British Columbia Reciprocity License Plates

Reciprocity plates were first thought to have been issued in 1963 to out-of-province truckers hauling into BC if their truck was from a jurisdiction having a reciprocity agreement with BC (most likely Wash. Alberta, Montana & Idaho). If you weren't registered in such a place you paid the more expensive prorate/apportioned fee.

According to Richard Barrow, who started trucking in 1975, "most of these plates had become tags on a front tag plate or the cab door ... [but] before that you needed a rubber skirt under the front bumper just to hold all the plates you'd acquire if you ran the lower 48. I saw trucks with as many as 20 plates of various sizes and colors when I was a kid ..."

1962 - Prototype?

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We are playing a hunch - albeit a well informed one - in classifying this 1962 plate as a prototype. First, it is the only known example from this year; the number on the plate, apart from being a nice round number, is higher than the average number of plates issued during its use (i.e. no more than 400 a year throughout the 1970s; and it appears to have never been issued.

There are more than a few gaps in our knowledge of the Reciprocity plates, and it is assumed that the plates shown below, despite not showing a date, are from 1963 & 1964 based pon their colour schemes. Until more plates from this period become available to us, it is not known how long these plates were undated.

1963 - 1964

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Issuing Statistics

1963:	unknown
1964:	1 to 100

1965 - 1979

1965

1966

1967

1968

Issuing Statistics

1965:	1 to 150
1966:	1 to 400
1967:	1 to 400
1968:	1 to 400
1969:	1 to 400
1970:	1 to 400
1971:	1 to 400
1972:	1 to 400
1973:	1 to 400
1974:	1 to 400
1975:	401 to 800
1976:	801 to 1200
1977:	unknown
1978:	unknown
1979:	unknown

1969

1970

1971

1972

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1975

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It is interesting to note that a December expiry date was added to the plates after 1979, and the full name of the province - "BRITISH COLUMBIA" - was finally spelled out.

1980 - 1981

Issuing Statistics

1980:	unknown
1981:	unknown

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It is thought that the end of Reciprocity plates coincided with the negotiation of the Canadian Agreement on Vehicle Registration (CAVR) by the various provincial Ministers of Transport in Toronto on October 2, 1980. The first phase of the Agreement formally took effect on April 1, 1982 - hence the emergence of the first BC "CAVR" decals in 1982.

CAVR Plates & Decals

This "Bingo" plate, which would have likely been attached to the front of a commercial truck operating across provincial boundaries is thought to show the transition from the previous reciprocity agreement to CAVR with the change in decals between 1981 and 1982.

To read more about CAVR, visit our CAVR page filed under the "Prorate" section of the web-site, just: Click Here.