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Vehicle registration plates of Austria edit
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Vehicle registration plates of Austria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vehicle registration plates of Austria

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Austrian car number plates are license plates found on Austrian cars.

Contents

Appearance

Example of a license plate in Austria
License plate on a Porsche in Austria - W stands for Wien (Vienna).

The license plates are made of metal. On the left there is a blue bar like in other EU countries (plates issued before November 1, 2002 don't have this blue bar); the text is in black letters on a white background. On the top and bottom, there are red-white-red stripes, which are the national colors of Austria. Two plates have to be present on each car- one on the front and one on the rear.

For motor-bikes and cars with smaller areas for plates, are also plates with two lines and a smaller appearance available.

Lettering system

The alphanumeric format for registration plates is "XX-(provincial emblem)-number-letter(s)" or "XX-(provincial emblem)-personalised lettering-number";

  • XX - one or two letters denoting the administrative district where the registered keeper resides. Provincial capitals have one letter, all other districts have two letters.
  • province - heraldic emblem of the Federal province the district belongs to; diplomatic vehicles have a dash instead (–) or the Federal Eagle.
  • the numbers/letters are issued in ascending order

there are several lettering schemes:

  • The plates must contain at least 3 characters. At least one must be a digit and one must be a letter. In countryside districts, the maximum is 5 characters. Usual plates start with a digit and end with a letter. Personalized plates, which can be obtained paying extra fee, are ordered vice versa. (exceptions: see below)
  • Cars in state capitals can spot up to 6 characters (at least one digit and at least one letter with a minimum of 4 characters) (e.g. W 12345 A).
  • Until the year 2000 the plates were issued by the district administrations, who used a variety of lettering schemes, e.g. one digit and three letters (e.g. FK 1 ABC in the Feldkirch district), two digits and two letters (e.g. WL 12 AB in the Wels district).
  • Since 2000 the vehicle registration have been carried out by car insurance companies on behalf of the government. The branch offices of these companies issue the plates, which show three digits and two letters (e.g. XX 123 AB) in each district.
  • There are standardized abbreviations for special types of cars. But most of them are in use in Vienna only:
    • BB - Bundesbahnen (Federal Railways), only with Index "W", e.g. "W-xxx BB"
    • BE - Bestattung (funeral services)
    • EW - E-Werk (electric power company)
    • FF - Freiwillige Feuerwehr (volunteer firemen)
    • FW - Feuerwehr (firemen)
    • GW - Gaswerk (gas power company)
    • GT - Gütertransport (vehicles transporting goods)
    • KT - Kleintransport (private vehicles transporting parcels)
    • LO - Linienomnibus (public service buses)
    • LR - Landesregierung (Local government of Niederösterreich)
    • MA - Magistrat Wien (Community service in Vienna)
    • MW - Mietwagen (rental car or bus service [with driver])
    • RD - Rettungsdienst (ambulance vehicles)
    • RK - Rotes Kreuz (Red Cross)
    • TX - Taxi (taxis)
  • Army, diplomats, police etc. just have a number (starting with 1, incrementing)

Personalised plates

In Austria, it is possible to obtain a customized registration plate against payment of 245 (=227+18) Euros. The alphanumeric format is "xx-province- customized lettering-one digit number", which makes them easily distinguishable from standard plates (e.g. G TOMMY 1)

Geographic prefixes (exhausive list)

  • Other (these have the federal Eagle instead of the provincial emblem)
    • BB - Bundesbahnen (Federal Railways) - obsolete, ÖBB vehicles have now W - XXX BB plates
    • BD - Kraftfahrlinien Bundesbus (Bus Service) - now for ÖBB Postbus coaches
    • BG - Bundesgendarmerie (federal police) - obsolete since 2005 when Gendarmerie and police merged, but still valid on Gendarmerie/police cars registered before 2005
    • BH - Bundesheer (Federal Army)
    • BP - Bundespolizei (federal police) - since 2005 the only prefix for all newly registered police cars
    • FV - Finanzverwaltung (Financial Administration)
    • GK - Consular officials in Styria
    • JW - Justizwache (Justice police)
    • PT - Post & Telekom Austria (national post and phone company), now only for postal cars
    • SK - Consular officials in Salzburg
    • WD - Diplomatic corps in Vienna
    • ZW - Zollwache (Customs officials) - obsolete since 2005 when Zollwache merged with federal police

External links

Media related to License plates of Austria at Wikimedia Commons
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