Vehicle registration plates of Poland


Vehicle registration plates of Poland indicate the region of registration of the vehicle encoded in the number plate.
According to Polish law, the registration plate is tied to the vehicle, not the owner. There is no possibility for the owner to keep the licence number for use on a different car, even if it's a custom number. The licence plates are issued by the powiat of the vehicle owner's registered address of residence, in the case of a natural person. If it is owned by a legal person, the place of registration is determined by the address of its seat. Vehicles leased under operating leases and many de facto finance leases will be registered at the seat of the lessor. When a vehicle changes hands, the new owner must apply for new vehicle registration document bearing his or her name and registered address. The new owner may obtain a new licence plate although it is not necessary when new owner's residence address lies in the same area as the previous owner's. In such a situation the licence plates are usually carried over to the new owner, because the change carries an additional cost. Upon purchasing a vehicle from another person, if the vehicle has an EU plate, the new owner must replace it with a license for their address and area, and give the EU plate to their powiat plate mint to free up numbers in the future. If the car has a pre-May 1, 2006 plate, the owner is free to do whatever they wish with it, as long as it is legal under Polish law. The plaque cannot be replaced if destroyed. The change of the whole set is required.
The change in system shown below in 2001 is related to the reduction in the previous year of the number of voivodeships in Poland from 49 to 16, based on the country's historic regions. The pre-2001 licence plates can be used indefinitely, but since they are obsolete they have to be replaced in case of change of vehicle's ownership.
In the pre-2001 model, there were not sufficient letters in the Polish alphabet for each of the old voivodeships to have a single letter. Only the standard latin alphabet were used, the specific Polish characters with diacritics were excluded in order to make the plates fully internationally readable. Therefore, two letters had to be used to indicate the vehicle's origin. Since the change, the first letter denotes the new voivodeship. One additional letter is used in cities with rights of powiat. Two additional letters are used in any other powiat.
It is not necessary for EU citizens to re-register the vehicles they have brought with them, which are duly registered and taxed elsewhere in the EU, when living in Poland. This emerges from European law, although local regulations have to date not been changed to reflect the law, leading to officials locally sometimes giving incorrect advice on this point. If in doubt, refer to your Embassy.

Format

Stickers and security measures

The licence plates are invalid without the two adhesive stickers with a hologram placed on the license plates, and an adhesive plaque bearing the same number as the plates on the inside of windshield. If the vehicle uses only one licence plate the second sticker must be attached to the registration papers.

Licence plate types and combinations

Each powiat uses a unique two or three letter code, with the first letter denoting the powiat's voivodeship. The number pools listed below are not used in any particular order, although one pool is usually depleted before the next one is used. A visible gap exists between the area code and series, but there is no possibility of confusion if the number is written down without it, unlike in the German system.
The following characters are used in licence plate examples:
The letters used in licence plates include all standard Latin alphabet letters outside of Q. The letters B, D, I, O, and Z cannot be used in series area, because they can be confused with digits. Only custom plates can include these letters, but Q still cannot be used. The leading 0 in numbers is never omitted.

Cars, trucks, and buses

Format:
The number of available unique numbers with these mentioned formats is 1,100,000 for each two-letter powiat code, and 872,400 for each three-letter powiat code. Note that the combinations "XYZ 1234" and "XYZ 123J" are not used, because they would lead to creation of numbers identical to these in the old system. Also, the two-letter powiat codes must be followed by a leading digit, "XY 1...", to avoid confusion with the "XYZ..." scheme, as the gap is not significant.

Motorcycles, mopeds, and agricultural vehicles

Format:
Cars - reduced size
Format:
The plates are designed for cars from USA. Reduced size plates are the same width as US plates.

Classic cars">Antique vehicle registration">Classic cars

Format:
These plates use black text on a yellow background with an additional picture of a vintage car on the right side. Only cars older than 25 years, out of production for 15 years and containing at least 75% of original parts are eligible to be registered as classic cars, with an exception of prototypes that were never produced, cars of considerable historical value or "being an example of original or important technological solutions". These plates are issued on a case by case rules.

Temporary and export plates

Format:
These plates use red text on a white background. The plates wear a seal with month and year of validation. The windshield plaque is not issued with it.

