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2016 Mercosur Uruguayan license plates

Uruguay requires its residents to register their motor vehicles and display vehicle registration plates.

History

Until the early 2000s, the codes, designs, sizes, and colors of vehicle license plates varied in each department. In 2001, by agreement of the National Congress of Mayors, it was decided to implement the new alphanumeric system (3 letters and 4 numbers) for the entire country. During that year and at the beginning of 2002, the new system was adopted in Montevideo,[1][2] that spread throughout all the departments of the country, except Maldonado and Salto. In March 2015, the Single Patent of Mercosur began to be implemented, which has been mandatory since 2016.[3][4][5][6]

Maldonado was the only department that did not adopt the new alphanumeric license plate system for automobiles during the first decade of the 2000s (like the rest of the departments), except for motorcycles and some special license plates (such as those of ediles, intendencia, officials, tourism, professional freight transport, taxis and remises). Finally, on January 4, 2019, the department began to implement the Mercosur license plates,[7] with the particularity of indicating each municipality by a badge added below the patent plate (in addition to the second letter of the series).

In the case of Salto, an alphanumeric system of 3 letters and 3 numbers was adopted, with the shield of the department larger than other departments in the center of the license plate. In 2015, the Mercosur patent was implemented with 3 letters and 4 numbers starting from HAA 1000.

Departmental coding

Plates issued in each department begin with a one-letter code. These codes, used on the unique local issues of the past, have carried over to the current national series as part of the standard nationwide format.

Department or lia Code
Artigas Department G
Canelones Department A
Cerro Largo Department E
Colonia Department L
Durazno Department Q
Flores Department N
Florida Department O
Lavalleja Department P
Maldonado Department B
Montevideo Department[8] S
Paysandú Department I
Río Negro Department J
Rivera Department F
Rocha Department C
Salto Department H
San José Department M
Soriano Department K
Tacuarembó Department R
Treinta y Tres Department D


Old series

Prior to the introduction of this series[when?], plates issued in each department had a unique design, in many instances displaying only the name of the municipality, rather than that of the department or the country. The change echoes that made in Argentina in 1994 with the change to a national plate series displaying the nation's name rather than a more local designation.

Under the current plate series, a single serial number format of ABC 1234 (and ABC 123 for motorcycles) has been introduced for the entire country, with either the country name, the vehicle type, or both displayed on the plate. Now absent are department or municipality designations, except for the small official logos displayed on many plates, one between the letters and numbers indicating the department of registration and another in the lower right corner indicating the municipality of registration. Plates in the current series employ FE-Schrift for their serials.

Some older plates are still in use, but evidently they are being replaced with plates of the current series, as even many antique cars have plates from the current series.

Italicized letters indicate a departmental code; bold letters indicate a fixed type code that appears on all plates of a particular type:

Image Type Legend Serial format Design
English Spanish
Passenger Particular URUGUAY ABC 1234 black on white
Motorcycle Motocicleta URUGUAY ABC
123 		black on white
Official Oficial OFICIAL—URUGUAY SOF 1234 blue on white
Ambulance Ambulancia URUGUAY AAM 1234 green on white; embossed cross in lower left corner
Doctor Médico URUGUAY AME 1234 green on white; embossed cross in lower left corner
Departmental Assembly Edil Junta Departamental EDIL JUNTA DEPARTAMENTAL AED 1234 white on light blue; screened type designation
President of Departmental Assembly Presidente de la Junta Departamental PRESIDENTE J. DEPARTAMENTAL APE 1
Diplomatic Diplomático URUGUAY SCD 1234 black on white
Diplomatic—Motorcycle Diplomático—Motocicleta URUGUAY SCD
123 		black on white
Diplomatic—Consular Corps Diplomático—Cuerpo Consular URUGUAY SCC 1234 black on white
Diplomatic—Consular Corps—Motorcycle Diplomático—Cuerpo Consular—Motocicleta URUGUAY SCC
123 		black on white
Government Gobierno URUGUAY SAB 1234 black on white
Government—unknown type ? URUGUAY SAB 1234 white on orange
International organization Organización internacional URUGUAY SOI 1234 black on white
National Representative Representante Nacional REPRESENTANTE NACIONAL ARN 1234 blue on white
Non-governmental organization Organización no gubernamental URUGUAY SNG 1234 black on white
Livery Remise [es] REMISE ARE 1234 black on yellow
Taxi TAXI ATX 1234 black on yellow
Public transportation Transporte colectivo URUGUAY ATC 1234 black on yellow
School Escolar ESCOLAR AES 1234 black on yellow
Tourist van Turismo TURISMO—URUGUAY AMT 1234 black on yellow
Tourist bus Turismo TURISMO—URUGUAY ATU 1234 white on blue
Truck Carga CARGA URUGUAY ATP 1234 black on white
Rental motorcycle Motocicleta—Alquiler URUGUAY AAL
123 		black on yellow
Rental vehicle Alquiler ALQUILER—URUGUAY AAL 1234 black on white

Previous series

Montevideo pre-1996 license plate

While also issued by department with the same codes, these plates employ varying designs, with unique plate sizes and shapes, dies, and color schemes and may identify the municipality of registration rather than the department itself. Many plates featured a white and blue color scheme.

