Number plate requirements.

Hi all,

Can anyone give me the real world low down on number plates from a MOT / Plod pov please?

e.g. We are supposed to get them from an 'Registered Number Plate Supplier' and show them particular documents etc and that the plates themselves must conform to all the relevant spec (size, colour, font, spacing) and display the suppliers name / logo / postcode and the BS mark etc.

However, there are many suppliers out on the net who will supply plates that seem to be marked correctly but where you don't have to supply all the docs so whilst I'm guessing they wouldn't be 'approved', how could that (when they are used legitimately etc) ever be an issue?

I can see the spirit of the intention re restricting the manufacture of number plates via only 'registered suppliers' but are they shutting down non-registered suppliers (and if not, what is the point of all the rules etc)?

Just interested minds etc. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m
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Oddly, I had both number plates stolen a few years ago, and it was only when I began looking for replacements that I found out about all the various requirements. Luckily, it was very easy to get a pair off ebay, and the thing was back on the road in a couple of days.

I called the police to let them know they'd been stolen, and they just seemed puzzled. It was as if they thought I wanted them to find out who had taken them, and get them back for me. I just thought it was a good idea, in case they were used in some robbery or other.

Reply to
Dan S. MacAbre

as long as they meet the legal requirements for use they are fine. Generally the non registered suppliers are based outside the UK, and so are outside the domain of the regulations over supply, recording and retaining details of the purchaser etc.

Reply to
MrCheerful

For me it was getting one made up for a trailer at my local car spares type place.

I took in some pretty (shall we say) 'important' documents including a photo but nope, they wanted a gas bill. ;-(

Quite.

See, people 'doing the right thing' isn't understood anymore, like when I phone one of those 'How is my driving' numbers off the back of a lorry and they kept asking me what the bad driving was when I was complementing the driver on his *good* driving!

After changing the clutch cable on my Sierra estate at the side of the road when it snapped mid journey, I left / lost my Leatherman 'multitool' and I too contacted the Police, just to let them know it had been 'lost' (mostly to cover it being found sticking out of someone with my fingerprints all over it). Like you it seemed to confuse them as to why I should be telling them.

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

Ok, so that would include the actual plate / letters AND the BS value, Makers, supplier and their postcode etc MrC?

And many that aren't (or they are flying these things in). ;-)

I guess I know the answer but doesn't the fact that you *can* get these plates so easily / cheaply make a mockery of the whole 'rules' thing?

Ok, what if the plates were perfectly acceptable re the size, backing and lettering, carried the BS mark but not the other info (maker / postcode etc), would anyone be interested then (Plod / MOT)?

Cheers, T i m

p.s. Although I think the BS insists that the other info is present so you can't have that on a plate without the other stuff?

Reply to
T i m

I imagine the only time the Police would go over them carefully would be if they were in book-throwing mode and were going over the vehicle with a fine tooth comb. Otherwise I imagine the font & size is the only thing they'd particularly note day-to-day.

Reply to
Scott M

There is a pak...... sorry ...... Asian car shop a few miles from me that will do whatever you ask with number plates.

Reply to
Mr Pounder Esquire

I bought some plates from a UK ebay supplier for less than £10 - it had a bundle of small print that said, more or less, that they conformed with regs but couldn't be used on any vehicle to be used on-road.

IIRC I got a telling off from some on here for not doing things by the book.

Reply to
RJH

Yep they need several things on to be legal for use on the road. MoT just hasn't got time to look into every little facet, as long as they read the right number and are the right colour and not too broken then they pass.

When the Police do a stop for an obviously illegal number plate they do start looking into all the details, IIRC there are about 9 requirements. On showe 5 of the Police Interceptor shows in series 1, they stopped a blonde girly in Loughton for her reg. number of M2 SEXY. On a pink Smart car. She already knew about the illegal plate, the cops reckoned that all but one of the regs was broken by the one plate. The Police told her to go to Halfords and get a new plate, she thought they said Harrods, and so it went on. She was absolutely a gift to the programme and was most entertaining.

