Trip Planning & Practicalities
Vietnamese Motorbike Number Plates: Hanoi’s Plate Codes, Colours and Series
About 7 minutes to read
A Vietnamese motorbike number plate carries a locality code, and its colour and series show what kind of owner it was issued to. For Hanoi, the code list reads 29, 30 to 33 and 40. This article sets out what Ministry of Public Security and Government pages say about codes, colours, series and stickers, and about the papers a driver must carry. Where those pages stop short, including on rental bikes, the section “What the pages leave out” says so.
Hanoi’s plate codes
A Government e-newspaper guide of 9 July 2025 lists plate codes by locality after the 2025 reorganisation of localities. It gives Hanoi three entries: 29, 30 to 33, and 40. After the mergers, the page says, a merged locality’s codes include those of the localities merged into it: Hung Yen is listed with 89 and 17, and Hai Phong with 15, 16 and 34. The codes of the locality that kept its name are issued first (the page’s examples are Hung Yen 89, Ninh Binh 35 and Dong Thap 66, with An Giang issuing 68), and once those run out the remaining codes are issued from low to high. A Ministry of Public Security online question-and-answer page (question posted 20 August 2025; the answer carries no separate date) gives the same order for Ho Chi Minh City: 41 and 50 to 59 first, then 61 and 72.
What this tells a reader is limited. The pages tie a code to a locality. They do not say that 29, 30 to 33 or 40 shows a district, a bike’s age or where it was bought, and the code pages do not explain what the characters after the code mean, so none of those readings should be drawn from a plate.
Plate colours, series and stickers
A Ministry of Public Security article describes the rules in Article 37 of Circular No. 79/2024/TT-BCA, issued on 15 November 2024 and in force from 1 January 2025. The article shows no date of its own. For motorbikes it gives two plate types for domestic owners:
| Plate | Colours | Series | Issued to |
|---|---|---|---|
| General | White background, black characters | Two letters, each one of A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, K, L, M, N, P, S, T, U, V, X, Y, Z | Domestic organisations and individuals outside the state-body group |
| State bodies | Blue background, white characters | One letter from A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, K, L, M plus a digit from 1 to 9 | Party bodies, the offices of the President and National Assembly, People’s Public Security, People’s Courts and Procuracies, ministries, People’s Committees at all levels and other listed state bodies |
Foreign-owned vehicles carry a white plate with a marker: NG for diplomatic missions, consular offices and foreign staff holding diplomatic ID; QT for representative offices of international organisations and their foreign staff holding diplomatic ID; CV for technical and administrative staff of those bodies; and NN for other foreign organisations, offices and individuals. Clean-energy vehicles carry a green identification sticker, and plates won at auction carry a red-and-yellow one. The yellow plate in the same list is for cars in transport business; the list names no separate colour for motorbikes used in business.
Where a plate is issued
The 9 July 2025 guide says that from July 2025 a domestic person or organisation wanting to register a motorbike can choose the Traffic Police Department or any commune-level police office in the province or city where they live or are based. Vehicles of confiscated origin must be registered at the Traffic Police Department. For communes partly split and merged into several new communes, the guide says the Traffic Police Department handles registration for now, while population data is completed.
After mergers and sales: what the Ministry says
The Ministry’s online question-and-answer page (question posted 20 August 2025) says that after the provincial mergers an owner who has no need to change is not required to swap the registration certificate or plate for the new address. It also notes that Circular 79/2024 has since been amended by Circulars 13/2025/TT-BCA (28 February 2025) and 51/2025/TT-BCA (30 June 2025), so details may have moved on.
On a change of owner, the Ministry’s public-services portal summarised, on 5 December 2024, a circular on issuing and withdrawing registration certificates and plates that takes effect on 1 January 2025 (the page text does not give its number). When a vehicle is sold, exchanged, given or inherited, the owner keeps the registration certificate and plate instead of handing them to the new owner, and submits them to the registration authority for withdrawal within 30 days of the transfer paperwork. The new owner then applies for a new certificate and plate. Until withdrawal is done, the person named on the certificate keeps the owner’s responsibility. That summary predates the amendments, so the current rule should be confirmed.
Papers a driver must carry
The Government e-newspaper’s explainer of 2 January 2025 covers Article 56 of the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety, in force from 1 January 2025. It lists four papers a driver must carry: the vehicle registration certificate, a driving licence suited to the vehicle, the safety and environmental inspection certificate, and the compulsory civil-liability insurance certificate. Papers already integrated into an electronic ID account can be shown through that account. Article 56 itself treats moped riders separately: the licence condition excludes them, and its paragraph 4 asks instead for knowledge of traffic rules, driving skills and the required age and health.
On a rental bike’s papers, see Rental Motorbike Registration in Vietnam: Match the Bike to Its Papers. For the insurance certificate on that list, see Compulsory Motorbike Liability Insurance in Vietnam: What the Certificate Covers and What a Renter Should Check.
Plate recognition in central Hanoi
VietnamNet reported on 7 August 2026 that Hanoi would speed up installing AI cameras at the entrances to its low-emission pilot area, with automatic plate recognition linked to vehicle, inspection and emissions-test data. The report described this as upcoming.
What the pages leave out
No page says what plate or papers a rental motorbike carries, whether rental businesses register vehicles differently, or how a renter should check an owner’s papers, so the plate rules above are general. The papers explainer does not say which of the four papers a moped rider must carry, or which a rental customer or foreign rider must carry or hold. The colour article does not say how plates issued before 2025 compare, and the sticker designs sit in an annex to the circular that was not among the pages. The camera report gives no fines or start date for camera-based penalties, and nothing covers fake or stolen plates, fine amounts for plate offences or how to look up a plate (the circular summary says only that an owner who does not complete withdrawal within 30 days faces the administrative-penalty procedure, with no amounts). The code list and the Ministry question-and-answer page date from July and August 2025 and the colour article shows no date, so confirm with the Ministry of Public Security before relying on any of them. For choosing a bike, see Motorbike Rental Hanoi: How to Choose the Right Bike.
Sources checked
- Government e-newspaper (Chinhphu.vn), 9 July 2025: plate codes by locality after the mergers. Plate code list
- Ministry of Public Security portal, question posted 20 August 2025 (answer undated): online question and answer on plate changes after the mergers. Ministry answer page
- Ministry of Public Security portal, no date shown: plate colours and series under Circular 79/2024/TT-BCA. Plate colours article
- Ministry of Public Security public-services portal, 5 December 2024: summary of the circular. Circular summary
- Government e-newspaper (Chinhphu.vn), 2 January 2025: papers a driver must carry. Papers explainer
- VietnamNet, 7 August 2026: Hanoi Party Committee press briefing. Press briefing report
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