EU Style License Plates
Philippe Vigeral
<3BFA5CE0...@arcor-online.net> :
> http://www.lemur.de/eu/lp.html
Do you know how the digit/letters codes are created in different
countries? Can they be chozen?
In France, license plates cannot be chozen. The number is not given
to the driver but to the car by the Préfecture de Police when you
buy it, coming in numeral and alphabetic orders in every département:
"998 AAA 75", then "999 AAA 75", then "1 AAB 75", etc.
It gets the following style: "1234 AB 56" or "123 ABC 56"; the
two-digit number on the right (three-digit for overseas départements)
indicating the departement code, which is simply drawn from
alphabetic order : Ain 01, Aisne 02, Allier 03, etc., but a few
exceptions among which Paris (75) because it was previously included
in a département called "Seine".
--
Philippe Vigeral
fr,en,es,(ia,it)
Philippe Vigeral
<g7tkvtcs0dpo2hnje...@4ax.com> :
> What's the situation with plates such as BZH ( Breizh , Brittany , Bretagne
> ) I wonder if they are officially allowed by the French regulation
Never saw such a plate, that would be definitely forbidded actually.
I believe that BZH one, as the one with a Moor head (for Corsica) are
only jokes, with stickers put on the plate. Such stickers can be seen
on many cars everywhere in France but usually not on the plates.
BTW, the plate with BZH on the website gets the département 31, that is
"Haute-Garonne", where Toulouse is. Definitely not in Brittany. ;-)
--
Philippe Vigeral
fr,en,es,(ia,it)
Christian Feldhaus
> In France, license plates cannot be chozen. The number is not given
> to the driver but to the car by the Préfecture de Police when you
> buy it, coming in numeral and alphabetic orders in every département:
> "998 AAA 75", then "999 AAA 75", then "1 AAB 75", etc.
Same here in Germany, except that you may pick your "preferred" number
within the (pretty strict) limitations of the numbering system. From
left to right, you have the blue EU field, then one to three letters
that indicate the county/city. (Rule of thumb: Big cities have one
letter, medium sized cities/counties have two, small counties have
three.) These two elements cannot be customized, ie. if my car was
registered in the city of Munich, I'd automatically get the "D" in the
EU field and an "M" as the city code.
Then comes a sticker, or actually two: The lower, bigger one shows the
coat of arms of the state, and the city or county name around. The other
sticker, above the state seal, is smaller and shows when the next
technical inspection is due ...
Next, a group of one or two letters followed by one to four digits. Here
you have a choice: You could pick your initials, for example, and your
year of birth. If you want such a "personal" license plate, you have to
pay a (modest) fee to the city/county administration. If you don't, you
get whatever number is available.
Some letter combinations are not issued, not even on request, e.g. "KZ"
or "SS". There are some other guidelines, but even outlining the few I
know about would soon get boring ;-)
Christian
andy roberts
>andy roberts a brillamment écrit dans l'article
><g7tkvtcs0dpo2hnje...@4ax.com> :
>
>> What's the situation with plates such as BZH ( Breizh , Brittany , Bretagne
>> ) I wonder if they are officially allowed by the French regulation
>
>Never saw such a plate, that would be definitely forbidded actually.
>I believe that BZH one, as the one with a Moor head (for Corsica) are
>only jokes, with stickers put on the plate. Such stickers can be seen
>on many cars everywhere in France but usually not on the plates.
>
several around Brittany itself, and especially waiting for the car ferry at
Roskoff. Maybe Jane < waves frantically > can tell us if they are specially
made plates or just stickers.
>BTW, the plate with BZH on the website gets the département 31, that is
>"Haute-Garonne", where Toulouse is. Definitely not in Brittany. ;-)
Oh yes, if you move to another region in France you have to get new plates
after a short while, don't you. That's different to here, In the UK the
number plates usually stay on for the life of the car, no matter where it
goes.
Andy R
--
http://www.europa.usenet.eu.org
Europa.* is a new usenet hierarchy for europe wide
topics without language restrictions.
Jane
onsvvt8d60fsfkuh3...@4ax.com...
| Well they may not feel confident about driving them around Paris but I saw
| several around Brittany itself, and especially waiting for the car ferry
at
| Roskoff. Maybe Jane < waves frantically > can tell us if they are
specially
| made plates or just stickers.
I saw arms waving infront of my eyes so decided to connect and see what was
happening ;-)
Ok, they're just stickers Andy. I'm not surprised you saw a lot when
driving round Brittany -- I told you they were proud of their region. I
suppose you've guessed BZH is short for the Breton word for Brittany,
Breizh. You also see lots of stickers of the Brittany white and black flag
too. Needless to say we don't have one on the car -- not being patriotic
:-)
The only other thing you see on a new car registration plate here, apart
from the numbers and the letters, is the "F" for France on a blue background
and surrounded by yellow stars -- but I think that's going to be obligatory
for all the EU countries now isn't it? <Don't forget I'm as up-to-date with
cars as I am with computers as I am with geography>.
