This happened in Poland with long-haul trucks, which we often call tiry (plural of tir), with TIR being an abbreviation for "Transports Internationaux Routiers"[1], an international treaty covering the transport of goods by road. Vehicles using the provisions of this treaty must have a plate with TIR written on it, and so the world entered popular usage.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIR_Convention