Vehicle registration plates of Indonesia

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Indonesian registration plate for Jakarta.

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.

Contents

[edit] Registration plate design

[edit] Design convention

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)

[edit] Registration area codes

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 A Vehicle registration plate from Yogyakarta Special District.png
AD Surakarta
AE Madiun
AG Kediri
B Jakarta Id plate.jpg
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 License plate from Indonesia.jpg
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

[edit] Vehicle classes

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 private vehicles.
  • Red on white: Vehicles that have not been registered yet, or for new cars that have no owners yet.
  • Black on yellow: Public transportation vehicles, such as buses, taxis and trucks.
  • White on red: Government vehicles.
  • Black on Red: Vehicles belonging to foreign countries. Commonly used by foreign embassies or vehicles belonging to International organizations. These adopt a different convention (see below).
  • Black on White: Vehicles belonging to foreign countries. Commonly used by foreign embassies or vehicles belonging to International organizations. These adopt a different convention (see below).
  • Military and police vehicles have their own colors and alphanumeric conventions that is very different from civilians, including their insignia and/or the rank of the officer owning the vehicle, especially for high-ranking officers one. Army plate is yellow on green background, added by a yellow star on the top. Navy plate is yellow on light blue, added by a yellow anchor. Air Force plate is yellow on dark blue, added by a red and white air force roundel. Police plate is yellow on black. Personnels in Armed Forces Headquarters using yellow numbers on red background plates. Slightly similar, Ministry of Defense vehicles also using yellow on red plates, only replacing Armed Forces' insignia with the Ministry's insignia. This is also being practiced on every military vehicles, even on motorcycles, jeeps, trucks, tanks, etc.
  • Fire Departments and Regional Police are administered under their local governments, so they are using government-style license plates.
  • There are also other special conventions, such as for vehicles used by the President, Vice President or other senior government officials.

[edit] Special plate designs

[edit] Government vehicles

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.

[edit] 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, 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.

[edit] Vehicles belonging to foreign countries or international organization

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.

[edit] Vanity names

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.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Republic of Indonesia. Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia Nomor 22 Tahun 2009 Tentang Lalu Lintas dan Angkutan Jalan.

[edit] External links

Vehicle registration plates of Asia
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