Vehicle registration plates of Indonesia

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[edit] Convention

The conventions of vehicle license plate usage in Indonesia are a legacy of the Dutch colonial era and the V.O.C. era. They do not reflect the current regional divisions of the country into provinces, but rather maintain the old system of Dutch Karesidenan regions.

Except for some special cases (see below), every vehicle license plate in Indonesia follows the following format: LL NNNN LL.one or two letters denoting the area of registration, followed by up to four digits of numbers, and optionally followed by one or two letters. For example: D 1028 EB is a vehicle registered in Bandung, because it begins with letter D.

Just recently (late 2004) a new format is introduced for motorcycles, which have three letters in the back. Example : B 7515 TOP.

[edit] Classes of license plates

There are several classes of license plates. each can be distinguished by their color:

  • White on black: the most common type of license plate, this is for normal vehicles owned by citizens.
  • Red on white: for vehicles that haven't been registered yet, or for new cars that have no owners yet.
  • Black on yellow: for public transportation vehicles, such as buses or taxis.
  • White on red: for government vehicles.
  • Black on white: for vehicles belonging to foreign countries. Commonly used by foreign embassy's or vehicles belonging to International organizations. These adopt a different convention (see below).
  • Military, police or fire brigade have their own colors, and usually include their insignia and/or the rank of the officer owning the vehicle.
  • There are also other special conventions, such as for vehicles used by the President, Vice President or other senior government officials.

[edit] Area of registration

The following lists the area of registration of license plates. It uses one or two letters to denote area of registration.


[edit] Convention for foreign countries' or international organization's vehicles

License plates for vehicles belonging to foreign countries or international organizations adopt a different convention. They contain black letters on a white background. The format is: the letter CD followed by two or three digits denoting the country or organization, followed by up to three digits of the serial number. For example: a car with number CD 12 001 is owned by the United States.

The list of countries and organizations follows:

Consulates also use the same format, but instead of using the letters CD, it uses CC.

[edit] License plates for senior government officials

Vehicle license plates belonging to senior government officials like the President or Vice President always begin with RI (which stands for "Republik Indonesia") and are followed by a number. For example, the president's vehicle license plate is "RI-1", and the vice president's is "RI-2". Other senior officials such as government ministers also share the same convention.

[edit] Vanity names

A few vehicle owners pay a premium or persuade an official to get a certain plate. Because the convention is not flexible to include a full word, people try creative uses of numbers and letters. For example, Idris Sardi, a violin player, uses B 10 LA for his vehicle. It is a play on word Biola which means "violin" in Indonesian. Leoni, a famous actress and singer, uses L 30 NI for her car.

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Vehicle registration plates of Asia

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* People's Republic of China (Hong Kong · Macau) · Republic of China (Taiwan)
1 Transcontinental country.  2 Only recognised by Turkey.  3 Not fully independent.