Trans. – An Illustrated History of Connecticut License Plates

Transporter plates are ‘floater’ plates which have a variety of uses in Connecticut.

These include: Movement of unregistered vehicles for the purposes of inspection, sale or transfer, use on vehicles being repossessed, movement of storage or house-type trailers with removable axle assemblies, transporting boats between a dealership and demonstration location, and movement of vehicles to and from construction sites.

The use of Transporter plates differs from that of Dealer and Repair plates in that the plates may not be loaned, and may not be used for personal business.

This type is believed to have started in the late 1940s. The plates have an all-numeric serial and are captioned ‘Trans.’.

Starting in the 1960s, there were two varieties of Transporter plates – one for vehicles such as passenger cars, and another for commercial-type vehicles. The colors for the two classes were reversed from each other, and the colors for each were reversed every year as well. Thus, the color scheme for a passenger transporter in, say, 1966 would be the same color scheme as that of a commercial transporter in 1967. The annual reversing of colors ended in 1980, when stickered plates came into use.

In 2002, the distinction between types was done away with, and there is now only one general class of Transporter.

Transporter plates have loosely followed the design of Dealer and Repair plates. In the 1980s, while Dealer and Repair plates used special decals, Trans. plates used standard passenger decals. With the general reissue in 2000, Trans. plates became maroon on reflective yellow – still validated with passenger decals, unlike Dealer and Repair plates which now have an embossed date and are replaced every two years.

Transporter plates expire annually on the last day of March.

Reference Sec. 14-35

1954

1958

1959

1960

1961
These ‘164’ plates are all of the reverse-color variety, as evidenced by this 1961 plate. How were the two types distinguished pre-1961, before the reverse-color scheme came into use? Let me know if you can tell me.

1962 Commercial Transporter

1963 that’s seen better days.
I received a pair of these plates that seemed
to be permanently mated with a rusty bolt and nut. It took a bit of work, but I was able to finally cut through the bolt and separate them.

1967 Commercial Transporter

1968 with ’69 decal.
I don’t know how common this was, or if this decal even belongs there.

1969 Passenger Transporter

1970 Passenger Transporter

1970 Commercial Transporter

1971 Passenger Transporter

1971 Commercial Transporter Sample

1972 Passenger Transporter

1972 Commercial Transporter

1973 Passenger Transporter

1974 Passenger Transporter

1974 Commercial Transporter

1975 Passenger Transporter

1975 Commercial Transporter

1976 Passenger Transporter

1976 Commercial Transporter

1977 Passenger Transporter

1977 Commercial Transporter.
Interestingly enough, this plate has the reflective beading on the numbers – this didn’t appear on Dealer/Repair/Trans. plates until the 1980 plates.

1978 Passenger Transporter

1978 Commercial Transporter.
There’s something odd about this plate and it took me a couple of minutes to put my finger on it: during this time Connecticut plate blanks were white on one side and blue on the other. So, if you wanted a blue plate you stamped the blue side and if you wanted a white plate you stamped the white side. You ended up with the back of the plate being the other color. This plate was stamped on the blue side initially, probably as a mistake, then painted over in white. So here we have a white plate with a white back.