Jane
Nick
> Yet another question: since when there are three-letter plates (excepted
> Corsica ;-)? Am I assuming right that they were issued only recently in
> "overpopulated" departments with lack of two-letter- (thus four-digit-
> except the department number) plates?
>
In Corsica, there's a letter in the département field
-2A (for 20 A) in Haute-Corse
-2B (for 20 B) in Corse-du-Sud
and for the three letters in the middle field, you're right it's in
"overpopulated" departments (the first one was Paris)
About that, Paris is trully a département (75)
Seine-et-marne is another one (77), like Yvelines(78), Val de Marne(94),
Seine Saint Denis(93), Hauts-de-Seine(92), Val d'Oise(95), and Essone(91).
> AFAIK the official name for Paris' department is yet still "Seine et
> Marne". But the later-founded(?) departments number 90 (Belfort) and
> above (around Paris) are dropping out of the alphabetical order.
> CU, Martin [de, en, es, ru, fr, (pt, it) ]
> --
> Motorail Trains throughout Europe: http://www.autoreisezuege.org
andy roberts
>andy roberts <andy.r...@zetnet.co.uk> a écrit dans le message :
>onsvvt8d60fsfkuh3...@4ax.com...
>
>| Well they may not feel confident about driving them around Paris but I saw
>| several around Brittany itself, and especially waiting for the car ferry
>at
>| Roskoff. Maybe Jane < waves frantically > can tell us if they are
>specially
>| made plates or just stickers.
>
>I saw arms waving infront of my eyes so decided to connect and see what was
>happening ;-)
>
Isn't modern technology wonderful !
>Ok, they're just stickers Andy. I'm not surprised you saw a lot when
>driving round Brittany -- I told you they were proud of their region. I
>suppose you've guessed BZH is short for the Breton word for Brittany,
>Breizh. You also see lots of stickers of the Brittany white and black flag
>too. Needless to say we don't have one on the car -- not being patriotic
>:-)
>
>The only other thing you see on a new car registration plate here, apart
>from the numbers and the letters, is the "F" for France on a blue background
>and surrounded by yellow stars -- but I think that's going to be obligatory
>for all the EU countries now isn't it?
But that's the place where I saw BZH in place of "F" . I didn't mean just
those old oval stickers which cars used to display before the country code
became part of the number plate.
> <Don't forget I'm as up-to-date with
>cars as I am with computers as I am with geography>.
>
Speaking of geography ( and this should really be posted to
europa.education) The latest plan for UK schools is that the subject should
no longer be compulsory after the age of 11 !!!!!
This seems like a big step backward to me :-(
Philippe Bourgon
"Martin Theodor Ludwig" <mail...@martin-theodor-ludwig.de> a écrit dans le
message news: 9tp3it$3tnfv$1...@ID-52.news.dfncis.de...
>
> Really "1 AAB 75", or merely "111 AAB 75"? I hardly ever see French
> plates with less than 8 characters, and if, it seems mostly like an
> ancient remainder.
>
That's the theory. In fact, numbers from 1 to 20 in the first place are not
issued ... except when some high placed people request one. Strangely enough
these cars never get fined for, say, bad parking. Of course you never hear
this officially, but this kind of "secrets" never stay really secret for
long.
> Yet another question: since when there are three-letter plates (excepted
> Corsica ;-)? Am I assuming right that they were issued only recently in
> "overpopulated" departments with lack of two-letter- (thus four-digit-
> except the department number) plates?
From what comes to my mind (ie there may be others)
Since more than 20 years in Paris (plates ending 75). In fact there is a
rarity to see a 2 letter plate from Paris, they subsist on vintage cars only
:-)
Since beginning of the 90s in the Hauts de Seine (ending 92) and the Essone
(ending 91)
Since ending 90s in the Val d'Oise (ending 95)
and outside of the Paris region there are some more, the only one I remember
is my native department Moselle (ending 57) which switched to 3 letter
plates in '92 if I remember well.
Jane
| But that's the place where I saw BZH in place of "F" . I didn't mean just
| those old oval stickers which cars used to display before the country code
| became part of the number plate.
Impossible <en> Impossible <fr> No possible <es?> ;-)
Ok -- I'm a doubting Thomasette Andy -- have you by any chance captured one
of these plates on a photo you took? Btw, does europa* have a binary group?
| Speaking of geography ( and this should really be posted to
| europa.education) The latest plan for UK schools is that the subject
should
| no longer be compulsory after the age of 11 !!!!!
|
| This seems like a big step backward to me
Ugh -- me too. Hey, if you step backwards into which ocean would you fall?
