Midland “Red” — Leopard Spots
Banbury
Bearwood
Birmingham
Bromsgrove
Coalville
Cradley Heath
Dudley
Evesham
Hereford
Harts Hill
Hinckley
Kidderminster
Kingswinford
Leamington Spa
Leicester
Leicester SA
Nuneaton
Oldbury
Redditch
Rugby
Stafford
Stourbridge
Sutton Coldfield
Swadlincote
Shrewsbury
Tamworth
Wellington
Wolverhampton
Worcester
Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited (BMMO—Midland “Red” Motor Services) used identification discs, known as “Leopard Spots,” from the early 1920s to identify vehicle allocation. Each depot had its own unique disc design, and the appropriate disc was affixed to the rear of vehicles just above the registration number.
Vehicles occasionally carried two discs to indicate that the vehicle was on loan to another garage, with the owning “home” garage disc shown on the left, and the operating garage shown to its right. The practice of applying identification discs went into decline from 1945 and officially ended in 1948, being replaced with the two-digit depot code, which was displayed on the destination display.
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