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The holiday season are coming up, and you may have came across creative names while you were sitting in a jam in Canada or the US.
And also this…
Where did all the pent-up creativity go in Singapore? Well, the logic is that the easier it is to identify your car plate, the less work needs to be done in the event of accidents or crimes. This helps to ensure everyone’s safety.
Implemented by our land transport governing body, the LTA, we all have to display our license plates clearly in the front and the back of the car, in the correct font, size, colour and material.
This is so that there is no mistaking
S M188 2K
From
SMA1883K
And the penalty for non-compliance? A fine of up to $1,000, and imprisonment for up to 3 months. Enforcing order has its benefits. If you take a closer look, the numbers will make sense.
XXX####X
The earliest car plate prefix (the alphabet in front) is SB, released in 1913. and SQ in 1954. After the S series, it jumped to E - think EA, EB and so on. It transitioned back into S series, but with 3 letters - starting from SBA in August 1984 (...no, not the book).
This trend continued into the 2000s, with the latest being SNU in Sep 2024. For October, it goes to SNT - and if you would like a peek into the new series, check out One Motoring’s site here: https://vrl.lta.gov.sg/lta/vrl/action/pubfunc?ID=EnquireHighestSysNo
XXX####X
What about the letter at the back? It is a checksum letter, meaning a TLDR summary of the characters in front.
Something like 1+2+3+4=10 (the last letter)
This confirms that your car plate is legit. This means your car plate numbers are an interesting puzzle,,,
How can we derive the last alphabet?
The formula works by converting only two letters of the prefix to numbers (A=1, Z=26). only two letters of the prefix are used in the checksum. For a three-letter prefix, only the last two letters are used; for a two-letter prefix, both letters are used; for a single letter prefix, the single letter corresponds to the second position, with the first position as 0. For numerals less than four digits, additional zeroes are added in front as placeholders, for example "1" is "0001". SBS3229 would therefore give 2, 19, 3, 2, 2 and 9 (note that the first "S" is discarded); E12 would give 0, 5, 0, 0, 1 and 2. SS108 would be given as 19, 19, 0, 1, 0, 8.
Each individual number is then multiplied by 6 fixed numbers (9, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2). These are added up, then divided by 19. The remainder corresponds to one of the 19 letters used (A, Z, Y, X, U, T, S, R, P, M, L, K, J, H, G, E, D, C, B), with "A" corresponding to a remainder of 0, "Z" corresponding to 1, "Y" corresponding to 2 and so on. In the case of SBS3229, the final letter should be a P; for E23, the final letter should be a H. The letters F, I, N, O, Q, V and W are not used as checksum letters.
A bunch of mambo jumbo…
We made an ig post to add some visuals for you here:
You can check if you derived it correctly using this generator: https://jayl.io/
What's with the colours then?
Black/black or white/ yellow (back) - Normal cars
White on red - Off-peak
White on orange & yellow - Vintage & classic
Less common colours:
Black on orange - Licensed to carry dangerous cargo - hazmat
White on yellow & blue - R&D
White on green and red - Restricted use
White on green - Pulau Ubin vehicle
But does the first alphabets have to start with S?
There are a few reserved prefixes meant for other categories and types of vehicles
The buses:
SBS - SBS buses
SMB - SMRT buses
PA, PB… -Private buses
The president:
SEP
The judges:
SJ
SJ1 - Chief of Justice
The police:
SPF
Emergency & Law Enforcers (SPF, SCDF):
QX
The army (SAF)
MID
LTA Bikes:
LTA
Foreign Diplomats’
S, ending with CD
Restricted Use Vehicles
RU
Pulau Ubin Vehicles:
PU
And that's all for our info dump today! Feel free to come down to our workshop for more car services~ Cheers and happy driving!
All images are linked to their original source.
References
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