Police vehicles Police vehicles in the United Kingdom have markings of symbols, letters and numbers on their tops to enable aircraft to identify them. These markings show the use of the vehicle, its force code and a vehicle identifying mark or the
police division to which the vehicle belongs. Not every vehicle displays markings, but those involved in response and traffic generally do. This factor stems from guidelines of the
Association of Chief Police Officers relating to police air operations and pursuit management.
Vehicle usage markings •
Armed response vehicle (ARV) used by armed police from various police units – 5 point asterisk * • General (incident response vehicle or area car)/
Traffic – circle ● •
Dog support unit (DSU) – triangle ▲ •
Public order (PO) personnel carrier – square ◼ • Police medics. Some policing vehicles like ARVs and IRVs may have major first aid and fire equipment installed with trained officers aboard – green cross
+ On a typical vehicle roof layout, the vehicle usage marking is preceded by an integer PNC Force Identifier; the individual (and within each organisation, unique)
Vehicle Identifier, commonly
alphanumeric, should occupy a second line all by itself.
Public buses From 2006 onwards,
single and
double-decker buses operating
London Buses services began having their roofs painted in heat-reflective white as part of a scheme to cool down their interiors in hot summer weather. This would eventually coincide with the introduction of roof markings, as shown in the image opposite. The first three letters denote the operator (GAG is
Go-Ahead Group) and the remaining letters and numbers are the fleet number (SEe200), which also appears on the front and rear of the vehicle. From 2023, lozenge-shaped stickers denoting the type of fuel the bus runs on (grey for diesel and 'smart' or 'mild hybrids', orange for electric, blue for hydrogen), placed on the roof below the fleet number of the bus, were rolled out onto every London bus by
Transport for London contracted bus operators for ease of identification by the emergency services. Operator codes include: • ARL,
Arriva London • GAG,
Go-Ahead Group • MTG,
Metroline • ABL,
Transport UK (formerly known as Abellio) • SCG,
Stagecoach Group • LUB,
First Bus London (formerly known as RATP Dev Transit London) == Germany ==