The changes concerning the plates and the registration numbers of motor vehicles in Algeria are becoming clearer. Indeed, the latest issue of the Official Journal lifted the veil on an order issued by the Ministry of Transport setting the administrative rules relating to the registration number.
The latest issue of the Official Journal, published on January 17, 2023, made public the decree of 10 Joumada El Oula 1444, corresponding to December 4, 2022, modifying and supplementing the decree of May 5, 1988 setting the administrative rules relating to the number of registration of motor vehicles.
Indeed, according to this same text, “the registration number is made up of a group of Arabic numerals in relief that are irremovable and resistant to use”. Regarding the forms of the registration number, the decree classifies vehicles into three categories.
First, “the normal series” which includes any “vehicle whose owner is domiciled in Algeria and not subject to a special customs regime”, as well as “vehicles belonging to companies whose head office is located in Algeria”. Then, “special series”, and finally, “provisional vehicles in circulation (ex-category W. and WW)”.
Dialing the number: what are the changes?
Thus, the decree issued by the Ministry of Transport stipulates that in the case of normal series, the color of the license plate remains unchanged. However, “the composition of the number, written in black, must be composed of (from right to left):
- a diagram representing the wilaya of registration
- a group of three (3) Arabic numerals, separated from the previous one by an apparent dash, characterizing the year of entry into service (the first two digits) and the category of the vehicle (the third digit)”.
According to the same source, “the Arabic numerals representing the category of vehicles are indicated as follows:
- passenger vehicles (private vehicles): 1
- trucks: 2
- vans: 3
- coaches and buses: 4
- road tractors: 5
- other tractors: 6
- special vehicles: 7
- trailers and semi-trailers: 8
- motorcycles (two (2) wheels or more): 9″.
Registration: what about vehicles bearing the diagram “22” or “33”?
In addition, the same text provided details concerning “vehicles whose year of entry into service is unknown and bearing the diagram “22” or “33””. In fact, “the owners of these vehicles must submit them to a vehicle conformity check with the mining services, which have territorial jurisdiction, in order to determine the year of their first entry into circulation”.
According to the same source, at the end of this check, “a vehicle compliance check report is issued to the person concerned”, who should “file it with the authorized registration services, for the establishment of “a new registration card with the year of first entry into service of the vehicle”, it was further specified.
“The territorially competent mining services must send a copy of this report to the registration services of the wilaya concerned within a week. Cards and registration plates bearing diagrams “22” or “33” must be replaced by others, mentioning the year of their first entry into circulation, as soon as this decree is published and, at the latest, December 31, 2023″, indicated the same text again.
In addition, special series will not undergo any change, while vehicles in provisional circulation will experience a color change. According to the decree of the Ministry of Transport, “the number is reproduced on the front and rear plates by black Arabic numerals on a white reflectorized background”.
