Off Road Vehicle (ORV) plates 1988-present...
With an increasing number of recreational off road vehicles in the 1980s, the government implemented mandatory registration beginning in October 1988. As part of this change, snowmobiles, ORV's and their dealers in 1988 started receiving new black on yellow ORV plates with a debossed 91 expiry date in the lower left corner. These replaced the previous SM plates. ORV sample plates were even made available to collectors for the usual fee.
- The initial batch of ORV plates was made by Western Tools in 1987 in the 1A1 to 999K9 range. No letters were omitted; even the letter I was used. A relatively high number of these were made as the last ones were not issued until 2002!
- The second batch was made by Hi Signs in 1988 in the ranges 1L1 to 999L9, 1N1 to 999N9 and 1P1 to 999P7. But because so many Western Tools plates had been made in 1987, the earliest known Hi Signs ORV plate is from 1998, appearing no sooner than a full 10 years and in some cases 14 years after manufacture!
- The third and several subsequent batches were made by Waldale in 1997, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. The first ones appeared in use in 2000. These plates can be found in the ranges 1M1 to 999M9, 1R1 to 999R9, 1S1 to 999S9, 1T1 to 999T9, 1U1 to 999U9, 1V1 to 999V9, 1W1 to 999W9, 1X1 to 999X8.
- The next batches of plates were the first to be reflective and were manufactured in 2007, 2008 and 2009. These were made in the 1X9 to 999X9, 1Y1 to 999Y9, 1Z1 to 999Z9 and 1A001 to 6C999 ranges and first appeared in use in mid-June 2008. Keep in mind that it will take a few years before all issuing offices across the province will exhaust their stocks of Hi Signs and Waldale non-reflective plates. So the emergence of these new reflective plates, as with all previous ORV varieties will be very slow and not uniform at all issuing offices.
- As with regular series plates, snowmobile dealers were merged into the ORV Dealer category in 1988.
- The first ORV dealer plates were made by Western Tools in 1987. These plates were black on yellow and produced in the SD101 to SD600 range. Supplies of this 600-plate order lasted until the last ones were issued in the mid-1990s.
- The second batch was black on white and made by Hi Signs in 1993 and first appeared in 1994. These poorly made plates went from SD601-999 for an order of 399 plates. They started to be exhausted in 1996.
- The third 500-plate batch was again black on white, made by Hi Signs in 1995 and numbered from OR101 through OR500.
- Batch #4 represents quite a change from previous issues as you can see by the photo above. Waldale made 499 of these in 1997 in the OR501 to OR999 range. Plates revert to the black on yellow ORV colour scheme.
- The fifth batch of 999 ORV dealer plates was made by Waldale in 2000, although as with most other ORV/dealer variations did not appear in use until later. These plates retain the black on yellow ORV scheme and are expected to be the last ones to use the unreflective background. The number range of these was DL001 through DL999.
- Reflective ORV dealer plates were produced in the 1001D to 2000D range in 2009.
- ALL ORV dealer bases issued since 1988 remain valid to this day.
© updated 3-26-10
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