;-)
Jane
Philippe Vigeral
<3c00cbbf$0$26358$7a62...@news.club-internet.fr> :
> That's the theory. In fact, numbers from 1 to 20 in the first place are not
> issued ... except when some high placed people request one. Strangely enough
> these cars never get fined for, say, bad parking. Of course you never hear
> this officially, but this kind of "secrets" never stay really secret for
> long.
Désolé de te décevoir, mais c'est apparemment une légende. Ma
voiture -- achetée d'occasion, il est vrai, mais je doute un peu
qu'elle ait auparavant appartenu à une "personne haut placée" ;-) --
a pour premier nombre "17", ce qui ne m'empêche pas d'avoir des PV à
l'occasion. J'ai aussi eu jadis une voiture dont la plaque commençait
par "29"
[abstr.en] : Appears to be an urban legend: my licence plate begins
with 17 but I'm sadly fined as much as anybody can be, here in Paris.
--
Philippe Vigeral
fr,en,es,(ia,it)
andy roberts
>andy roberts <andy.r...@zetnet.co.uk> a écrit dans le message :
>kdd00u0sb5bsn36gu...@4ax.com...
>
>| But that's the place where I saw BZH in place of "F" . I didn't mean just
>| those old oval stickers which cars used to display before the country code
>| became part of the number plate.
>
>Impossible <en> Impossible <fr> No possible <es?> ;-)
>
>Ok -- I'm a doubting Thomasette Andy -- have you by any chance captured one
>of these plates on a photo you took?
No photos. All I have is a memory but there were two of us who discussed teh
phenomenon at the time. . Bored with waiting as we sat watching the cars
being loaded onto the car ferry we paid particular attention to the number
plates and where all the travellers came from. Most were from GB returning
home.
>Btw, does europa* have a binary group?
>
No it doesn't, in fact that is one of the restrictions decided upon before
europa.* was created.
http://www.europa.usenet.eu.org/restrict.html
So if there is a need for binary file sharing about europa.* topics we'd
have to find another way. That shouldn't be difficult.
>| Speaking of geography ( and this should really be posted to
>| europa.education) The latest plan for UK schools is that the subject
>should
>| no longer be compulsory after the age of 11 !!!!!
>|
>| This seems like a big step backward to me
>
>Ugh -- me too. Hey, if you step backwards into which ocean would you fall?
>;-)
>
Well I'm facing due East so I would eventually fall into the Atlantic Ocean.
That's a very long walk backwards.
Robert Weemeyer
> "Martin Theodor Ludwig" <mail...@martin-theodor-ludwig.de> a écrit:
>
> > Yet another question: since when there are three-letter plates [...]?
>
> Since more than 20 years in Paris (plates ending 75). In fact there is a
> rarity to see a 2 letter plate from Paris, they subsist on vintage cars only
> :-)
Don't they ever re-issue a number? I think they do so in Germany after
a few years.
Robert Weemeyer, Berlin
[de, eo, en, fr, sp, it, nl]
Followup-To: europa.viages.transporto
Serge Paccalin
Christian Feldhaus <cfng...@feldhausnet.de> a écrit
dans europa.union :
> Some letter combinations are not issued, not even on request, e.g.
> "KZ" or "SS". There are some other guidelines, but even outlining
> the few I know about would soon get boring ;-)
Also true in France, but the decision is usually taken département by
département, when they get close to the "dangerous" combinations.
As far as I know, the letters I and O never appear, probably to avoid
confusion with digits 0 and 1 (or maybe other letters, like Q).
WW (and WWA and WWB in départements that reached the three-letter
plates) are reserved for temporary plates of brand new cars.
Numbers are never reused.
--
___________
_/ _ \_`_`_`_) Serge PACCALIN -- sp ad mailclub.net
\ \_L_) Il faut donc que les hommes commencent
-'(__) par n'être pas fanatiques pour mériter
_/___(_) la tolérance. -- Voltaire, 1763
Christian Feldhaus
> As far as I know, the letters I and O never appear, probably to avoid
> confusion with digits 0 and 1 (or maybe other letters, like Q).
That is how it was done in DE as well, before the EU style plates were
introduced. The new license plates, however, have slightly different
fonts, so I and J, O and D, etc. are easier to distinguish. Therefore
they now appear on German license plates.
One thing that is apparenty confusing for foreigners is the use of
umlauts on our license plates. They are only used in the first group of
letters (indicating the city/county), not in the middle group. For
example, "BO" is for the city of Bochum (state of North Rhine
Westphalia) while "BÖ" is for the Bördekreis, a county in the state of
Saxony-Anhalt. From what I have read, the Dutch CJIB sometimes sends
speeding tickets to people in Bochum who have never been to the
Netherlands <g>.
