Vehicle registration plates of Uruguay

Uruguay requires its residents to register their motor vehicles and display vehicle registration plates.

History

Until the early 2000s, the codes, designs, sizes, and colors of vehicle license plates varied in each department. In 2001, by agreement of the National Congress of Mayors, it was decided to implement the new alphanumeric system for the entire country. During that year and at the beginning of 2002, the new system was adopted in Montevideo, that spread throughout all the departments of the country, except Maldonado and Salto. In March 2015, the Single Patent of Mercosur began to be implemented, which has been mandatory since 2016.
Maldonado was the only department that did not adopt the new alphanumeric license plate system for automobiles during the first decade of the 2000s, except for motorcycles and some special license plates. Finally, on January 4, 2019, the department began to implement the Mercosur license plates, with the particularity of indicating each municipality by a badge added below the patent plate.
In the case of Salto, an alphanumeric system of 3 letters and 3 numbers was adopted, with the shield of the department larger than other departments in the center of the license plate. In 2015, the Mercosur patent was implemented with 3 letters and 4 numbers starting from HAA 1000.

Departmental coding

Plates issued in each department begin with a one-letter code. These codes, used on the unique local issues of the past, have carried over to the current national series as part of the standard nationwide format.

Department or lia	Code
Artigas Department	G
Canelones Department	A
Cerro Largo Department	E
Colonia Department	L
Durazno Department	Q
Flores Department	N
Florida Department	O
Lavalleja Department	P
Maldonado Department	B
Montevideo Department	S
Paysandú Department	I
Río Negro Department	J
Rivera Department	F
Rocha Department	C
Salto Department	H
San José Department	M
Soriano Department	K
Tacuarembó Department	R
Treinta y Tres Department	D

Old series

Prior to the introduction of this series, plates issued in each department had a unique design, in many instances displaying only the name of the municipality, rather than that of the department or the country. The change echoes that made in Argentina in 1994 with the change to a national plate series displaying the nation's name rather than a more local designation.
Under the current plate series, a single serial number format of ABC 1234 has been introduced for the entire country, with either the country name, the vehicle type, or both displayed on the plate. Now absent are department or municipality designations, except for the small official logos displayed on many plates, one between the letters and numbers indicating the department of registration and another in the lower right corner indicating the municipality of registration. Plates in the current series employ FE-Schrift for their serials.
Some older plates are still in use, but evidently they are being replaced with plates of the current series, as even many antique cars have plates from the current series.
Italicized letters indicate a departmental code; bold letters indicate a fixed type code that appears on all plates of a particular type:

Previous series

While also issued by department with the same codes, these plates employ varying designs, with unique plate sizes and shapes, dies, and color schemes and may identify the municipality of registration rather than the department itself. Many plates featured a white and blue color scheme.
Italicized letters indicate a departmental code; bold letters indicate a fixed type code that appears on all plates of a particular type:

Image	Location and/or type	Serial format	Design	Legend
	Diplomatic	CC 123?	white on blue	?
	National Navy	123	black on white; embossed anchor at center	"ARMADA"
	Public safety/government	MI 12-345 MI 123456	black on white or blue on white; variety of manufacturing styles	none
	Artigas Department	GA-1234	blue on white	"ARTIGAS"; "ROU" debossed in embossed box at left
	Canelones Department	ABC 123
	Caneloles Department—Official	A 1234	white on blue	"OFICIAL URUGUAY"
	Cerro Largo Department—Melo city	EM-12345	black on white	"CERRO LARGO" embossed at top; "ROU" embossed vertically at left; "MELO" embossed vertically at right; the small M'' below the hyphen also indicates the city
	Colonia Department	LA-1234	blue on white	"COLONIA" debossed within embossed square that contains the "L"; "URUGUAY" at top. Some plates have a full-color seal, while others do not.
	Durazno Department	QAB-123	dark blue on gold	"DURAZNO - ROU" at bottom
	Maldonado Department—Maldonado	B 112-345	black on white	"Maldonado" at bottom; first number signifies city
	Maldonado Department—Piriápolis	B 712-345	black on white	"PIRIAPOLIS" at bottom; first number signifies city
	Maldonado Department—Punta del Este city	B 51-234 B 512-345	black on white	"PUNTA DEL ESTE" at bottom; first number signifies city
	Maldonado Department—San Carlos city	B 212-345	black on white	"SAN CARLOS" at bottom; first number signifies city
	Maldonado Department—Solís	B'' 812-345	black on white	"SOLIS" at bottom; first number signifies city
	Río Negro Department—Fray Bentos city	JAB 123	black on white	"FRAY BENTOS" at top, "RIO NEGRO" in orange band at bottom
	Rivera Department	FAB-123	dark blue on whute	"RIVERA - URUGUAY" at bottom
	Salto Department	HA 123	black on white; Salto logo at left	"SALTO" at bottom
	Soriano Department	K 12-3456	blue on white	"SORIANO URUGUAY" at bottom