Testing vehicles

Format:
These plates use red text on a white background. The windshield plaque is not issued with it. The last character is always the letter B. Only car manufacturers and automobile R&D centres are issued these plates.

Custom plates">Vanity plate">Custom plates

Format:
These plates use standard black letters on a white background. Each custom number starts with the letter denoting voivodeship and a single digit, followed by the gap. This digit and next characters can be picked by the owner. Outside the availability the following constrains are used:
Format:
Since July 2019 car dealers of new cars can apply for special number plates with green letters on white background specifically for doing test drives. Those plates are issued exclusively for the company itself and not for a specific car which means that those plates can be applied to multiple vehicles at once. Only car retailers can obtain one and such cars can be driven only by the car dealer - owner of the company, his employees or by the customers but only while being accompanied by car dealership owner or his worker.

Diplomatic plates

Format:
White symbols on blue background. First three digits indicate country or organization.
Table of codes:
CodeCountry
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010
011
012
013
014
015
016
017
018
019
020
021
022
023
024
025
026
027
028
029
030
031
032
033
034
035
036
037
038
039
040
041
042
043
044
045
046
047
048
049
050
051
052
053
054 European Commission
055
056World Bank
057International Monetary Fund
058
059International Finance Corporation
060
061Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
062
063
064
065
066
067
068
069
070
071
072
073
074
075
076
077
078International Labour Organization
079Organization for Cooperation of Railways
080Diplomatic Club
081
082
083
084European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
085
086
087
088
089
090
091
092
093
094
095
096
097
098
099
100
101
102United Nations Human Settlements Programme
103
104
105
106
107Frontex
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115

Service plates

Format:
Vehicles utilised used by the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration use licence plates beginning with "H", instead of the voivodeship code. The second letter denotes the service, for example "HP" is used by the Polish Police. Any standard Latin letter outside Q can be used. These services are also allowed to use common licence plates.
Codes:
Format:
The Polish military uses licence plates beginning with "U" instead of the voivodeship code. The following letter denotes the usage of the vehicle. For example, military trucks have licence plates beginning with "UC". The trailing T in the number denotes a tracked vehicle. The military are not obliged to use the standard licence plates on tracked vehicles, armoured cars and armoured personnel carriers - they can be painted on the vehicle itself or applied as a sticker.
Codes:

History

1922-1937

From July 1922 Polish car number plates had two letters denoting voivodeship, or single letter W denoting capital city of Warsaw, and up to five digits. Except for letter identifier, each voivodeship had own range of numbers. Plates were white, with red letters and black digits, separated with red dash.

There were also temporary plates with PR letters and presidential plates with WZK letters. Military plates had only four white digits on black background.

1937–1939

From 1937 there was a new different system of registration numbers introduced, with white letters on black plates. There was one letter denoting vehicle type, two-digit number denoting voivodeship, and three-digit individual number after a dash. Letters A, B, C, D, E, H, K, L, X, Y, Z were used for cars, trucks and buses, T for taxicabs, M, N, P, R, S, U for motorcycles and W for military vehicles. A range of numbers 00 to 19 meant capital city of Warsaw, 20 to 24 - Białostok Voivodeship, and so on, in alphabetical order, up to 95 to 99 for Wołyńskie Voivodeship.
During World War II there were plates introduced by occupants.

1944-1956

From 1946 Polish car number plates had 1 letter + 5 numbers.

1956–1976

From June 19, 1956 Polish car number plates had 2 letters and 4 digits, and after May 13, 1964 letters could stand after digits.
Individual elements meant:
Codes of voivodeships:
Codes of special forces:
Plates from the 1976–2000 series are still valid. They have white letters on black background. The coding used was three letters and four digits or three letters, three digits and one letter, although at the beginning the configuration with a letter in the end was used for public cars only.
The following coding was used for the 49 regions of the country:
The following codes were used for special forces:
Special plates:
Since the year 2000 Polish car plates have black letters pressed onto white reflective blanks with an EU stripe and country code. The switch was made to conform with other EU countries and to increase visibility. The licence plates issued until May 1, 2006 bear a Polish national flag. Plates issued after that date have the 12 EU stars instead of the flag.