From 2000 to 2006, private vehicles belonging to American Service personnel and dependent family members based in Germany carried a distinct series of German-style number plates. Their plates carried the NATO insignia on a blue background instead of the EU stars, the USA country code, and registration numbers starting with AD, AF or HK, while numbers starting in IF on similar plates were used for official NATO vehicles of all non-German nationalities.
The plates' upper sticker showed the expiry date of the plate, rather than technical fitness as the German one does. Furthermore, unlike the German one this sticker is punched to indicate clearly the date. The lower sticker showed the text: "Streitkräfte der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika in Deutschland" (Armed Forces of the USA in Germany). US-market vehicles without proper mounting brackets for European-standard plates received plates made to a small size which is in Germany normally dedicated for light motorcycles or agricultural vehicles.
When the US forces began using this system, they chose the first two-letter codes not yet used in the German registration system, namely AD (standard size) and AF (small size). After some time they realised that AF could be easily interpreted as Armed Forces or Air Force, defeating the purpose of using German-style plates. So they discontinued issuing plates with "AF" and began using "HK" instead. For official vehicles the code "IF" is used with standard-size plates. By law the vehicles must carry the "USA" sticker since they are registered by a non-European Union country. But in this special matter this law is not enforced in Germany with US Army vehicles. When travelling outside Germany, US military laws required that USA sticker be displayed on the rear of the car. Since the change to local German plates (see below) this rule is no longer valid.
In 2005, the US Forces in Germany decided that service members' private vehicles should carry normal German plates for security reasons. Re-registering with German plates began in December 2005. Each vehicle now displays the prefix for the area where the owner registered the vehicle (i.e. Frankfurt, Bamberg, Heidelberg, Kaiserslautern or Würzburg area), just like a regular German vehicle; the only difference is that they will be exempt from German tax and safety inspections (TÜV), but since the change the vehicles have to comply with EU sound regulations, are not allowed to have their front windows tinted and have to comply with all EU safety regulations. The US vehicles do not have to comply with EU lighting and emission regulations since the US standards are different.
At the end of 2008 the US Forces started to introduce a new plate for temporary registration of vehicles (transfer plates). The small-size version with the blue strip "USA" and nato insignia is in use. The red letters are in FE-style and the code follows the format "T xx yyyyy". The "T" happens to be short for either "temporary" or "transfer", but was primarily chosen because it is not used by any German registration district, therefore avoiding overlaps with actual German plates. The "xx" is the code for the local headquarters and "yyyyy" a 5-digit serial number filled with zeros if necessary. This kind of plate carries no stickers.
| code | local headquarters |
|---|---|
| T A | Augsburg |
| T BA | Bamberg |
| T BH | Baumholder |
| T BR | Bruchsal |
| T GK | Geilenkirchen |
| T GR | Grafenwöhr |
| T H | Heidelberg |
| T HS | Hohenfels |
| T I | Illesheim |
| T K | Kaiserslautern |
| T MA | Mannheim |
| T SP | Spangdahlem |
| T SW | Schweinfurt |
| T W | Wiesbaden |
Famous quotes containing the words vehicle, plates, united, states, army and/or germany:
“If you are to reach masses of people in this world, you must do it by a sign language. Whether your vehicle be commerce, literature, or politics, you can do nothing but raise signals, and make motions to the people.”
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933)
“Behold now this vast city; a city of refuge, the mansion house of liberty, encompassed and surrounded with his protection; the shop of war hath not there more anvils and hammers waking, to fashion out the plates and instruments of armed justice in defence of beleaguered truth, than there be pens and hands there, sitting by their studious lamps, musing, searching, revolving new notions.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“In one notable instance, where the United States Army and a hundred years of persuasion failed, a highway has succeeded. The Seminole Indians surrendered to the Tamiami Trail. From the Everglades the remnants of this race emerged, soon after the trail was built, to set up their palm-thatched villages along the road and to hoist tribal flags as a lure to passing motorists.”
—For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The Constitution of the United States is not a mere lawyers’ document. It is a vehicle of life, and its spirit is always the spirit of the age. Its prescriptions are clear and we know what they are ... but life is always your last and most authoritative critic.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“Twenty or thirty years ago, in the army, we had a lot of obscure adventures, and years later we tell them at parties, and suddenly we realize that those two very difficult years of our lives have become lumped together into a few episodes that have lodged in our memory in a standardized form, and are always told in a standardized way, in the same words. But in fact that lump of memories has nothing whatsoever to do with our experience of those two years in the army and what it has made of us.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)
“If Germany is to become a colonising power, all I say is, “God speed her!” She becomes our ally and partner in the execution of the great purposes of Providence for the advantage of mankind.”
—W.E. (William Ewart)