Malaysian vehicle number plates
Malaysian vehicle number plates are the licence plates displayed on all motorized road vehicles in Malaysia, as required by law. All vehicle licence plates in Malaysia, other than those issued to diplomats and taxis (see below), have white characters on a black background, regardless of the vehicle type. The issue of licence plates is regulated and administered by the Malaysian Road Transport Department. Malaysian licence plates typically begin with one or more letters (the first letter(s) serving as a vehicle or location prefix) followed by up to four numerical digits. Thus, the configuration of a common Malaysian number plate may be in the form of ABC1234.
Example:N1 ~ N9999, then NA1 ~ NY9999 is used, then NAA1 ~ NAY9999 then NBA. "O" and "I" are not used as they can be confused with "1" and "0" while "Z" is only used in the Malaysian military.</br>
For the purposes of vehicle licensing each state in Malaysia has an identifying character; vehicles registered in a particular state will therefore bear licence plates beginning with that state's identifying character. Additionally, certain divisions of government, such as the military, have their own distinguishing characters.
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Location prefixes
Peninsular Malaysia
Vehicle licence plates used in Peninsular Malaysia start with a letter of the alphabet. They do not use a checksum digit, unlike number plates from Singapore. Vehicles registered in the various states begin with specific letters as follows:
- A: Perak
- B: Selangor, including plates registered in Kuala Lumpur before the city is a federal territory
- C: Pahang
- D: Kelantan
- J: Johor
- K: Kedah, including Langkawi (KV)
- M: Malacca
- N: Negri Sembilan
- P: Penang
- R: Perlis
- T: Terengganu
- Vehicles registered in the federal territories:
Peninsular Malaysia Motor Dealer's (Trade) plates are white on a blue ground using the format L NNN L, where the first letter is the state code and the final letter is a serial, as are the numbers.
East Malaysia
Vehicles registered in the states of Sarawak and Sabah are allocated vehicle number plates commencing with the letters Q (Sarawak) or S (Sabah). Then follows the regional code and a serial number - when 9999 is reached a serial letter is used, in alphabetical order, to augment. In Sabah this serial letter follows the serial number (SA 1234 A), and in Sarawak it follows the regional code (QKA 1234)
- Q: Sarawak
Sarawak Motor Dealers' (Trade) plates vary only in their colour, which is white on a red ground.
- S: Sabah
- SA: Kota Kinabalu and Kota Belud
- SB: Beaufort
- SD: Lahad Datu
- SK: Kudat
- SS: Sandakan
- ST: Tawau
- SU: Keningau
- SG: Government
Sabah Motor Dealers' (Trade) plates are red on white in the format 1-3 numbers followed by a district letter, usually J, for Kota Kinabalu (formerly Jesselton).
Vanity plates
Vanity plates, i.e. plates using special, distinctive prefixes, are available at extra cost. These special prefixes may denote the brand of the car (such prefixes are often used, for example, on Proton and Perodua cars). Among the more commonly used special prefixes are:
- WAJA: Issued for Proton Waja cars.
- Satria: Issued for Proton Satria cars.
- NAZA: Issued for Naza vehicles.
- SUKOM: Issued only during the 1998 Commonwealth Games, which was held in Kuala Lumpur at that year.
- XIII NAM: Issued only during the 2003 NAM Summit which was held in Kuala Lumpur at that year.
- X OIC: Issued only during the 2003 OIC Summit which was held in Kuala Lumpur at that year.
- XI ASEAN: Issued only during the 2005 ASEAN Summit which was held in Kuala Lumpur at that year.
- BAMbee: Issued only during the 2000 Thomas and Uber Cup which was held in Kuala Lumpur at that year.
Diplomats' number plates also use white on a black background and Consular Corps personnel have white on red plates. Unlike other licence plates, which have the format of (typically) ABC1234, diplomatic licence plates are formatted (for example) 11-22-DC for Diplomatic corps and CC for Consular Corps for Commonwealth countries. United Nations used UN and members of the International Rubber Organisation are said to have had the code 'PA', but neither UN nor PA have been actually seen.
Royalty
The number plates on cars used by the royal families have prefixes ending in Z, unlike other cars where the prefixes end in the range A to Y. Otherwise, the prefixes used for cars belonging to the royal families are just the same as with any other vehicles. Additionally, the plates on vehicles used by the royal families' bodyguards normally bear just one, or sometimes two, numerical digits. Those on vehicles owned by the general public usually have three or four numerical digits, and two is a rarity.
Taxi
While older taxicab number plates had previously used normal number plate formats as standard vehicles, most newer Malaysian taxi assume a H prefix at the start of its plate, followed by its respective location prefix. Unlike standard vehicles, taxi number plates have black characters on a white background.
- HA: Ipoh, Perak
- HB: Klang Valley, Selangor
- HC: Kuantan, Pahang
- HJ: Johor Bahru, Johor
- HM: Melaka
- HN: Seremban, Negri Sembilan
- HP: Penang
- HQK: Kuching, Sarawak
- HSA: Kota Kinabalu, Sabah
- HW: Kuala Lumpur
- LIMO****W/B: Kuala Lumpur International Airport limousines
Military
The Malaysian military uses Z as the starting prefix of a licence plate, followed by a second prefix letter to denote the branch of the military.
External links
Categories
License plates | Transport in Malaysia