Please tell me about number plates

*gasp* Of course. 

The number plates that I know about particularly are the ones in South Australia, although I know a bit about some of the other Australian states as well. But I will keep this to a brief overview of the structural configuration of standard issue SA plates along with a few points I am particularly passionate about. 

Standard issue number plates in South Australia currently are black characters on a white background, and are structured with an S at the start and then three numbers and then three letters. When the state started using that structure, (I will get to the old structure in a little bit) the three letters started with an A, but we are now up to ones that start with C as the first of the three letters, and as far as I am aware (from looking at every single number plate I see) we are now up to the letter R as the middle letter. This means that there is a naturally occurring S000CKS plate out there, which I think is very cool, and I hope its owner really really likes socks. Naturally occurring plates are my passion – custom plates are fine, I guess, but the emergent possibilities of words being created by the configurations are what I really love. More on this later. 

They started using the current structure of number plate in 2008, but before that number plates had three letters and then three numbers. When they first started using this old alpha-numeric structure in 1966 the letters started with the letter R, and then once they had used up all the Rs they started using the letter S at the start. At the same time as they were issuing these plates, they were issuing plates for bikes and trailers that had the same structure, but started with the letter T. This meant that after they had run out of configurations starting with the letter S they couldn't go onto the letter T for vehicle plates, so instead they went to the letter U, followed by the letter V and the letter W and then the letter X. Somewhere along the line they ran out of T plates for trailers and bikes and so they started using the letter Y for them. I don't know why they never used the letter Z at the start, but they didn't. When they ran out of these alphanumeric configurations is when they switched to the new 7-character structure with the S at the start. 

You still see plenty of cars with the old alpha-numeric structure. My car still has one of the old structure. But they get rarer and rarer as old cars are taken off the road, and also as cars are sold and in a lot of cases unregistered by the seller, which means a new number plate is issued for their new owner. This means that if you saw a car with an old alphanumeric number plate that starts with the letter R or the letter S, it would usually be on a very old car, and you could assume that the driver of that car had owned that car for a very long time, or that they had gone to some other lengths to acquire the ability to use an old number plate for their vehicle. In South Australia once a number plate has been surrendered back to the Department of Transport, which happens when a car is unregistered unless you specifically ask to keep the plate number, it is removed from circulation. The only way to get an old number plate would be to find an old car that had that number plate, acquire the number plate (often by just buying the vehicle) and transfer it to your car. 

Or at least that was the case until recently, when the Department of Transport decided to release for purchase, on request, what they call R&S series plates, which are any unused alphanumeric plates starting with the letters R or S. To get one all you have to do is go to the ezyplates website and enter in the one that you want, and if it is available you can purchase it outright and use it for whatever vehicle you want to. This means that now you see more and more R&S series plates, especially because it is a way for people to get a semi-custom plate that doesn't look like a custom plate. 

In South Australia, custom plates are not the same color as standard issue plates. The original custom number plates were all yellow with green text, and they had to be a six character alpha-numeric combination, but you could have 2 letters and 4 numbers, or 3 letters and 3 numbers, or 4 letters and 2 numbers, or 5 letters and 1 number. Now they come in just about any configuration - you can get up to 7 mixed characters on a whole heap of different colors - but they are very obviously custom plates. With the R&S series plates you can get something that looks like a normal number plate to the average passerby, so you don’t look like a knob with a custom plate, but which can still be personalised to an extent, because you can custom request any available plate that starts with the letters R or S and has three letters and three numbers. 

For instance, a good option for me might be SAR444, given that my name is Sara, or possibly SWI222, because I drive a Suzuki Swift, who I affectionately refer to as Swizz or Swizzy. People whose first names start with R or S could get their initials and then their favourite numbers, or, if you were an absolute madlad, you could request the plate SLU755, probably fully expecting someone at the Transport Department to turn down that request, only to have it successfully issued to you. If you or someone you know owns the black VE Commodore with the 5.8L V8 engine that that plate is attached to, please get in touch. You are either my enemy or my hero, and I need to find out which. 

I both love and hate the fact that the R&S series plates are available for custom request. It means that there are more configurations out there that are almost naturally occurring - obviously somebody has had to request them, but it isn't like requesting a regular custom number plate. People have to think about these. And that's good! I love that people are thinking about number plates! But on the other hand, it has removed some of the specialness of seeing an alphanumeric plate beginning with R or S in the wild. It used to be that when I saw one I knew that I was seeing something special - a car that had been loved for a long time, or a number plate that somebody had put a lot of work into acquiring. Now it is just another kind of custom plate, albeit one that most people don't notice. 

There is one very sneaky trick to it though – newer issues (although this includes when an old plate is damaged and replaced) say South Australia in little letters at the bottom.  

A few other brief facts that I don't have time to go into in depth right now:  

The letter Q does not appear in standard issue plates – instead, all government plates (which are blue characters on a white background) feature the letter Q. This is ostensibly to honor the queen, but realistically is probably because Qs and Os look confusingly similar. No one has been able to tell me what will happen with regards to this particular convention when the queen dies.  

Back when the standard issue was three letters three numbers, all ambulances used the configuration AMB and then the number of the ambulance, but now they just use regular government plates. This means that there are boring old cars out there with plates that have the letters AMB on them, and it infuriates me every time I see one.

In contrast, I will also regularly see number plates have naturally occurred to say BUS or CAR on them, and when they are on a vehicle that is not that (such as a ute that says CAR, or a car that says BUS) I will laugh affectionately and say "no you're not!", as if the vehicle traveling opposite me at 60+kph can hear me.

The Transport Department will occasionally skip some plates, for a variety of reasons, including that they are inappropriate. Sadly, S###ASS plates were not issued.

Heavy vehicle plates used to start with the letters SB and then have two numbers and then two more letters, while heavy vehicle trailers used to start with the letters SY and then two numbers and then two letters, meaning that somewhere out there, there was probably a truck trailer with the number plate SY57EM. But now most of the states in Australia have switched to a new shared interstate registration for heavy vehicles, which is less fun, because it starts with the letter X and then the letter S, V, N or Q, depending on the state of first registration, so there is a lot less opportunity for fun naturally occurring plates. 

There are some options for premium non-standard plates that are not custom, for if you want a fancy plate but have no imagination. These include what were formerly the XX or AA plates, which featured a double letter, three numbers and then another letter, but which now have progressed to having any second letter, and what are known as “Euro style” plates, which mimic European plates and therefore supposedly look better on European cars. They start with an S, then two more letters, then 2 numbers, then another letter. A co-worker of mine has the naturally occurring SED44N on her Mercedes coupe, which I think is hilarious. 

In the last two weeks I have seen both the custom plate AAAA and AAAHHHH which, frankly, big moods.