Malaysia needs to have standard number plates like Singapore and Thailand.
We should be moving to nationwide standard format of registration plates for all vehicles in Malaysia. There should be an end of fancy and self designed registration plates which is a common sight in Malaysia.
If Thailand and Singapore road transport departments can standardize their vehicle registration plates years ago, why can’t we?
Well, we actually have a standard number plate directive from our road transport department (JPJ) but sadly its not being followed by car owners and even ‘many’ new car sellers who provide the number plates to the customers.
So why is there a need to have a standard typeface for vehicle number plates in Malaysia when abuse could still occur despite having standards?
Well, the simple answer to that is that the lack of clear standards leaves room for a larger number of abuses i.e. “custom”, “fancy”, or “personalized” number plates.
Standards are important for there to be coherence and clarity in the application of the rule of law. Countries like Germany, Italy, Singapore, UK and many more, all have standardized number plate typefaces and clear display guidelines.
A standard number plate typeface will also allow for technologies like Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) to be more effective for tracking and enforcement.
Meanwhile, there should be law prohibiting license plate shops from issuing fancy (unauthorized type face and fonts) number plates. There should also be a law preventing the production of back lit number plates which can be seen on many tuned and very expensive vehicles.
Interestingly, the official ‘tendering’ of number plates provides very good income for our Road Transport Department (JPJ) and this should be enough for them to start looking at having standard number plates that the department can issue via their approved vendors and stores to car owners. It could be mailed out like with our yearly road tax renewal.
The plates could be issued with a micro-chip embedded in them and this will also prevent the abuse of cloned cars running around the country and giving massive headache to owners of cars that have been closed as speeding and parking summons are very hard to explain to our authorities.
There was some chatter back in January 2017 to have this done, but it fizzled out after some time and nothing was executed. Maybe now with a YB Anthony Loke in charge of JPJ, we might see execution of this like we did with the revised road tax sticker.