Italicized letters indicate a departmental code; bold letters indicate a fixed type code that appears on all plates of a particular type:

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2011)
Image Location and/or type Serial format Design Legend(s)
Diplomatic CC 123? white on blue ?
National Navy 123 black on white; embossed anchor at center "ARMADA"


Public safety/government MI 12-345
MI 123456 		black on white or blue on white; variety of manufacturing styles none
Artigas Department GA-1234 blue on white "ARTIGAS"; "ROU" debossed in embossed box at left
Canelones Department ABC 123
Caneloles Department—Official A 1234 white on blue "OFICIAL URUGUAY"
Cerro Largo Department—Melo city EM-12345 black on white "CERRO LARGO" embossed at top; "ROU" embossed vertically at left; "MELO" embossed vertically at right; the small M below the hyphen also indicates the city


Colonia Department LA-1234 blue on white "COLONIA" debossed within embossed square that contains the "L"; "URUGUAY" at top. Some plates have a full-color seal, while others do not.
Maldonado Department—Punta del Este city B 51-234
B 512-345 		black on white "PUNTA DEL ESTE" at bottom; first number signifies city
Maldonado Department—San Carlos city B 212-345 black on white "SAN CARLOS" at bottom; first number signifies city
Río Negro Department—Fray Bentos city JAB 123 black on white "FRAY BENTOS" at top, "RIO NEGRO" in orange band at bottom
Salto Department HA 123 black on white; Salto logo at left "SALTO" at bottom
Soriano Department K 12-3456 blue on white "SORIANO URUGUAY" at bottom

Special plates

Certain vehicles dedicated to different functions (that is, those that are not private in most cases) have special combinations of letters and colors on the plates that do not have those of ordinary vehicles. These combinations are located (with exceptions) in the last two letters of the series. Almost all special license plates have the legend "Uruguay" and some have another legend added, depending on the vehicle's condition.

Private vehicles: black characters and borders
Diplomatic Corps: gilt characters and borders
Government vehicles: blue characters and borders
Commercial transport vehicles: red characters and borders
Transfer and temporary vehicles: green characters and borders

Nomenclatures used before the Mercosur Single Patent

The following initials of special license plates were used to register vehicles in a specific department of the 19 that make up the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, these denominations follow the letter that identifies the department, for example B is Maldonado or S is Montevideo, a license plate would be composed as BCC (Consular Corps) or SCD (Diplomatic Corps):

Used in only one department

The following special license plates are exclusive to a department and are fixed series, therefore none of the three letters varies as vehicles with these license plates can only be registered in those departments:

Cannelloni
Maldonado
rock
Artigas
Jump
Montevideo

Uruguayan Armed Forces

These license plates do not use the icons that would normally correspond to an Intendancy, but an emblem always shown at the center belonging to one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of Uruguay, the series of these license plates are the same throughout the country.

Maldonado

Since 1992, this department had the format B 123·456. The letter B corresponds to the department; to its right is placed the departmental coat of arms and then a code of 3 to 6 numbers, which, together with the colors of the plate/plate, indicate the function of the wheel. In addition, the first number indicates in which locality a vehicle is registered, and this is reflected in the legend shown below in capital letters and without accents.

Registration Mercosur.
Registration of Punta del Este.

2016 Mercosur standard

In October 2014 the design of the new license plate to be used by all Mercosur countries was officially presented. This consists of a plate of 15.75 in × 5.12 in (400.05 mm × 130.05 mm), with a white background, the characters and frame in black and a blue band at the top that shows the name of the country, its flag and the Mercosur logo. The typeface used is FE-Schrift.

References

  1. ^ http://www.larepublica.com.uy/politica/64421-31-de-diciembre-sera-the-last-day-to-circular-with-old-registrations
  2. ^ http://www.larepublica.com.uy/politica/67734-comenzo-entrega-de-nuevas-patentes-de-automobiles/
  3. ^ "El Mercosur ya tiene chapa: se verá en autos este 2015". EL PAIS. January 9, 2015.
  4. ^ http://www.republica.com.uy/mujica-presento-las-nuevas-matriculas-del-mercosur/504151/
  5. ^ http://www.underlined.com.uy/Site/noticia/42402/antes-de-irse-mujica-presentan-las-nuevas-matriculas-del-mercosur
  6. ^ http://www.republica.com.uy/mercosur-already-has-its-registration/504207/
  7. ^ http://www.maldonado.gub.uy/?n=37180&mm=Transito
  8. ^ S also used on plates issued to vehicles owned by the government and several other plate types that are issued centrally.

External links

Vehicle registration plates of South America
Uruguay articles
Categories