This March, a new kentekenplaten (car plates) system was introduced in the Netherlands. The old system was exhausted. Again!

Here on the Dutch-German border, in the German part, we see the yellow kentekenplaten more and more. Famously here are the many Dutch that cross the border to do their groceries at the local supermarkets in Germany. Allegedly because they are cheaper. In Germany, we know that the gelben Nummerschilder (yellow car plates in German) are the Dutch. That is the easiest way to recognize the Dutch!

The announcement of the new kentekenplaten had been kept secret, as many people want the latest and greatest plate available, and thus that would mess up the car market. Because people value this so much, a kentekenplaat of the new series even increases the value of the car!

The first kentekenplaat was attached by the Minister of Infrastructure and Environment, Melanie Schultz van Haegen, and the plate number was GB-001-B. It is a new combination – 2 letters, 3 numbers, 1 letter. But that is not always the case.

Also, have the kentekenplaten always been yellow? And why yellow? Here a little history.

1898 – The first kentekenplaat in the Netherlands comes into existence. The number: 1. The Netherlands was the third country after Germany and France to introduce such a national system of kentekenplaten.

1906 – After number 2065, a new system had to be introduced. Now, a driver needed a rijbewijs (driver’s license) and a nummerbewijs (number license). These nummerbewijzen were different in each province, and therefore you could see at the kentekenplaat from which province somebody was.

1951 – Because of the increasing amount of cars on the road, and because they crossed the province borders more often, a national authority was required to handle all the kentekenplaten. This was also when the current system was introduced. This meant that the province letters were gone too, and it was not possible anymore to recognize from which province somebody came. The numbers of this new system are called sidecodes. The first sidecode combination was: XX-99-99.

All this time, no kentekenplaat was yellow. The ones in 1951 were dark blue, actually.

1965 – Since so many people could afford a car in the years after the first sidecode was introduced, the combinations exhausted quickly. A lot of non-logical counting up and down the alphabet, people were confused. And before sidecode 1 was completely exhausted, a new sidecode was introduced. Here the letters were added at the end: 99-99-XX.

Still dark blue though.

1973 – again, a third sidecode was introduced: 99-XX-99.

1978 – when sidecode 3 was almost exhausted, new plates again: XX-99-XX. These were yellow for the first time! A black sidecode on reflective yellow.

1991 – exhausted again! New system: XX-XX-99.

1999 – After that fifth sidecode quickly exhausted, sidecode 6 was introduced: 99-XX-XX. They really tried every possible combination…

2004 – sidecode 7 was introduced, as 6 was exhausted too. Its combination? 99-XXX-9. Ha!

2013 – sidecode 8 introduced: 9-XXX-99.

2015 – the current sidecode 9 was introduced. As seen above, that is XX-999-X.

And most of these plates are yellow, except for oldtimers (black), caravans and other things you can pull (white), and temporary plates (also white). For taxis, they are light blue.

But why yellow? Probably because they are highly visible… And yellow, it is the color of Heineken, of cheese, of klompen… It’s the next color to orange!

Also, you cannot choose your own kentekenplaat, as in countries like Belgium or Poland. It is just assigned to your car.

 

What system is in place in your country? What color do your plates have? Anything else special about them?