Convention
The conventions of vehicle license plate usage in Indonesia are a legacy of the Dutch occupation era. They don't reflect the current regional divisions of the country by using Province, but still use the old Dutch style 'Karesidenan' regions.
Except for some special cases (see below), every vehicle license plate in Indonesia follows this format: one or two letters denoting area of registration, followed by up to four digits of number, and followed by optional one or two letters. For example: D 1028 EB is a vehicle registered in Bandung, because it begins with letter D.
Classes of license plates
There are several classes of license plates, each can be distinguished by their color:
- White on black: the most common type of license plate, this is for normal vehicles owned by citizens.
- Red on white: for vehicles that haven't been registered yet, or for new cars that have no owners yet.
- Black on yellow: for public transportation vehicles, such as buses or taxis.
- White on red: for goverment's vehicles.
- Black on white: for vehicles belonging to foreign countries. Commonly used by foreign embassy's or International organizations' vehicles. These adopt a different convention (see below).
- Military, police or fire brigade have their own colors, and usually include their insignia and/or the rank of the officer owning the vehicle.
- There are also other special convention, such as for vehicles used by President, Vice President or other senior government officials.
Area of registration
The following lists the area of registration of license plates. It uses one or two letters to denote area of registration.
Convention for foreign countries' or international organization's vehicles
License plates for vehicles belonging to foreign countries or international organization adopts a different convention. They are black letters on white background. The format is: the letter CD followed by two or three digits of number denoting country or organization, and followed by up to three digits of serial number. For example: a car with number CD 12 001 is owned by United States.
The list of countries and organization follows:
License plates for senior government officials
Vehicle license plates belonging to senior government officials like President or Vice President always begin with RI and followed by number. For example, the president's vehicle license plate is "RI-1", and the vice president's is "RI-2". Other senior officials also share the same convention.
Vanity names
A few vehicle owners pay a premium or bribe an official to get a vanity plate. Because the convention is not flexible, people try creative uses of numbers and letters. For example, Idris Sardi , a violin player, uses B 10 LA for his vehicle. It is a play on word 'Biola' which means violin in Bahasa Indonesia. Leoni, a famous actress and singer, uses L 30 NI for her car.
Last updated: 04-25-2005 03:06:01