Special plates

Certain vehicles dedicated to different functions have special combinations of letters and colors on the plates that do not have those of ordinary vehicles. These combinations are located in the last two letters of the series. Almost all special license plates have the legend "Uruguay" and some have another legend added, depending on the vehicle's condition.
;Private vehicles: black characters and borders

DI: for people with disabilities. They also feature the wheelchair badge.
ME: for doctors. It also features a green cross as an additional badge.

;Diplomatic Corps: gilt characters and borders

;Government vehicles: blue characters and borders

OF: for official vehicles.
ED: for ediles.
ID: for vehicles of the Departmental Administration.
JD: for vehicles of the Departmental Board.
PL: for vehicles of the Legislative Power.
PE: for vehicles of the Executive Power.
PJ: for vehicles of the Judicial Power.
MD: for vehicles of the Ministry of Defense.
MI: for vehicles of the Ministry of the Interior.

;Commercial transport vehicles: red characters and borders

AL or LQ: rental vehicles.
TP: heavy transport.
RE:.

;Transfer and temporary vehicles: green characters and borders

EN: school vehicles.
TX: taxis.
AM: ambulances.
TU: tourism vehicles.
TC: collective transport.
IT: intercity transport.
AT: temporary admission vehicles.
PR: test vehicles.
DP: sports cars.

Nomenclatures used before the Mercosur Single Patent

The following initials of special license plates were used to register vehicles in a specific department of the 19 that make up the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, these denominations follow the letter that identifies the department, for example B is Maldonado or S is Montevideo, a license plate would be composed as BCC or SCD :

DU
AT ; characters and green border with white background.
CC ; characters and black border with white background.
CD ; characters and red border with white background.
IO ; characters and black border with white background.
NG ; characters and black border with white background.
PR
PR
PE
AL
DA
HA
DP.
EX
DI
AM
ME
TX
RE
RA
TU
MT
ES
TD
TC
IT
TP
TM
TA
TR
TZ
MZ
ZZ
MA
MV
RO
IM
JD
ED
ED
CM
DI
RN
PL
PE
PE
PJ
OF
MI
MP

Used in only one department

The following special license plates are exclusive to a department and are fixed series, therefore none of the three letters varies as vehicles with these license plates can only be registered in those departments:
;Canelones

;Maldonado

;Rocha

;Artigas

GAM, GBM
GAO, GBO
GAR, GBR
GAT, GBT
GAE
GTC

;Salto

;Montevideo

[Uruguayan Armed Forces]

These license plates do not use the icons that would normally correspond to an Intendancy, but an emblem always shown at the center belonging to one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of Uruguay, the series of these license plates are the same throughout the country.

;Maldonado
Since 1992, this department had the format B 123·456. The letter B corresponds to the department; to its right is placed the departmental coat of arms and then a code of 3 to 6 numbers, which, together with the colors of the plate/plate, indicate the function of the wheel. In addition, the first number indicates in which locality a vehicle is registered, and this is reflected in the legend shown below in capital letters and without accents.

2016 Mercosur standard

In October 2014 the design of the new license plate to be used by all Mercosur countries was officially presented. This consists of a plate of, with a white background, the characters and frame in black and a blue band at the top that shows the name of the country, its flag and the Mercosur logo. The typeface used is FE-Schrift.

2016 Mercosur standard for Maldonado department

Unlike most departments that began issuing Mercosur license plates in 2015, the department of Maldonado did only on 4 january 2019. Authorities of this department wanted to preserve the particularity of what existed until then, namely a specific code for each city. The first letter used is B as for old registration plates, the number follow being then replaced by a letter and the city is indicated by a blue band at bottom.

BA : Maldonado
BB : San Carlos
BC : Pan de Azúcar
BD : Aiguá
BE : Punta Del Este
BF : Garzón
BG : Piriápolis
BH : Solís