As far as design is concerned, there are rules governing whether license plates are considered legal for road traffic. You can get theft-proof license plates – they make it difficult for someone to quickly remove them from your vehicle and reuse them. Ask your local car dealership or registered license plate dealer for more information. Although the rules for legibility of license plates in the UK are quite strict and the rules have recently been tightened, 3D and 4D plate designs are still available for purchase, so many motorists will wonder if they are legal. Yes. If the panel meets all other legal requirements of BS AU 145e, for example in reflective material with plain black lettering, non-reflective, with the name of its supplier and without background patterns, then 4D panels with raised lettering are completely legal. Owners of vehicles registered in the UK who do not already have the EU-sized « GB » plate can display registration plates with one of the national emblems listed below as well as letters. The full wording or abbreviation is used. [24] In the UK, licence plates have been introduced to ensure that anyone driving on the road can be easily identified. Therefore, it is not surprising that visibility is focused on license plate laws in the UK. The first set of license plates was issued in 1903 and lasted until 1932, consisting of a one- or two-digit code, followed by a sequential number from 1 to 9999. [31] The code indicated the municipality in whose territory the vehicle was registered.
In England and Wales, these were first ranked in order of population size (until the 1901 census) – so A stood for London, B stood for Lancashire, C stood for West Riding of Yorkshire and so on to Y for Somerset, then AA for Hampshire, AB for Worcestershire and so on for FP for Rutland. Licence plates were originally manufactured by the original supplier of the motor vehicle, and standard replacement plates could be manufactured by anyone. Some people had civic address numbers established for their homes according to motor vehicle standards. From 2001, plates sold in England and Wales had to be supplied by a DVLA Licence Plate Supplier Register (RNPS) supplier in accordance with British Standard BSAU145d. The supplier must confirm that the customer is the registered holder or other authorized person and verify their identity. [69] The name and postal code of the supplier must be indicated at the bottom of the plate. [4] Licence plates in the UK are generally flat and plastic; Embossed aluminum plates are available from some suppliers. These rules are usually described as onerous, especially for company car drivers who do not have the required documents themselves (these items are usually stored by a fleet manager or lessor). Recording 1 sold for £7.25 million and is the highest price paid for a plate – in the UAE. It was bought in 2008 by Abu Dhabi businessman Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Khouri. In 2014, the registration 25 O broke a new record[45] when it was purchased for £518,000 by Ferrari dealer John Collins; the disc now sits on a Ferrari 250 SWB that once belonged to rock star Eric Clapton. F1 and RAC3R registration are considered the most coveted license plates by fans of super sports cars and Formula 1.
The RAC3R registration is a suffix plate issued in 1976, the same year that British racing driver James Hunt won the Formula 1 World Championship. [46] The plate covers all the different forms of running, making it extremely desirable. Other popular plates are BO55 EGO. It was already sold at auction in 2016, where the owner rejected the highest claim of £127,000. If you have new license plates, you will need to update the DVLA as well as your insurance company. If the policy details change or your situation changes, you will usually need to inform your insurer. The same goes for UK licence plates: you need to make sure your insurer is notified of new and updated plates before they are affixed, but not too early for your existing plates to become obsolete. Since many vehicles registered before 1963 were scrapped, some of their « undated » plates were transferred to other vehicles before 1963 as personal licence plates. They can be valuable and can also be used to hide the age of an older vehicle. Many classic cars and classic cars no longer carry their original license plates, as owners are offered high premiums for desired registrations. In addition, registrations in Northern Ireland are also considered « undated » and are often transferred to vehicles outside Northern Ireland.
[66] Coaches frequently operate in other parts of the United Kingdom and their registration numbers were originally issued in Northern Ireland. The motor vehicles used by the reigning monarch in official traffic, which (as of 2017 [update]) are all Rolls-Royces or Bentleys built to special specifications, do not carry license plates. [1] The monarch`s private vehicles bear license plates. You will need convicted driver insurance if you are caught by the law. License plates currently only penalize drivers caught with illegal license plates, but that doesn`t mean things won`t change. In the UK, licence plates must meet the following criteria, as defined by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA): This means what the recent amendment to the Licence Plate Act means for shading, raised gel and laser-cut acrylic panels. Vehicles manufactured before January 1, 1973 are allowed to carry traditional « black and white » plates, i.e.: White, silver or grey characters on a black plate. Concealed license plates, even if they are unintentionally caused by dirt, can cause you to deal with the headache of a fine.
But the drivers most likely to be affected are those who use personalized license plates. Twice a year, the DVLA issues new licence plates with updated age identifiers in the UK. This happens twice a year, and new records are released in March, and again in September. A true 3D/4D plate with gel-coated or laser-cut embossed characters is legal as long as the characters have a single shade of black on all sides and the plate complies with all other regulations regarding font, size, and spacing. If you`re thinking about getting personalised licence plates, the height and width of the numbers used on signs and font, anything that the DVLA or the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency considers a legal licence plate here in the UK is important. Did you know that the colors, fixtures and fixtures used on your plate must be minimal enough not to affect the legibility of the signs on your plate? (Go to custom license plates). License plate compliance in the UK can be strict, but that doesn`t mean your license plates are automatically illegal if they`re different. Among the many other figures available, it was a convenient way for vehicle buyers to instantly know the age of the vehicle. The annual letter, which is published annually on 1. However, this meant that car dealerships quickly noticed that buyers tended to wait until the new year for the new letter to be issued so they could get a « newer » car. This led to significant sales ups and downs throughout the year, and to flatten that somewhat, the industry lobbied to change the system so that the turn of the year would be August 1 rather than January 1.
This happened in 1967, when the « E » suffixes ran only from January 1 to July 31, before the « F » suffixes began on August 1. If you have a trailer, read brochure INF291: License plates and license plates for trailers. Like the rules for 3D discs, 4D can be illegal if they violate the eligibility of your discs. This means that plate settings cannot affect the visibility or suitability of your plates for recognition by an ANPR camera. Starting at 1. As of March 2022, all licence plates that give a 3D effect, including gel-coated or raised panels, are still considered legal on UK roads, according to the DVLA. Old British licence plates had white, grey or silver characters on a black background. This type of registration plate was abolished in 1972 and could only be worn until 2012 on vehicles registered for the first time before 1 January 1973. A vehicle first registered on or after 1 January 1973 shall be deemed to have been registered for the first time before that date if it was manufactured before 1 January 1973. [7] However, the 2014 Finance Act and subsequent Finance Laws extended the cut-off year for the historic vehicle category from 1973 to 1974 and forty years after. As a result, the authorization to display the old license plates was linked to the « tax-exempt » status.