License plate (Netherlands)

Current license plates for cars

Current scheme of motorcycle license plates

Dutch license plates are vehicle-specific, meaning they are not reassigned to new owners. The nationality code is NL .

Current system

Vintage license plate

Duplicate license plate

Dutch license plates are generally made up of three groups of one to three letters or numbers, each separated by a dash. Except for semi-trailers (since 2002) or special license plates, vowels (from side code  4) are not used in order to avoid word formation; from Side Code 5 that also applies to the letter Y . The letters C and Q are not used (except in CD and CDJ ) as they could be confused with the number 0 . SA , SD, and SS were not used in any of the sidecode series to avoid memories of WWII .

Since 1951, the origin can no longer be recognized by the license plate. Normal license plates had white lettering on a dark blue background and from 1976 to 1977 white lettering on a slightly lighter blue background; this still applies to historical vehicles from this time.

Since 1978, normal license plates have black letters on a yellow background.

On February 1, 2000, the Euro plates were introduced. License plates without a Euroband could be exchanged until 2003 while maintaining the number combination.

With the introduction of the Euro plates , duplicate plates (e.g. if the plate is lost) are identified as such by a small number (1 for the first duplicate, 2 for the second, etc.). This is usually located above the first hyphen in normal license plates, but the position differs for other license plate formats.

License plate types

License plates for trailers up to 750 kg, repeat license plates (e.g. for bicycle carriers), temporary license plates (e.g. after the original has been stolen) and export license plates have black lettering on a white background without a euro band.

Since December 2000, vehicles for taxi traffic have had license plates with black letters on a light blue background.

Since February 2001, dealer license plates have been printed in black on a light green background.

Combinations

The age of the vehicle can usually be derived from the group combinations (side codes); however, certain combinations are used for special license plates (each year of introduction):

Sidecode	Car	motorcycles	Mopeds	truck	Trucks <2.20 m or <3.5 t	pendant	Semi- trailer
01:	1951	1951	-	1951	1951	1963	1963
02:	1965	-	-	1974	-	1977	-
03:	1973	-	-	1977	-	1983	-
04:	1978	1980	-	1980	-	1988	1988
05:	1991	1999	-	1994	1994	2000
06:	1999	2011	-	-	1998	2008
07:	2008		2005	2012	2006
08th:	2013		-		2009
09:	2015		2006		2012
10:	2019		2008		2016
11:			2015		2019
12:
13:
14:

Remarks:

• As of September 2005, the side codes 7 and 9 to 11 were introduced for mopeds and mopeds.
• When the other side codes have been used up, side codes 7 to 14 are also output for the other vehicle categories . So far, this concerns the side codes 7 to 9 for passenger cars and trucks with a weight of up to 3.5 t and the side code 7 for heavier trucks.
• No vowels or letter combinations that are reminiscent of the Second World War or other abbreviations with a negative or obscene connotation are used for the side codes 7 to 14 , e.g. B. GVD ( force term ), NSB , TBS ( Sicherungsverwahrung ), SS and SD .
• SD and SS are also not used in Sidecode 11: no x * S-01-D to x * S-99-D and also no x * S-01-S to x * S-99-S (x is the first Letter D, F and V, and * is the second letter B to Z). DSD-01-B to DSD-99-Z and DSS-01-B to DSS-99-Z are also not used. Currently the consonants C and Q are not used, M and W are only used for vehicle categorization .
• Since December 2016, vehicles in border traffic have been given license plates with side code 13 with the letter pair GV.

Further information, in particular about the respective year of registration, and a more precise list of classes, taking into account rare groups of letters, can be found in the article Systematics of vehicle registration plates (Netherlands) .

Vehicle categories

Moped license plate on the electric car

The first letter of the first group of letters is used in some sidecodes for vehicle categories, but these can vary:

• B Trucks up to 3.5 t ( b edrijfswagens) (side codes 1 to 9; for 1, 2 and 3 only the second letter B), trucks from 3.5 t (side codes 1 to 5 and 7; for 1, 2 and 3 only the second letter B)
• D and F mopeds and mopeds
• L l andwirtschaftliche vehicles ( l andbouw) (later)
• M motorcycles ( m otoren)
• O semi-trailers ( o pleggers) (since September 2002)
• V trucks up to 3.5 t ( v rachtwagen) (side codes 4 to 10) and only in side code 6 also letter B
• W for trailers from 751 kg (aanhang w agens) (since September 2002)
• Y for motor boats sidecodes 1, 2 and 13 and only in sidecode 3 for cars older than 15 years to 40 years. (Cars older than 40 years receive side code 1 and no Y in it).

With the introduction of the new side codes, the above categorizations will be retained; In addition, there are the following categorizations:

The other sounds to be assigned ( G, H, J, K, L (currently), N, P, R, S, T, X and Z ) are used for the car category .

