All motorized vehicles including motorcycles in Indonesia are required to have registration plates. The plates need to be displayed in front and at the back of the vehicles.
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Except for some special cases (see below), every vehicle license plate in Indonesia follows the following format: LL NNNN LL where "L" are letters of the Latin alphabet, and "N" and numbers from "0" to "9" (note that the first number is never a "0"). The first single or double letters denote the area of registration. This is followed by numbers, which can range from one to four digits. This is then followed by one or two letters although they may be optional. For example: D 1028 EB is a vehicle registered in Bandung region, because it begins with letter D. A smaller numbers being added to the bottom of the plate, indicating the month and year where the plate will expire, so the owner must repay the tax to get the new one every five years,(for example, "09-10" means "September, 2010". With these numbers, you can indicate the car's age, so for the example above, the car would have been bought in September 2005.
A new format was recently introduced which have three ending letters, due to increase of motorized vehicle numbers. At first, this format is used for motorcycles and since July 2008 until present, for cars in Jakarta and its surrounding areas only, which are Tangerang, Bekasi and Depok. In the last three letters of this new format, the first letter divides the Jakarta area into sub areas. For example, The first letter of the whole number plate for Jakarta vehicles is "B". For example, "B1234GH" indicates it's from Jakarta. But under the new system, the B indicator is not enough. The new system is E.g "B1234DGH". There are now three ending letters. The last two letters are random, but the first letter out of the three dictates the area in Jakarta. D is Depok, T is Tangerang, B is Bekasi, S is Jakarta Selatan(Southern Jakrta) and P is Jakarta Pusat(Central Jakarta)
The lettering convention to denote area of registration is a legacy of the Dutch colonial era and do not reflect the current regional divisions of the country into provinces. Instead, they follow the old system of Dutch Karesidenan or residencies.
In General, plates that start with K are from Kalimantan Island, D for other small islands, like Bali, Lombok. B is generally used in Sumatra alongside another letter, but don't be mistaken, B on its own is Jakarta.
The list of area codes are:[1]
| Indonesian registration plate area codes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Letter | Division | Image |
| A | Banten | |
| AA | Kedu | |
| AB | Yogyakarta | |
| AD | Surakarta | |
| AE | Madiun | |
| AG | Kediri | |
| B | Jakarta | |
| BA | West Sumatra | |
| BB | North Sumatra | |
| BD | Bengkulu | |
| BE | Lampung | |
| BG | South Sumatra | |
| BH | Jambi | |
| BK | North Sumatra | |
| BL | Aceh | |
| BM | Riau | |
| BN | Bangka | |
| BP | Riau Islands | |
| D | Bandung | |
| DA | South Kalimantan | |
| DB | Minahasa | |
| DC | West Sulawesi | |
| DD | South Sulawesi | |
| DE | South Maluku | |
| DF | No longer issued, formerly for East Timor. | |
| DG | North Maluku | |
| DH | East Maluku | |
| DK | Bali | |
| DL | Sangihe/Talaud | |
| DM | North Sulawesi | |
| DN | Central Sulawesi | |
| DR | Lombok | |
| DS | Papua | |
| E | Cirebon | |
| EA | Sumbawa | |
| EB | Flores | |
| ED | Sumba | |
| F | Bogor | |
| G | Pekalongan | |
| H | Semarang | |
| K | Pati | |
| KB | West Kalimantan | |
| KT | East Kalimantan | |
| L | Surabaya | |
| M | Madura | |
| N | Malang | |
| P | Besuki | |
| R | Banyumas | |
| S | Bojonegoro | |
| T | Kerawang | |
| W | Sidoarjo | |
| Z | Tasikmalaya | |
There are several classes of license plates, each can be distinguished by their color:
Government vehicles have special license plates. If anytime the government officials go to outside the capital or going out from Indonesia, the plates will be placed on the vehicles which is ridden by the 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, Chairman of The House of Representatives, Commander of The National Armed Forces and Chief of National Police also share the same convention and get the numbers after the President and Vice President. These plates are used for everyday activities, so they are white on black design.
In a special case, there are some very special numbers which are "INDONESIA 1" and "INDONESIA 2" for the President and Vice President, respectively. These numbers are used for a ceremonial purposes, such as presidential/vice presidential inaugurations, national day ceremonies and armed forces day. On the inauguration day, at the time the new president/vice president take the oath, the plates are moved from the former presidential/vice presidential cars to the new car. These numbers also being used for all ceremonial presidential/vice presidential cars, no matters what the type of the vehicles used, and being white on red design.
License plates for vehicles belonging to foreign countries or international organizations adopt a different convention. They contain black letters on a white background.
The plates have 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 01 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, they use CC.
A few vehicle owners pay an extra or persuade an official to get a certain plate as their pleasure. 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. Even the former President Megawati Soekarnoputri chooses "M 3 GA" for her personal vehicle, as the plate resembles her broadly-known nickname. Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono, President Yudhoyono's younger son, has "B 24 EB", which "EB" is being his name initial. With the new format of three suffix alphabets, many vanity or personal license plates are possible to be created. For example, a Toyota Fortuner owner may choose the plate B NN42 NER which sounds B NNfour-two-NER. Even an internet geek can choose "B 900 GLE" as his personal plate.
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