British Columbia Reciprocity License Plates

Reciprocity plates were first issued in 1962 to out-of-province truckers hauling into BC if their truck was from a jurisdiction having a reciprocity agreement with BC (most likely Wash. Alberta, Montana & Idaho). If you weren't registered in such a place you paid the more expensive prorate/apportioned fee.

According to Richard Barrow, who started trucking in 1975, "most of these plates had become tags on a front tag plate or the cab door ... [but] before that you needed a rubber skirt under the front bumper just to hold all the plates you'd acquire if you ran the lower 48. I saw trucks with as many as 20 plates of various sizes and colors when I was a kid ..."

1962

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Issuing Statistics

1962:

unknown

There are more than a few gaps in our knowledge of the Reciprocity plates, and it is assumed that the plates shown below, despite not showing a date, are from 1963 & 1964 based pon their colour schemes. Until more plates from this period become available to us, it is not known how long these plates were undated.

19632 - 1964

Issuing Statistics

1963:	unknown
1964:	unknown

1965 - 1979

1965

1966

1967

1968

Issuing Statistics

1965:	1 to 150
1966:	1 to 400
1967:	1 to 400
1968:	1 to 400
1969:	1 to 400
1970:	1 to 400
1971:	1 to 400
1972:	1 to 400
1973:	1 to 400
1974:	1 to 400
1975:	4011 to 800
1976:	801 to 1200
1977:	unknown
1978:	unknown
1979:	unknown

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

1975

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It is interesting to note that a December expiry date was added to the plates after 1979, and the full name of the province - "BRITISH COLUMBIA" - was finally spelled out.

1980 - 1981

Issuing Statistics

1980:	unknown
1981:	unknown

* * * * *

It is thought that the end of Reciprocity plates coincided with the negotiation of the Canadian Agreement on Vehicle Registration (CAVR) by the various provincial Ministers of Transport in Toronto on October 2, 1980. The first phase of the Agreement formally took effect on April 1, 1982 - hence the emergence of the first BC "CAVR" decals in 1982.

CAVR Plates & Decals

The objective of the CAVR was to allow for the smoother flow of goods across provincial boundaries by enabling inter-provincial trucking operators to purchase a licence in their home province that would enable them to travel through other provinces without the need to obtain spearate licences.

It has been stated elsewhere that, until recently, BC routinely filed exceptions to every part of the Agreement to a point where there appeared to be no point in being a signatory to the CAVR.

Apparently the only thing that kept the province involved in the CAVR was that "if BC wasn’t a signatory it would look bad… so we filed exceptions to pretty much the whole agreement."

Although the CAVR is still in effect, it is seen by us here at BCpl8s.ca to have largely been superceded by the International Registration Plan (IRP) in the mid-1990s. Accordingly, it is thought that the province stopped issuing CAVR decals after 1996 - for more see the page on Prorate / Apportioned plates.