Vehicle registration plates of Saudi Arabia

front plate
2014 style front plate

Vehicle registration plates of Saudi Arabia are manufactured by Government Printing Press in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia has taken action to ensure that all people residing within its borders register their vehicles in Saudi Arabia and display a rear as well as a front license plate.

The plates consist of three letters and up to four numbers in Arabic. Both letters and numbers are also translated into the Latin alphabet and into the Western Arabic numerals, respectively. On the right side (or in the centre since 2014[1]), the plate contain the Saudi Arabia coat of arms and the international code KSA letters written vertically (horizontally since 2014) . The lower sticker is the official seal. The standard plates always have 4 numbers and if necessary they are padded by zeroes. Personalised plates or earlier registrations may contain one, two or three numbers with or without zero padding. The letter translation into the Latin alphabet is done from left to right, although Arabic letters are read from right to left. Furthermore, the translation is not always correct. There are only 17 Arabic letters used on the registration plates.

Overview

The following Arabic letters are used on Saudi registration plates.

Arabic

Letter

 Translation Actual transliteration

(if different)

اA
بB
حJḥ
دD
رR
سS
صXṣ
طT
عE‘
قGq
كK
لL
مZm
نN
هـH
وU
ىVā / ỳ

All plates have a white background, but several vehicle types may have a different background on the right side which contains the coat of arms, the country name abbreviation and official seal. That side has blue background for trucks and utility vehicles, yellow for public transport and taxis, and green for diplomatic vehicles. The diplomatic plates have also another row containing the C.D. and .هـ.د abbreviations, above the registration number. This renders the rows containing the registration number and its translation smaller, having a little smaller font height for letters and numbers. The letter combinations for diplomatic plates always have D as the rightmost letter. The other letters denote the country, either from left to right, or from right to left. For example, United States diplomatic plates have the USD letters, which in Arabic reads DSU from right to left. The diplomatic plates for Romania have the ZRD letters, which in Arabic reads DRM (M is translated as Z in Latin alphabet). The Saudi Police uses standard registration plates.

Banned combinations

Some letter combinations are banned, either for their Arabic or Latin translation. Among them are " 'S' 'E' 'X' ", " 'A' 'S' 'S' ", and others.[2][3] The KSA combination is however allowed.

Former registration plates

The current plates were introduced in 2006. The former registration plates from 1996 used only 3 numbers and 3 letters with no translation. Above them was written Al-Saudia, in Arabic only. Numbers were sometimes padded by zeroes. Plates for trucks, public transport or diplomatic vehicles had blue, yellow, or green background, respectively. The colours have been preserved on the current system, except that on the older system the entire plate had such a background.

References

  1. ↑ "Olav's Saudi Arabian license plates - Number plates of Saudi Arabia". www.olavsplates.com. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  2. ↑ A BBC article about banned combinations
  3. ↑
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.