High tech number plates for South Africa
Morocco's National Road Safety Agency (NARSA) has announced that Moroccan drivers taking their vehicles abroad must have two sets of registration plates fitted: one set bearing the Arabic characters and another with the same information rendered in Latin characters as used in the UK, USA and most of Europe.
The NARSA has issued a reminder to Moroccan motorists in order to avoid issues at border crossings this summer. The requirement to display the dual-language plates is specified in Article 28 of Morocco's ministerial decree No. 2711.10. The regulation states that vehicles registered in Morocco must display the extra number plate in order to meet international standards. The extra plate must also include the country code “MA.”
The requirement will bring Morocco in line with the international vehicle registration standards set out under conventions such as the Vienna and Geneva Conventions on Road Traffic, to which Morocco is a signatory.
Pennsylvania Senator to propose bill requiring both front and rear license plates
Pennsylvania, USA senator Katie Muth has proposed new legislation that would force the state's drivers to display both front and rear license plates on their vehicles. Pennsylvania is currently one of 21 US states that does not require front license plates.
Senator Muth said that making cars display front license plates would help improve public safety and make it easier to enforce toll collections.
The senator said, "Far too often there are hit-and-run accidents, traffic incidents, or crimes committed where only the front of a vehicle is captured by cameras or witnesses. Requiring a license plate on the front of a car will improve vehicle identification and enhance public safety by helping law enforcement officers, witnesses, or cameras more easily and quickly identify a vehicle."
No firm date has yet been set for the introduction of the bill.
US state of Maryland withdraws "political" license plate
Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) has revoked a license plate bearing the message DEPORTM ("Deport 'em"). The plate was photographed and the image shared with radio station WYPR.
The Department of Transport subsequently issued a statement confirming that the plate is no longer on the vehicle and saying, “This plate and several variations have been added to the ‘objectionable’ vanity license plate list.”
The “objectionable list” is a list of proscribed combinations that is checked before requested vanity plates are issued. The list includes several thousand messages deemed to be offensive or inappropriate. DEPORTM and similar variants have now been categorised as “political hate” combinations and have been added to the objectionable list.
In Maryland, any reference to race or ethnic or national origin is deemed inappropriate for use on a number plate and is placed on the list of banned combinations.
In 2020, another DEPORTM plate caused controversy in Utah. A Utah Tax Commission spokesperson said that once the plate was brought to their attention they immediately revoked it. The spokesperson confirmed that, as with Maryland, a plate may not disparage any group based on their national origin, and went on to say, “We definitely take it pretty seriously. We don’t want to create any road rage with anybody based on something that might be on the license plate.”
Utah has its own “black list” but occasionally an objectionable plate slips through and gets issued. In such cases, as in the UK, numbers may be withdrawn from use even after they have been issued.
Italy's e-scooters to have "number plates"
Electric scooters in Italy will be compelled to bear a kind of number plate. The "plates" will, in fact, be plastic stickers bearing an identity code consisting of three numbers and three letters. The stickers will be affixed to the scooter's rear fender if there is space, or on the front of the steering column if there's not room on the rear.
The new rule is being introduced as part of the country's new highway code.
The identification code on the number plate stickers will refer to the owner of the e-scooter and not to the vehicle itself, meaning that if a scooter is sold or given to someone else, the sticker will have to be replaced with one referring to its new owner. Russia's number plates being used as low-key declarations of dissent in Crimea Since January 2025, all vehicles in Russia must display license plates featuring the Russian flag. This requirement is also being applied in the contested Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
Many Crimean motorists are refusing to show the Russian flag in accordance with the rules. The flag is frequently obscured by tape, painted over or even scraped off. Some drivers are having duplicate number plates made without the Russian flag, or with the Ukrainian flag in its place. Russian authorities have taken a hard line with enforcement, and the gesture of resistance to Russian occupation is being punished with fines and even prison sentences.
