Polish car number plates

Introduction to this topic - includes background information for people living outside Poland

In common with many countries - in fact there is a growing tendency to do so since the UK also began regionalising plates in 2002 - Poland has the region of registration of the vehicle encoded in the number plate. The change in system shown below in 2001 is related to the reduction in the previous year of the number of voivodeships in Poland from 49 to 16, in order to reduce the proportion of the national budget on administration, and this was modelled on the German model of "Länder".

In the pre-2000 model, there were not sufficient letters in the Polish alphabet (incidentally, specific Polish symbols such as Ł, Ś, Ó, Ą, Ę, Ż, and Ć are not used in order to make the plates fully internationally readable) for each old voivodeship to have a single letter, and so in that section you will note that the first two letters needed to be memorised in order to know the region that the car you might note on the road was registered in. Since the change, a single letter denotes the new voivodeship, and the second and possibly third letters the region within the voivodeship, which may correspond to a powiat or gmina boundary, or several such conjoining boundaries within the voivodeship.

The registration plate is linked to the owner of the vehicle, and depends on where that person is registered as living, or 'zameldowany", in the case of a physical owner, or if it is owned by a company, the place of registration is determined by the seat of the company. Vehicles leased under operating leases and many de facto finance leases will be registered at the seat of the lessor. When a vehicle changes hands, it is usual for the new owner to obtain a new licence plate and a new vehicle registration document corresponding to his or her registered place of abode.

It is not necessary for EU citizens to re-register the vehicles they have brought with them, which are duly registered and taxed elsewhere in the EU, when living in Poland. This emerges from European law, although local regulations have to date not been changed to reflect the law, leading to officials locally sometimes giving incorrect advice on this point. If in doubt, refer to your Embassy.

Polish car number plates since May 1, 2000

Polish 2000 series car plates have black letters on a white background. Each town/district has its two or three letter code. There are lots of possibilities in creating a car's number.

Two letters town/district (#-letter, *-digit) has five possible configuration: ## *****, ## ****#, ## ***## and ## #****, ## ##*** possible since May 2, 2006.

Three letters town/district might have nine following combinations: ### #***, ### **##, ### *#**, ### **#*, ### *##*, ### ##** and ### *****, ### ****#, ### ***## possible since May 2, 2006.

Motors/mopeds/agricultural vehicles have ## **** or ## ***# in towns/districts with a 2-letter code or the same as first 6 combinations on cars in districts with a 3-letter code - black text on white background.

Oldtimers have ## **# (a 2-letter code) or ### *# (3-letter code) - black text on yellow background.

Temporary and export vehicle #* ****, #* ***# (first letter indicates region) red text on white background. #* *** B - for testing vehicle

Personalized plates: #* ###, #* ##*, #* #**, #* ####, #* ###*, #* ##**, #* #####, #* ####*, #* ###** (3-5 signs and no more than two last signs might be a digit). First letter indicates region (voivodeship) and next is serial digit. Black on white background.

Diplomatic plates # ******. White symbols on blue background (Most of them have W at the beginning. First three digits indicate country.

There shouldn't be letters B, D, I, O, Z in car's number (part of number after the hyphen) It doesn't consider town/district indicator and personalized tables. However, in some districts, such plates were issued. Q is not used at all.

Note: Plates issued after May 2 2006 have the 12 EU stars instead of the national flag.

District indicators

Numbers on Polish licese plates according districts

U# - Military

HP# - Police

HW# - Border Guard

HK# - Internal Security Agency, Foreign Intelligence Agency

HB# - Government Protection Bureau

HC# - Customs Service

HS# - Fiscal Control

1976 - 2000 series

Plates 1976 - 2000 series are still valid. It has white letters on black background. There was coding too: ### **** or ### ***# (at the beginning configuration with letter in the end was used for public cars only)

There was following coding (49 regions):

Biała Podlaska BP, BA, BS

Białystok BK, BT, BI

Bielsko-Biała BB, BL, BO

Bydgoszcz BY, BG, BD, BC

Chełm CH, CM, CU

Ciechanów CI, CN, CA

Częstochowa CZ, CE, CO

Elbląg EL, EG, EB

Gdańsk GD, GK, GA, GN

Gorzow Wlkp. GO, GW, GR

Jelenia Góra JG, JE, JA

Kalisz KL, KZ, KP

Katowice KA, KT, KB, KC, KD, KX

Kielce KI, KE, KJ

Konin KN, KM, KF

Koszalin KO, KG, KY

Kraków (Cracow) KR, KK, KW, KV

Krosno KS, KU, KH

Legnica LG, LC, LI

Leszno LE, LS, LN

Lublin LU, LL, LB

Łomża LO, LM, LA

Łódź LD, LZ, LF, LW

Nowy Sącz NS, NO, NA

Olsztyn OL, ON, OT

Opole OP, OE, OD

Ostrołęka OS, OK, OR

Piła PI, PA, PY

Piotrków Tryb. PT, PK, PU

Płock PL, PC, PB

Poznań PO, PN, PZ, PW

Przemyśl PR, PM, PE

Radom RA, RO, RD

Rzeszów RZ, RE, RW

Siedlce SE, SD, ST

Sieradz SI, SA, SB

Skierniewice SK, SN, SF

Słupsk SL, SP, SG

Suwałki SU, SW, SO

Szczecin SZ, SC, SM

Tarnobrzeg TG, TB, TE

Tarnów TA, TN, TW

Toruń TO, TU, TY

Wałbrzych WB, WY, WH

Warszawa (Warsaw) WA, WS, WI, WU, WG, WF, WX, WZ, WM, WT, WP, WV

Włocławek WL, WK, WE

Wrocław WR, WO, WC, WW

Zamość ZA, ZM, ZC

Zielona Góra ZG, ZE, ZN

Police MO

Military U

Border Guard HW

1956-1976 series

Since June 19, 1956 Polish car number plates has 2 letters and 4 digits, and since May 13, 1964 letters can stand after digits.

Individual elements meant:

• first letter - code of voivodeship,
• second letter - code of powiat,
• digits - code of vehicle.

Codes of voivodeships:

• A - Białystok Voivodeship
• B - Bydgoszcz Voivodeship
• C - Kielce Voivodeship
• E - Koszalin Voivodeship
• F - Łodź Voivodeship
• G - Gdańsk Voivodeship
• H - Opole Voivodeship
• I - city of Łódź
• K - Cracow Voivodeship
• L - Lublin Voivodeship
• M - Szczecin Voivodeship
• O - Olsztyn Voivodeship
• P - Poznań Voivodeship
• R - Rzeszów Voivodeship
• S - Katowice Voivodeship
• T - Warsaw Voivodeship
• W - capital city of Warsaw
• X - Wrocław Voivodeship
• Z - Zielona Góra Voivodeship

Codes of special forces:

• Y - Citizen's Militia
• D - army (cars)
• U - army (other vehicles)
• N - Border Guard

See also

• European license plates

External links

• Polish Registration Vehicle Act (example plates when you are patient :-) )
• The highest number on Polish plates
• Index of Polish personalized plates
• Details about plates in Warsaw

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