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British
Columbia Truck License Plates
More to Come!!!
For
those keen students of the Vehicle
Registration Data Archive, it should be no surprise
that this page starts off with a "T" plate from
1924. From the data that I have been able to compile, it appears
that the province issued what it referred to as "Truck
Motor-Vehicle" plates in only 1924. The plate shown below
would have been issued from the MVB's Vernon office: |
It
is a common misconception that, due to the "T" prefix,
this is actually a trailer plate (which is not an unreasonable
assumption). However, as can be seen by the trailer plates
actually issued by the province between 1923-26,
the design is significantly different. |
For
unknown reasons, it is thought this plate type was abandoned
the following year and did not really make comeback until
1972 when ICBC reclassified commercial vehicle types and created
a new "Truck" plate category (by which time the
"T" prefix had become associated with the Logging
Truck base). |
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Thanks
to Pierre Delacote, we are able to provide an example of the
registration form issued with one of these Truck plates. Simply
click on the image below to read more: |
CLICK HERE |
| 1973
- 1975 |
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| Issuing
Statistics |
| 1973:
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500-001
to 764-000 |
| 1974: |
unknown |
1975:
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unknown to 999-998 |
????
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over-run |
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It
is thought that the 1973 Truck series commenced at number
500,000. As such, the plate shown above at far left would
have been an early issue in 1973, and was used through 1975
(as evident by the decals). By 1974, the series had progressed
through the 800,000 mark, and by 1975 the series surpassed
the 999,999 mark. After plate 999,999 was issued an over-run
series was produced and it is believed that these commenced
at either 30,000 or 35,000. |
| 1976
- 1978 |
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| Issuing
Statistics |
| 1976:
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00-01-AA
to 00-00-EC |
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To
see how the series progressed, simply click on the letters
shown below.
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| 1979
- 1986 |
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| Issuing
Statistics |
| 1979:
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00-01-FA
to 99-99-LY |
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To
see how the series progressed, simply click on the letters
shown below.
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The
two plates pictured above show how the province experimented
with both a Reflectorized base plate for commercial
vehicles (at left) in the early 1980s, and the more
traditional painted white base plate (at right). |
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| 1985
- 2009 |
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 |
 |
| Issuing
Statistics |
| 1985:
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0000-MB
to 9999-RE |
| 1986:
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0000-RF to 9999-SY |
1989:
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0000-TA to 9999-TH |
1990:
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0000-TJ to 9999-VH |
1991:
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0000-VJ to 9999-WC |
1992:
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0000-WD to 9999-XM |
1993:
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0000-XN to 3999-YG |
1994:
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4000-YG to 9999-YG |
1994:
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0000-AA to 3999-AC |
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2009 |
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To
see how the series progressed, simply click on the letters
shown below.
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The
end of the current truck serial is nigh! The latest spotting
as of May 2007 is the first plates in the LA range (with the
end of the series to occur at 9999-LY - unless this too has
been reserved for the Veteran truck base). While nothing formal
has been announced by ICBC, it is assumed that the series
will simply be reversed sometime in 2008, similar to what
occurred with the passenger series in 2001. This hypothesis
seems to have been confirmed by the recent issuance of the
Olympic base in April 2007, in which the truck serial commenced
at AA-0000. Depending upon the number of characters set aside
for the Olympic base, it is thought that the new general series
may commence somewhere around AE-0000 or AF-0000. |
The
Truck series is dead, long live the Truck series! |
On
February 20, 2008, this writer saw the first of the new AA-0000
series Truck bases (Olympic bases not included). |
As
expected ICBC has simply reversed the series (a la the passenger
series in 2001) and appears to have started it in the AL-0000
range - which indicates that "AA-0000" through to
"AK-9999" has likely been reserved for the Olympic
base. As with the Olympic Consular bases, ICBC has also implemented
the separated, or dual decal box for the day and month/year
decals. |
This move breaks
the alphabetic trend started way back in 1976 with each
iteration of the Truck base starting off where the previous
series ended. For instance, the '76 base ceased at "D"
(or possibly the "E" range), and the '79 base
starting at "F", before ending at "L",
whereupon the '85 base started at "M" and finished
at "L". Accordingly, the new serial should have
commenced at "M" again, however, it looks like
ICBC wanted to start with a clean slate. Interestingly,
the flag base and "Beautiful" slogan have been
retained in favour of the "Best Place on Earth"
slogan and logo... hmm... this deserves a query to the good
folks at ICBC.
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| Decal
Box Variations |
It
appears that, despite the initial "AL" plates in
this series being provided with the separted decal boxes for
the day and month/year decals as found on the Olympic and
Consular bases, a switch-back of sorts has occurred, whereby
it appears that plates in the "AM", "AN",
"AP", and "AR" range all employ the single
decal box as found on the Truck base before the 0000-AA series
ended. |
Dual
Decal Box Variation |
One
of our intrepid field spotters has been able to pinpoint this
change-over as occurring somewhere within the bloc of plates
found beetwen "AL-7324" (separated boxes) and "AL-8433"
(single box). |
It
is likely that only the manufacturer, Waldale, knows the precise
reason behind this change, however, we here at BCpl8s.ca suspect
that it is simply a matter of using up old stock prepared
for either the Agriculture and Industrial Vehicle bases prior
to a braoder implementation of the dual decal boxes onto all
plate types. Nevertheless, a call has been placed to the good
folks at ICBC to see if they can shed some light on this matter.
Stay tuned ... |
© Copyright Christopher John
Garrish. All rights reserved.
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