Special marks

Royal house

• 

  International Court of Justice

• 

  Diplomatic plates

• 

  BN mark

• 

  GV mark

• 

  One-day license plate

• 

  Former export license plate

• 

  ZZ

• 

  Military vehicles

Cardboard export license plate

Identifier with the letter combinations

• AA with up to three-digit numbers: license plate for vehicles of the royal house
• AE, AH, AL, AM, AR, DE, DH, DL, DM, DR, DZ, PM : historic vehicles that are at least 40 years old, sidecode 1
• BN, GN ( B uitenlander in N ederland, G een N ederlander), side codes 1 to 3
  • Annual number for tax-exempt vehicles for export (up to January 31, 2000 also the last year of validity in a red rectangle), groups of digits 00–01 to 79–99, since 1995 69–99
  • License plates for vehicles of the staff of the diplomatic or consular corps , digit groups 80–00, since 1995 70–00, to 88–99
  • License plates for vehicles under “special circumstances”, groups of digits 89–00 to 89–99
  • License plate for temporarily tax-exempt vehicles, digit groups 90–00 to 99–99
• BO : trailers registered abroad that do not need their own license plate there (e.g. UK , Luxembourg ) but are pulled by a Dutch motor vehicle , side codes 1 and 3
• CD : Diplomatic license plate , previously with up to three-digit numbers
  • Sidecode 1 for vehicles of the Diplomatic Corps
  • Sidecode 3 for vehicles of the diplomatic corps of international organizations
• CDJ : up to a three-digit number: International Court of Justice vehicles
• DMx : military vehicles, side codes 7, 9 and 10
• GV ( G rens V erkeer): agricultural vehicles that are used across borders, but for which no license plate is required in the Netherlands , side codes 1 to 3
• HA ( Ha ndelaren), HF, FH : Dealer code for motor vehicles , side codes 1 to 3
• HH with up to five-digit numbers: Mopeds that are used abroad, but for which no registration was required in the Netherlands (until October 31, 2005)
• KL Koninklijke Landmacht , KM Koninklijke Marine , KN, KO, KP, KR, KS, KT, KV, KW, KX, KZ, LM Koninklijke Luchtmacht : military vehicles.
• OA : Dealer code for trailers , side code 1
• YA, YB and YD : historic vehicles that are not yet 40 years old, sidecode 3
• ZM, ZF, NM : historic motorcycles, sidecode 1
• ZZ : Motor vehicles that do not meet the registration requirements (very old , extra- wide crane trucks , extra-large transport trailers, etc.), sidecode 1 and 2

Certain letters in connection with two groups of digits:

• A, E, H, K, L, N, P, S, T, V, W, X Day registration number for journeys for registration or technical inspection
• Z Week number for import or export vehicles

Export vehicles with Dutch road approval are given license plates with black lettering on a white background, which consisted of two groups of three with numbers and letters. These marks are not always stamped. For the sake of simplicity, they are glued onto a piece of cardboard using prefabricated adhesive letters and numbers. The new export codes have one number and two letters as well as another three numbers after the hyphen.

Because of the risk of confusion with the identifier of the side code 8, several combinations were withheld.

Caribbean Netherlands

Since 2010 three islands in the former Netherlands Antilles belong to the Netherlands as special municipalities . But you still have a different license plate system.

Nuclear Security Summit 2014

License plate for the NSS , here SG for Singapore

Special license plates with limited validity were issued for the delegation vehicles to the Nuclear Security Summit , which took place in The Hague in March 2014 . This was justified by the fact that the otherwise common standards would not withstand high-speed journeys.

The signs used began with the logo of the summit, a triangle with the letters N, S and S in the corners. This was followed by two letters indicating the participating country, a hyphen and a two-digit serial number. There was also the flag of the participating country on the right edge . The abbreviations were used, for example, CA for Canada , SA for Saudi Arabia , US for the United States , etc. On the delegation of Interpol , the identifier is IP awarded and the Interpol logo shown to the right. In addition, the escort vehicles not specific to the delegation used the abbreviation NSS on the license plate.

Simple theft protection

For some time now, the vehicle owners have had the license plate engraved on all windows of the vehicle (sandblasting technology). The engraving is about five centimeters wide, one centimeter high and placed on the lower edge of each piece of glass. Since the Dutch license plates are vehicle-specific, this represents a very simple and effective theft protection that is also relatively safe from counterfeiting. A different number plate for stolen vehicles is easily noticed. Because of the engraving, professional car slides require significantly more effort to replace all glass parts. It is currently not known whether there will be problems when engraved vehicles are sold abroad.

1958 to 1978 (temporary registration)

From 1958 to 1978 there was a combination of letters and numbers for temporary license plates. The letters could appear in this combination in different places and indicated the province.

The provinces:

• A Friesland
• E Groningen and Drenthe
• H Overijssel
• K Noord-Holland
• L Zuid-Holland
• N Zeeland
• P Utrecht
• S Gelderland
• T Noord-Brabant
• V Limburg

1905 to 1951

Vehicle from the province of Zuid-Holland (H), 1931

License plate from the province of Utrecht (L)

Until 1951 , the origin of the Dutch license plates could be recognized. From 1905 to 1951, Dutch license plates were white on black. They consisted of a letter or two for the province and a number; both were divided by a line.

A-1234

The provinces:

• A Groningen
• B Friesland
• D Drenthe
• E Overijssel
• G, GX, GZ Noord-Holland
• H, HX, HZ Zuid-Holland
• K Zeeland
• L Utrecht
• M Gelderland
• N North Brabant
• P Limburg
• R overseas departments

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.rdw.nl/particulier/voertuigen/vaartuigen
2. ↑ Speciale kentekenplaten. (No longer available online.) March 18, 2014, archived from the original on September 3, 2014 ; Retrieved August 28, 2014 (Dutch). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   
3. ↑ Nieuw type Tijdelijke kentekens door Nuclear Security Summit 2014 March 23, 2014, accessed on 28 August 2014 (Dutch). 
4. ↑ Dit zijn de kentekens who have been linked tijdens de NSS. March 22, 2014, accessed August 28, 2014 (Dutch). 

Web links

• Dutch license plates in words and pictures (German)
• RDW - Rijksdienst voor het Wegverkeer (nl, en)
• License plate search with vehicle data