The country in which a motor vehicle's vehicle registration plate was issued is indicated by an international licence plate country code, formerly known as an International Registration Letter or International Circulation Mark, displayed in bold block uppercase on a small white oval plate or sticker near the number plate on the rear of a vehicle.
- This is different from the way vehicles belonging to the diplomats of foreign countries with license plate from the host country are marked. That standard is host country specific and varies largely from country to country. For example TR on a diplomatic car in US indicates Italian, not Turkish. Such markings in Norway are indicated with numbers only, again different from international standards (90 means Slovakian -not Turkish as international telephone codes would mean-).
The allocation of codes is maintained by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe as the Distinguishing Signs Used on Vehicles in International Traffic (sometimes abbreviated to DSIT), authorised by the UN's Geneva Convention on Road Traffic of 1949 and the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic of 1968. Many vehicle codes created since the adoption of ISO 3166 coincide with ISO two- or three-letter codes.
The 2004 South-East Asian Agreement ... for the Facilitation of Cross-Border Transport of Goods and People uses a mixture of ISO and DSIT codes: Myanmar uses MYA, China CHN, and Cambodia KH (ISO codes), Thailand uses T (DSIT code), Laos LAO, and Vietnam VN (coincident ISO and DSIT codes).
In the European Economic Area, vehicles from one member state do not need to display the oval while within another state, provided the number plate is in the common EU standard format introduced in the 1990s, which includes the international vehicle registration code on the plate.
Current codes
Note: an asterisk (*) indicates that this code is unofficial (does not appear in the UN list of distinguishing codes).
Codes no longer in use
See also
- Aircraft registration
- International Driving Permit
- ISO 3166
Notes
- Note
- There are unofficial codes in common use, such as "CYM" for Wales, "BZH" for Brittany, "VL" for Flanders, "V" for Vojvodina/Vajdaság, "TS" for Transylvania, "SIC" for Székely Land (from latin Terra Siculorum) and "CD" for "Corps Diplomatique".
References
Further reading
- "RPW": Neil Parker and John Weeks, Registration Plates of the World, Europlate; 4th edition (2004)
External links
- UN Economic Commission for Europe, Working Party on Road Transport (WP.11)
- Miscellaneous Proposals of Amendments to the Model Regulations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods: Identification of Approval Country in Marking, UN/SCETDG/33/INF.5 (table compares ISO 3166 and DSIT codes)
- Association Francoplaque: Collectionneurs de Plaques d'Immatriculation (data mostly from RPW, above)
- European Registration Plate Association: Registration Plates of the World Online (registration required; data mostly from RPW, above)