Reply to
MrCheerful

Apparently they are now in book throwing mode. News report today on Touch FM today was that Midlands police are mounting a crack down on number plates.

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Clearly part of law regarding suppliers markings can't be applied to cars reg before the law as they have no way to prove when the plates were made.

Only time I've seen a pull for a plate was a D postfix reg, silver letters on black plate attached to a Ford Sierra. The plate would be legal attached to a car of D postfix vintage but on a not a Ford Sierra.

Reply to
Peter Hill

Must have been an utterly dozy clueless cop then. Number plate theft is a big issue.

Average is more than one set a day stolen in Staffordshire alone.

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I believe it's even more rife in other places.
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Reply to
Peter Hill

Reply to
Scott M

D pre-fix. Up to J prefix is OK iirc.

Reply to
MrCheerful

Sorry, meant black and white plates: D prefix not OK, D suffix is OK

Reply to
MrCheerful

That's what I'd have thought. And I can't think of any reasons for stealing them that don't involve pretending to be me. I did get a sort of form letter from them after a few months, to tell me that they wouldn't be taking it any further. But I didn't really want them to do anything - I just wanted the fact that they'd been stolen recorded somewhere.

Reply to
Dan S. MacAbre

Ok.

It was more for the 'not obviously illegal plate' stops I was thinking about ... or any other reason, like a RTA etc.

So, I guess my question was ... 'ITRW, is anyone going to actually GAF if my plates weren't made by 1) a 'Registered Number Plate Supplier' and / or 2) the plate wasn't showing all the 'extra' information?

I remember that one and you are right, very entertaining (in a frightening way, that these people are allowed to drive). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

A neighbour had a knock on the door by Plod who asked if his CCTV camera could 'see across the street' and if it could, would he mind lowering it because the person living opposite didn't like that. He invited Plod in, showed him the monitor, lowered the camera, all was fine.

Two weeks later said neighbour knocked on his door asking if his CCTV still covered her car as she had her number plates stolen.

Oh the irony! ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

I think they can record (put markers on?) plates that are known to be cloned and therefore know to be ready to give the real wearers a break.

Now I know having the 'extra' information on some plates *may* help Plod pin down their authenticity but only if said maker / retailer is on a 'Registered Number Plate Supplier' list they have access to online.

So, I'm guessing an otherwise valid plate (size, colour, characters etc) that didn't bear such information *could* be more likely to be bogus but as there is little actual proof either way, I wouldn't have though it would have been an issue ITRW (but I thought I'd ask).

In the same way that say riding a motorcycle on L plates whilst carrying a passenger could 'waste police time', if they stop you and find out the rider isn't a learner (doh, and we were only 50 yards into a 100 yard journey!) but I'm not sure what they would do you for (or bother to try to do you for?) if they plates were correctly displaying the vehicle registration but just not the other bits?

It's like all the Hi-Viz jackets you se being worn by Hose Riders and Motorcyclists that have 'Polite' in large letters across them ... could that be deemed that you were 'impersonating a Police Officer'?

Looks like it can be an issue ...

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Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

That was my concern.

Noted.

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

That only mentions 'misrepresenting' though (that I'm not questioning as such).

True, but again I'm really only asking about those who are supposed to be displaying such 'extra' markings.

OK, so a 'blatant flouting of the rules (letter colours and background colours) but I'm still not clear if / when anyone would be bothered by the lack of this extra information on an otherwise legal plate (even if the vehicle was stopped for another reason).

Would it be just a FPN, does it carry points, etc etc?

Or maybe it's just so trivial an issue that no one (MOT / Plod) would ever bother with it (bother as in it cause you problems etc). I mean, years ago you would be caught the second you rode you bike on the pavement (or I would have), now everyone seems to be doing it and I've not seen someone pulled up over it for years and years?

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

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