Europlate blog

The motorcycle series is unchanged in local script, which in this case reads 34 Ya 44226.

The police continue with Burmese script on motorbikes, but their bigger vehicles switched to the standard new plates, indistinguishable from civilian plates.       See NPW 6H-9883 below.

Commercial vehicles have always displayed a copy of their registrations along the sides of the vehicle and this is an former-series supplementary reg. J 3280, in Burmese, carried on a lorry with westernised translation  front and rear plates J 3280 (below).    (The only one such seen with mixed script formats.)

CD-4/6  —  I was surprised to find a CD still carrying previous-series plates –  on an old car.     The new CD type has been extended from only the CD and UN prefix by adding code IO for International Organisations.      No letter-prefix at all would identify non-diplomatic embassy staff – NDES.  (See YGN 1-1020 below.)

YGN CD 5-5  —  CD code 5 above is from the embassy of Pakistan in Yangon.

UN plates’ leading numbers indicate a branch of the organisation – see breakdown in RPWO.    UN 15-1 (1=Head of  yet-unidentified Mission 15) seen at Yangon Airport (which is brand new and very impressive to those who arrive expecting a tin hut surrounded by angry generals).

YGN 1-1020  —  Embassy vehicles without Diplomatic Immunity are issued no-letter-prefix CD-type plates, seemingly starting from serial 1000, and uncoded.     Embassy 1 = USA, on a Toyota minibus.

YGN IO-1047  —  The new International Organisation plates’ serials commence at 1000.     This vehicle 1047  is attached to a German cultural Institute, though no coding shows on the plate.       Not many of the 2013-srs. plates are made with the horizontal substrate reading RTAD, as this one is, but all plates seem to have the top left and right stamps (as below).

The least-seen (1!) of the new types was the green ‘foreign gift’ vehicle which in this case was a gift from the Red Cross/Red Crescent, YGN 3J-1815.     Note that all the categories of user take their registration from the single, common pool, so that the next issue after this green plate (3J-1816) could be a red taxi plate, or a black private plate etc.etc.

Only two of the yellow ReLiGious vehicles were seen, issued for the transport of the many Buddhist monks. Odd code system, to my mind, but a splendid plate YGB RLG-6894…….

This is an unusual ex-Japan Hino bus in that it carries a translation plate YGN G-4617 from the 1950s-2013 series, properly pressed in the latest style.     It was the only one of this type seen.

Taxi YGN HH-1104  —  Normal bus and taxi plates (PSV) are red and began in 2012-3 with pairs of letters preceding 1-9999.     For no known reason, when AA to HH had been issued, the pairing idea was discontinued and now the Public Service Vehicles are registered in the normal run 1A-1234.         The red background material is fading to dark brown on some of  the earlier plates, which are said to be Chinese-made, so unlikely to be using the 3M non-fade material.      The first of the AA plates were made without the regional code atop the plate (see AA 4160 below).

Taxi AA-4160 — One of the first 2013 new-series PSV plates, pressed without a regional code.

Tourist Taxi YGN 8H-6379  —  Smarter, newer bus and taxi plates coloured blue are for the use of foreign visitors and these may legally accept currency other than the Burmese Kyat (with which so few visitors travel!)     (The rate is about 1750:stg£1 and 1350:US$1 at month-end Jan 2017.)         At last there are street ATM’s in the country and it has become  easier to obtain currency at a fair rate and without showing passports or standing in long, hot queues.

YGN 7I-6590  —  A foreign-tourist-authorised taxi, registered in the normal NL-NNNN system, but in blue.     Both I and Q are used in Myanmar registrations.

SHN 3M-9788 is from Shan District – Taunggyi.    Likely to be a government car.

SGG 2F-3977, a Suzuki from Sagaing region, outside the legendary Strand Hotel on Strand Road in Rangoon/Yangon .

MDY 4M-4552, from Mandalay, above.

YGN O 7078 – a Land Rover clone.     O, P, Q, S, T & V serial letters were  seen.      The apparent  ‘minder’ of the government yard in which these old commercials was photographed, said that they were ‘Ministry’ vehicles and that he himself was the Minister of Publicity and Public Affairs.      It may have been the local English in which he explained this to me, but I was unconvinced.      I think they are simply old machines which their owners want to keep using, and to do that, the authorities tell them to translate their old plates in to western script, and add the new regional code letters.     All registrations were centrally issued from Rangoon before Burma’s 1948 independence from Britain, and reached RD (from R, RA, RB, and RC) using western script.     In the next years until about 1955, there was a mix of alphabets on plates.  Then the  ‘R’ prefix became lost and only the serial letter was given in that period.  When that alphabet set was exhausted, a serial prefix number was employed, (eg 1-Ya 1234), just as today.     Almost 60 years of Burmese squiggles-only then ensued, until the new, pressed, coloured-coded plates came about in 2012-3.       However, there are brand-new cars circulating in Rangoon, bearing untranslated pre-2012 plates and I can only assume that these are VIPs who can buck the system.     There are also quite a few very grand cars which have had their 2013 plates made up in differing western fonts, materials and sizes, to show themselves up.      As usual around the world, if one is well-connected here, the laws don’t apply…..

     Gha / 4?53 about 1953 on a Morris J2 half-ton van.