Vehicle licence

Many jurisdictions have ceased issuing or requiring display of registration certificates and have instead adopted number plate recognition systems.

In some countries, such as Norway, the owner annually used to get a sticker to place on the registration plate, if the vehicle is permitted for driving.

For example, the District of Columbia and a few U.S. states use windscreen stickers, and some U.S. and Canadian jurisdictions issue permanent fleet licence plates.

Some of these jurisdictions have done away with the sticker, leaving registration status available only from a centralized database which authorities reference (by hand, or via automated number plate recognition).

From 1 October 2014 the physical paper disc was no longer issued, with enforcement of the taxation now being done through the automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system.

In Malta, tax discs are very similar in appearance to their UK counterparts, and are also required to be visible on the left-hand side of the windscreen.