British Columbia Industrial Vehicle (Section 7) License Plates

The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia may, in respect of any motor vehicle known or described as a tractor, grader, loader, shovel, roller, mixer, crane or other self propelled construction machinery used in performing work in or on a mine or industrial undertaking, cause a licence to be issued permitting the operation of the motor vehicle for the purpose of proceeding to or returning from the work without load, and the form of the licence must be varied accordingly.

Industrial Vehicle license plates are generally associated with heavy machinery, such as the types quoted in the Motor Vehicle Act above. First appearing on B.C. roads in 1957, these plates are easily identifiable by their "X" prefix.

Issuing Statistics

When Section 7 was enacted, it allowed for the issuance of "X" and "XH" prefix plates to be used on certain types of vehicle engaged in road construction or in operations connected with mines and industrial undertakings.

While there is still more work to be done investigating the "XH" prefix, it is thought that the Act was amended in 1959 to discontinue the use of these plates as it was thought that vehicles obtaining an "XH" plate - for a flat fee of $10 - were doing so to evade certain road taxes and were unfarily competing against other licensed vehicles. This is why the "XH" plates are only known for the late 1950s, and are generally thought to have been issued to dump trucks.

What every collector lives for! The random late night social media post by someone who is selling a pair of mint, unused BC plates for a rare non-passenger type complete with the mailing envelope from the Motor Vehicle Branch!

Issuing Statistics

As can be seen in the examples shown above, when the original 20,000 bloc of Industrial Vehicle plates produced in 1979 was issued, an additional 4,000 bloc of plates in the X70-000 to X73,999 range were produced in 1983.

Interestingly, by looking at the dies on each of these two plates it becomes possible to discern that the first bloc of plates were made by Acme Signalisation of Quebec (who had won the contract to manufacture the province's license plates after Oakalla closed in 1975), while the second, smaller bloc of plates display what are known as the "Nova Scotia dies" - but were actually made in Alberta by High Signs.

Issuing Statistics