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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 ..." |
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 |
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Issuing
Statistics |
1963:
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unknown |
1964: |
unknown |
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| 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 |
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|
1969 |
1970 |
1971 |
1972 |
1973 |
|
1975 |
|
|
|
|
|
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 |
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|
|
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Issuing
Statistics |
1980: |
unknown |
1981: |
unknown |
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*
* * * * |
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. |
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.
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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. |

© Copyright Christopher John
Garrish. All rights reserved.
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