Vehicle registration plates of Albania
In Albania, vehicle registration plates are issued by the General Directory of Road Transport Services (Albanian: Drejtoria e Përgjithshme e Shërbimeve Të Transportit Rrugor, DPSHTRR).
A new format similar to the post-1994 Italian and post-2009 French plate designs has been introduced since 16 February 2011.
[1] The plates start with a blue strip at the left with 'AL' and redesigned double-headed eagle in white, 2 serial letters, security hologram, 3 digits, 2 serial letters on a rectangular white background, and end on the right with a blue strip that's supposed to show year of registration and regional code in white on.
It has been observed that the last two identification elements are de facto not included while the font is more emphasized than the post-2002 one.
[3] Critics claim that the color of the double headed eagle and strip is not representative of red and black colors of the Albanian flag.
This format is national, irrespective of the vehicle's registered district.
Starting in 2022, license plates may also be issued in a smaller 360 x 100 mm format for the front and a 305 x 153 mm format for both front and rear plates.
[4] In Albania, "repetitive" license plates have red borders and texts on a white background.
These are additional license plates to install, if there's an object such as a bike carrier rack blocking the original license plate of a private vehicle.
These plates are also issued to other subjects under the Ministry of the Interior, including the Republican Guard, which arranges transport for high-ranking members of state.
They follow the format [AA R 000], where R stands for Rimorkio which means Trailer.
Private motorcycles in Albania have a license plate format [AA 000].
State vehicles bore a white plate with the communist red star, district initials and serial number in black or white.
Once private ownership was re-established after the fall of communism, a new format with standard size was introduced similar to the post 1993 model but with different font and missing national identification strip.
The old 1993 format was introduced around 1993 with the addition of the national identification strip (in 1995) on the left and a new bigger DIN 1451 font.
Spacing between characters changed numerous times and a security hologram was added.
The format starts with a two-letter abbreviation of an Albanian district name.
If the last letter of a plate is "U", it means that a particular district has ~200 000 (two hundred thousand) registered cars.