Christian
Philippe Bourgon
"Robert Weemeyer" <robert....@gmx.de> a écrit dans le message news:
9tt1fh$4naon$6...@ID-1614.news.dfncis.de...
> Philippe Bourgon schrieb:
>
> > "Martin Theodor Ludwig" <mail...@martin-theodor-ludwig.de> a écrit:
> >
> > > Yet another question: since when there are three-letter plates [...]?
> >
> > Since more than 20 years in Paris (plates ending 75). In fact there is a
> > rarity to see a 2 letter plate from Paris, they subsist on vintage cars
only
> > :-)
>
> Don't they ever re-issue a number? I think they do so in Germany after
> a few years.
>
No until now they never did. And I think it would be rather difficult :
- The number is not given to the driver, as it is in Germany, but to the
car.
- It is changed if the car owner changes his residence outside the
department where the car was registered.
- It is also changed if the car is sold and the new owner resides in another
department. In thes 2 cases the car gets a new number
- Until very recently (less than 10 years) you were not required to signal
your car being destroyed.
- Until very recently too there was no preiodical technical inspection (TÜV)
required, so people with available ground sometimes stored old, but
functionnal cars, it did'nt cost them anything.
- The system started well before the computer age.
So it would be very difficult to insure the "old" number they were about to
re-issue does not still belong to some circulating vehicle. I think it was
decided that this is simply not worth the effort.
Christian Feldhaus
> Don't they ever re-issue a number? I think they do so in Germany after
> a few years.
It depends. In Germany the style and the basic structure of license
plates are standardized nationwide, but a few details are decided upon
locally. Until some years ago, many cities and counties issued "used"
plates again after a waiting period of, say, one year.
Some cities, such as Stuttgart, did away with this system some time in
the 70s; others kept using it until fairly recently. Nowadays most (if
not all) Kfz-Zulassungsstellen simply give out new numbers without
systematically re-issuing any. It will take quite a while until the
entire numbering space from "A 1" to "ZZ 9999" (ie. more than 7 million
combinations per city/county) is used up ...
Christian
Christian Feldhaus
> No until now they never did. And I think it would be rather difficult :
> - The number is not given to the driver, as it is in Germany, but to the
> car.
In Germany the number is not really assigned to the driver. (They do
that in Switzerland, I think: The number you get is yours; if anybody
buys your car from you, s/he will not get "your" number.) If I move to a
different county* and take my car with me, I will get a new license
plate from that "new" county. Also, if I sell the car to somebody who
lives in a different county, the car gets a new license plate.
(* county or city, that is. In Germany, towns and smaller cities usually
belong to a county while bigger cities do not. The county of Cologne,
for example, is actually just the city of Cologne.)
Christian
Robert Weemeyer
> "Robert Weemeyer" <robert....@gmx.de> a écrit:
>
> > Don't they ever re-issue a number? I think they do so in Germany after
> > a few years.
>
> No until now they never did. And I think it would be rather difficult :
> - The number is not given to the driver, as it is in Germany, but to the
> car.
Non. Aussi en Allemagne, le numéro appartient à la voiture, pas au
propriétaire. Quand on vend la voiture, il reste le même.
> - It is changed if the car owner changes his residence outside the
> department where the car was registered.
> - It is also changed if the car is sold and the new owner resides in another
> department. In thes 2 cases the car gets a new number
C'est le même en Allemagne.
> - Until very recently (less than 10 years) you were not required to signal
> your car being destroyed.
N'y a-t-il pas d'impôt annuel sur les voitures comme en Allemagne? Ici
on doit le payer jusqu'à ce qu'on déclare qu'elle n'est plus conduite
sur les rues publics.
> - Until very recently too there was no preiodical technical inspection (TÜV)
> required, so people with available ground sometimes stored old, but
> functionnal cars, it did'nt cost them anything.
Et ils avaient la permission de les conduire sur les rues publics en
tout temps?
Robert Weemeyer, Berlin, Allemagne
[de eo en fr (es nl it ...)]
Philippe Vigeral
<9tv8li$584i4$2...@ID-1614.news.dfncis.de> :
> N'y a-t-il pas d'impôt annuel sur les voitures comme en Allemagne? Ici
> on doit le payer jusqu'à ce qu'on déclare qu'elle n'est plus conduite
> sur les rues publics.
Non. La "vignette" a été supprimée l'an dernier. Mais l'assurance est
obligatoire si la voiture circule.
> Et ils avaient la permission de les conduire sur les rues publics en
> tout temps?
Autrefois, oui. Les contrôles techniques par des structures agréées
sont maintenant obligatoires (depuis une quinzaine d'années, je pense ?),
lorsque la voiture a quatre ans, puis tous les deux ans, et toujours
moins de six mois avant la revente de son véhicule.
--
Philippe Vigeral [fr,en,es,(ia,it,...)]