Vehicle registration plates of the Netherlands are vehicle registration plates issued by the national road traffic agency (Dutch: Rijksdienst voor het Wegverkeer (RDW)).
Contents
- Earlier schemes
- Province codes
- Numbering schemes
- Other formats
- Recent changes
- Motor cars
- Motorcycles
- Mopeds
- Lorries weighing more than 35 tons
- Lorries weighing 35 tons or less
- Trailers
- Bobtail Trailers
- Special use licence plates
- Vehicle registration
- References
RDW vehicle registration plates are assigned bearing the same "number" (a sequence of characters composed of letters and digits) as that shown on the vehicle's registration document. The numbering scheme used bears no relation to the place of a vehicle's registration or ownership, and numbers – which are issued in strict time order – identify the vehicle, not its owner. Thus, if a vehicle changes ownership, the registration number remains unchanged.
Earlier schemes
The Netherlands introduced a system of vehicle registration plates on 26 April 1898 – the third country in the world to do so, after France in 1893 and Germany in 1896. A plate bearing the number 1 was issued to a Mr J. van Dam, who purchased the first 100% Dutch-built motorcar, which was manufactured at his own Groninger Motor-Rijtuigen Fabriek. Plate numbers stayed with the owner, unlike the present system. From 1906, a new system used the format xx-ddddd, where xx was a province code and ddddd a serial number. This system lasted until 1951, when the current system was introduced.
Province codes
Numbering schemes
The current Dutch licence plate system uses black letters on a light-reflecting yellow background. The previous series used white reflecting letters on a dark-blue background. Their numbering schemes however are the same.
Dutch car number plates can be formatted as follows:
Nowadays the letters used do not include vowels, so as to avoid profane or obscene language. To avoid confusion with a zero, the letters C and Q are also omitted. Letters and numbers are issued in strict alphabetical/numeric order. Thus a Dutch licence plate gives an indication of the date of registration of a car, but no information about where in the country the car comes from, or to whom it belongs.
Other formats
With the introduction of the GAIK series, several other formats have been introduced as well
Recent changes
The licence plates have subtly changed shape in 2002, when not only the letter type (or font) changed, but also a few other changes were made.
Mopeds have after F-999-ZZ now the new side code 11, beginning with DBB-00-B. As the old series of licence plates for cars, big and small lorries has come to an end, new vehicles are registered with marks in the format DD-LLL-D (where 'D' is a digit, and 'L' is a letter). Small lorries have also D-LLL-DD and from January 2013 LL-DDD-L is used for small lorries. The registration plate format for personal cars is D-LLL-DD and issuing of this is started on 5 March 2013 because the DD-LLL-D combinations are exhausted on that day. From 30 March 2015 DD-LLL-D combinations are also exhausted and LL-DDD-L is now in use.
Motor cars
(L not in use!)
Motorcycles
Mopeds
DBS-01-D to DBS-99-D and DBS-01-S to DBS-99-S are not used, to avoid SD and SS combinations. Also in the future, DxS-01-D to DxS-99-D and DxS-01-S to DxS-99-S (x is the second letter, D to Z) will not be used, for the same reason.
Lorries (weighing more than 3.5 tons)
Lorries (weighing 3.5 tons or less)
Trailers
Bobtail Trailers
Special-use licence plates
This list is not exhaustive. The Dutch Wikipedia article nl:Nederlands kenteken contains more exceptions.
Vehicle registration
Since January 1, 2014, the Netherlands has an all plastic vehicle registration on credit card format. This and the driving licence (which is the same size) are the only things you have to carry with you while driving in the Netherlands. This registration looks the same (green) for every vehicle category, only the information on the card differs. It has a chip which contains more detailed information about the vehicle. All previously issued vehicle registrations will remain valid until the car changes ownership, or until when the owner requests replacement vehicle registration documents to be issued. While you previously needed a so-called overschrijvingsbewijs (a separate document that came with the vehicle registration) in order to sell your vehicle, this has now been replaced with a code. If you bring the registration card and the correct code you can sell the vehicle, even if you do not have the original letter (that comes with the new car registration) stating the code.