decade 198n

Year: 1985–1990

The plates for 1985–1990 are galvanized steel painted gold with black lettering. The backs of the plates are unpainted. Many of these plates have round bolt holes instead of oval slots but some of them do have very short slots that are shorter than those on the 1991– plates. The plates with the goldpanner (depends on type) have no "nugget" of gold paint as did previous series; the goldpanner is embossed. On some plates (e.g., GOVERNMENT, FARM-VEHICLE), the top titles are painted while on others (e.g., The Klondike, COMMERCIAL), the top titles are embossed.

Coloured year validation stickers were issued for 1985–1989 and all registrations expired in March. The plan was to start staggered-month registrations in 1989 but that didn't happen so in 1989 all plates received March month stickers to expire in March 1990. Staggered registration finally started in March 1990 at which time year/month stickers 90/JUL to 91/JUN were issued for passenger plates and 90/OCT to 91/SEP were issued for commercial plates. The (19)90 year stickers issued after March 1990 had serial numbers starting with "B" whereas earlier ones started with "A".

Passenger: xxx·n

Commercial

Commercial: Cxx·nn (no goldpanner)

There are two types of commercial plates in this series: one with The Klonkidke and one with COMMERCIAL. Neither carries the goldpanner.

Public Service: Pxx·nn (no goldpanner)

The 1985–1990 series was the last to include plates for public service vehicles (PSVs). It's not really clear what PSVs were. Whereas one might think they would include firetrucks and other civic government vehicles, this was not the case.

The 1957 Yukon Ordinance to Regulate the Speed and Operation of Motor Vehicles on Highways defined PSV as follows:

"public service vehicle" means a motor vehicle or trailer operated on a highway by or on behalf of any person for gain or reward, whether such operation is regular or only occasional or for a single trip, but does not include a motor vehicle owned by a municipality nor a motor vehicle or trailer used by its owner for the distribution or transportation of goods manufactured or sold by him or a single vehicle used by the owner to distribute commodities on his own behalf.

This would seem to imply that PSVs were vehicles for hire operated by common carriers and may have included buses at some point. However, separate bus, livery (taxi), and rental (u-drive) plates were issued in the era overlapping PSV plates, as were truck and commercial plates at various times.

The 1980 Yukon Ordinance to Amend the Transport Public Utilities Ordinance removed any mention of PSV from the ordinance in the title. Even so, PSV plates continued on into this 1985–1990 series.

More research required!