Hong Kong Government Vehicles
AM Licence Plates explained in detail
Hong Kong Government Vehicle AM Licence Plates explained
Me Jamie, English and 50 years living in Hong Kong and I know the know the place - I personally completed 2,324 Private Tours (6,000+ guests) from 2011 - 2020 and was considered one of the finest Private Tour Guides in Asia.
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| Hong Kong Government Vehicle AM Licence Plates explained |
Read on, by the end of my explanations and such you should have a decent knowledge of this interesting subject and make sure you read everything, the explanation of the history of Government Licence Plates in Hong Kong is really rather interesting.
Official BMW car for the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, John Lee
Hong Kong Police Vehicles - Car | BMW
Hong Kong Chief Executive (Leader) John Lee, Official BMW with a Hong Kong Crest instead of a traditonal licence plate
This is a very special Police Car, both the driver and the bodyguard are Police Officers with the Special Duties Unit (like a Diplomatic Protection Unit or Secret Service type organisation) and the car has been heavily modified
Hong Kong Cars | Official cars for Hong Kong Government Senior Officials & Minor Functionaries - you will not be surprised to learn that there is a correlation between brand of car | status | Government position
All Hong Kong Government operated vehicles such as cars, trucks, vans, motorbikes, buses etc have a licence plate that in general starts AM and have a number sequence comprising 1 to 4 numbers.
A high end car generally denotes it is the chauffeur driven vehicle of a high ranking Hong Kong Government Minister or Official and a few really Senior Ministers have cars with 2 letter licence plates (CS, FS, CJ and SJ) - Status is important even in the Government as is the use of lucky numbers (1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 0 etc) on licence plates.
Click on the 4 images above for examples of licence plates for very high ranking Government Ministers.
As mentioned The Chief Executive of Hong Kong has the Hong Kong Emblem (large badge ) on the front and back of the vehicle but remarkably (for me anyway) the best Government licence plate is the number I on the official car of the Commissioner of Police which is currently a BMW 5 series see image below
Regular Police vehicles have licence plates that start with AM but the Special Duties Unit has quite a few cars including high end ones that have regular licence plates as used by the general public, the better to blend in when doing special operations.
An example of a Hong Kong Police Special Duties Unit Car - make no mistake this is a very special Police car, similar cars are used with regular licence plates as opposed to AM Government Plates for more covert operations
Government Transport for VIPs - I have seen this car quite often trailing behind the Chief Executives car
AM 8 - given that 8 is a very lucky number in Hong Kong and licence plates with numbers such as 8, 18, 28, 38, 68, 88, 98, 888 and 8888 selling for astronomical amounts in the public sector, this Government Minister was very fortunate to be assigned this car.
Generally cars in the Government carpool do not advertise which department they are from unless they are from the Disciplined Services - this is a regular Government Licence plate on a regular car for the Customs and Excise Department
The Fire Service Department has licence plates that start with F for non Ambulance vehicles
The Fire Service Department has licence plates that start with A for Ambulances + Motorbike Paramedics
Rather surprisingly the Hong Kong Correctional Services Department uses just regular AM licence plates
Lucky licence plates on Police vehicles - you would be amazed at how many Police cars, vans and motorbikes have the lucky numbers 6,8 and 9 in the licence plate
The Police always seem to be experimenting with where to place the AM licence plates on Motorbikes, they can be hard to spot
and even the Police Bomb Squad vehicles have regular AM licence plates
…. and pretty much every truck, van and bus from every Government Department (Except the Fire Services Department) have regular AM licence plates
… and I save the most interesting information for last.
There are 4 possible explanations on why AM was chosen as the 2 letter identifier (and the debate has raged online for many years!) based upon my research the AM for Government Licence Plates became set in stone in the early 1970’s (ish) - prior to this the single digit licence plates ie 1 - 9 were assigned to high ranking Government Officials, you will recall that the single digit I licence plates remains the perk for the Commissioner of Police in Hong Kong, all the other single digit plates were sold at auctions for the general public that started in 1973
so…… why AM for Government vehicles?
1. It was simply an abbreviation of ADMINISTRATION
2. It was done based on the initials of either Alec Morrison or Alistair Morrison, Hong Kong Government Civil Servants, one of whom came up with the idea of uniform plates for Government Vehicles (there is some dispute on which Civil Servant came up with the idea fir AM)
3. When the idea came up, AM was next in sequence ie after AL and before AN - ( a bit weak!)
4. It is totally random as they had to pick a 2 letter sequence and AM was as good as anything else!
LC 2 - you can assume the owner of this car is a member of the Legislative Counci | this is a very rare Licence Plate, see below
Take your pick as they say although I am inclined to go with the AM as an abbreviation of ADMINISTRATION - this makes sense as cars with the licence plate starting LC were issued to members of the Legislative Council and you can still see LC plates on cars today in Hong Kong and yes, they are members of the Legislative Council
