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The conventions of vehicle License Plate usage in Indonesia are a legacy of the Dutch colonial era. They do not reflect the current regional divisions of the country into Provinces , but rather maintain the old system of Dutch ''Karesidenan'' regions.

Except for some special cases (see below), every vehicle license plate in Indonesia follows the following format: LL NNNN LL.one or two letters denoting the area of registration, followed by up to four digits of numbers, and optionally followed by one or two letters.
For example: D 1028 EB is a vehicle registered in Bandung , because it begins with letter D.

Just recently (late 2004) a new format is introduced for Motorcycles , which have three letters in the back. Example : B 7515 TOP.


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 government vehicles.

  • Black on white: for vehicles belonging to foreign countries. Commonly used by foreign embassy's or vehicles belonging to International organizations. 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 conventions, such as for vehicles used by the 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 organizations adopt a different convention. They contain black letters on a white background. The format is: the letter CD followed by two or three digits denoting the country or organization, followed by up to three digits of the serial number. For example: a car with number CD 12 001 is owned by the United States.

The list of countries and organizations follows:



LICENSE PLATES FOR SENIOR GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS


Vehicle license plates belonging to senior government officials like the President or Vice President always begin with RI and are followed by a 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.