves, as in Austria and Norway (precisely, in the latter country the 2 letters preceding the registration number correspond to the police district).

The registration plates constitute the identity document of each vehicle, which allows to recognize the rights and obligations of the owner. This explains the notable importance that the plates have had in favoring the development of motorization, due to their industrial, commercial and safety implications.

In principle, it seems that an agreement could easily have been reached for the unification of the technical-administrative criteria of the different countries on the plates. However, precisely the opposite has occurred, since only some partial aspects were dealt with in the 1949 Geneva Convention.

This explains the diversity of plates in terms of size and characteristics, from those with dark inscriptions on a light background to those with light ones on a dark background. The same occurs with the constituent elements of the inscriptions, such as letters and figures, and their meaning and arrangement. There are plates in which indications are given about the province, department or region (and even the country, as in Brazil and India) of origin. Thus, in the cases of Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Yugoslavia, such indications are made through the initials of the corresponding provinces or cantons. In other countries, such as the Federal Republic of Germany and Sweden, there are letters that indicate the place of registration of the vehicle, but using conventional references. In France, identification is achieved by a code number, assigned to each department. In Hungary, the letters are used to specify the type of vehicle (private, public, commercial, etc.) and in the Netherlands they even determine the width of the car. In the US, each state is governed by its own rules.

Arab countries usually include inscriptions of the Latin alphabet as well as Arabic on the plates, with variable amplitude for both. In Asian countries, Latin characters predominate, although in several cases they are added to the same ideograms or local signs (Japan, Korea, etc.).

Finally, in certain countries (Canada, Monaco, Sweden, etc.) the plates are issued for a limited period (generally one year) and then others have to be obtained, or simply renewed, by means of a distinctive or special signaling. Here, too, we must highlight the peculiarity of the USA, where each state is a case: in certain areas, the color is periodically changed. However, in most countries the registration, following the initial regulations, remains until the vehicle is scrapped. This forces the current configuration of most of them, where registration numbers are added to the identification letters of their origin, which are complemented with letters to avoid excessive length of the numbers (an essential question in countries with a car fleet). Again, it should be noted that in addition to the inclusion of the denomination (common in several Latin American countries), the UK and US plates are special due to the inscription of slogans and the presence of special personalized plates. And if you are a car owner in UK, you need to know that Carreg are suppliers of private number plates.