have for some unexplained reason ceased issuing license plates for the Bardo pickup trucks produced there. The Mehr news agency quoted Gholam-Reza Sadeqiyan, deputy managing director of Iran Khodro, as saying the problem has been going on for a long time, without being specific about when the licenses stopped flowing.
He said the company had been producing Bardos on three shifts and first stopped one shift and then a second and has now stopped production altogether as Bardos are filling up all the avail- able space around the plant.
He did not say what the backlog of pickups was. He didn’t give any explanation for the police action or, rather, inaction. And the police have said nothing since he spoke out.
Unlike in North America, in most other countries, including Iran, license plates are placed on cars and the cars registered before they are sent to dealers to be sold.
In Iran, the traffic police are in charge of providing license plates to manufacturers and registering the vehicles.