HA-HW

Series Overview

HA to HW are Malaysia's taxi registration prefixes. The first letter, H, stands for hire. The second is the state or territory code, so HA is a Perak taxi, HB Selangor, HJ Johor, HP Penang, HQ Sarawak, HS Sabah and HW Kuala Lumpur. A third letter is added as each block fills (HWA, HWB and onwards in Kuala Lumpur), while smaller registries such as Sarawak's still issue short numbers like HQ 687.

Taxi plates reverse the usual colours. JPJ's plate specification calls for black characters on a white plate for taxis and hire cars, against white on black for private vehicles, so a taxi can be recognised from a distance even without a roof sign.

The H-plus-state format is younger than the idea behind it. H has marked hire vehicles since the Straits Settlements period, when it was paired with area codes; Singapore's taxi prefix SH survives from that system. In Malaya and early Malaysia, however, many taxis used the ordinary state registration with the colours inverted and a Kereta Sewa sign on the roof. The dedicated H-front format came in after the 1980s according to English Wikipedia (Chinese Wikipedia dates it to 2000), first in the more developed states, and the older style lingered on rural taxis in states such as Kelantan and Pahang. Outstation (inter-state) taxis have also continued to use normal state series made up in black on white.

2026 brought two changes around the letter without altering these codes. In July the Teksi Madani programme introduced a separate taxi series, GET, on red-on-white JPJePlates, and in September JPJ auctioned a standalone H series for Malaysia Day. An HA to HW plate still means the same thing: a licensed taxi registered in that state or territory.