During my time in Russia I noticed something curious – trucks and vans always had their registration plate number repeated in big letters on the rear of the vehicle.
I saw them on the back of big dump trucks.
As well as small vans.
But this stuck truck didn’t.
Turns out repeating the registration plate number on the rear was once a government requirement – from Russian Wikipedia:
Until July 1, 2008, the registration plate issued to a truck or bus should have been duplicated on the back of the vehicle in large print. Since July 1, 2008, this requirement has been cancelled.
The original wording of the ПДД (Rules of the Road Traffic) dated October 23, 1993 was:
On motor vehicles (except trams and trolley-buses) and trailers, registration plates of the appropriate model must be installed in the places provided for this purpose, and in cars and buses.
In addition, a receipt for the state technical inspection is placed in the lower right corner of the windscreen.
The numbers and letters of the registration plates must be repeated on the back of the bodies of trucks, trailers (except for trailers for cars and motorcycles) and buses (except for very small ones). The height of the digits is not less than 300 mm, the width is not less than 120 mm, the thickness of the stroke is 30 mm, the size of the letters is 2/3 of the size of the digits.
The trams and trolley-buses are marked with registration numbers assigned by the relevant departments.
Footnote
Russian seller of rear registration number stickers.
