Legalities of car number plates

Tumbletop · 27 Dec 2006 at 14:00

I'm in the fortunate position of having had a swanky private registration number bought for me for Christmas for my pride and joy, and I've been doing a bit of research into places to get my plates made up for when the relevant docs arrive from the DVLA. There are a number of things I'm not clear on though, and I'm not sure "what we can get away with" in the same way that everyone gets away with a few miles an hour over the speed limit on the motorways.

The following appears to be true for all plates made after 1st September 2001:

The font used for the letters and numbers on the plate must be the proper UK font. There's a 3D typeface wihch I saw one website claiming to be legal as well, which seems to differ from the DVLA's documentation.
The letters must be spaces appropriately on the plate. I won't give the specifics, but the sizes/spaces/heights/widths are all fixed values which must be used.
The characters must be grouped in the same order that is shown on the registration form from the DVLA. eg. its not legal to change "A123 BCD" to "A 123BCD" or "A1 23BCD", etc.
If logo'd with a flag and country code, the only allowable flag is Euro symbol, and the letters GB. Hence the St.George's cross with England is not legal. Also, if fitted with the euro flag and "GB" you don't need a separate GB sticker when travelling abroad within the EU.
There must not be a "water mark" style logo running across the plate, like the honeycomb pattern that is quiet popular at the moment.

Information sources:
http://www.dvla.gov.uk/media/pdf/leaflets/v796.pdf
http://www.dvla.gov.uk/media/pdf/leaflets/inf104.pdf

So far so good, this all makes reasonable sense and I have no objections/complaints with any of this. However, in addition to the above rules, the plate must be "permanently and legibly" marked with:

The the British Standard number (currently BS AU 145d).
The name trade mark or other means of identification of the manufacturer or component supplier.
Name and postcode of the supplying outlet.

Now I would ideally like some pressed metal plates, which I can obtain from dubmeister in the proper UK font and spacing, which I think look much nicer than the acrylic ones. The DVLA make no specific mention of the required material the number plate is made from, but I think its not possible to find any legit number plate makers which will stamp a metal plate with the BS number?

So, does this mean I have to get them made up at the local Halfrauds, AND am forced to become an advertiser for them with their name and postcode stamped upon my vehicle? I find this really frustrating - I can see the need to regulate the plates with the BS number, but must they really have the manufacturer's details on the front? Don't the DVLA consider metal pressed plates with the appropriate font to be sufficiently reflective or something?

Does anyone know of a place where I can get a legit plate from (in plastic if it must be) which is made by a tuning firm? (preferably from the VAG group). Somewhere like AMD for example? Also does anyone know what the situation with metal pressed plates is? Dubmeister say they are "show plates only", but then that's presumably because they don't stamp them up appropriately.

I could "take the risk" and just get the dubmeister plates made up. I gather its a £30 fine and a rap across the knuckles at the moment and a "change them now" type statement, which isn't too punishing, but I'd much rather not give the friendly Policemen an excuse to pull the car over at every opportunity.

Thanks in advance for any tips! :cool:

FrostedNipple · 27 Dec 2006 at 14:17

why do i see so many number plates that dont have the dvla font then, ive seen so many 'fancy' writing on number plates, you cant make out the letters of them till you are touching the bumper, do they ever get caught, or even more on the point, do the police try to get them??!!!

SB118 · 27 Dec 2006 at 14:28

Tumbletop said:
Now I would ideally like some pressed metal plates, which I can obtain from dubmeister in the proper UK font and spacing, which I think look much nicer than the acrylic ones. The DVLA make no specific mention of the required material the number plate is made from, but I think its not possible to find any legit number plate makers which will stamp a metal plate with the BS number?

So, does this mean I have to get them made up at the local Halfrauds, AND am forced to become an advertiser for them with their name and postcode stamped upon my vehicle? I find this really frustrating - I can see the need to regulate the plates with the BS number, but must they really have the manufacturer's details on the front? Don't the DVLA consider metal pressed plates with the appropriate font to be sufficiently reflective or something?

Does anyone know of a place where I can get a legit plate from (in plastic if it must be) which is made by a tuning firm? (preferably from the VAG group). Somewhere like AMD for example? Also does anyone know what the situation with metal pressed plates is? Dubmeister say they are "show plates only", but then that's presumably because they don't stamp them up appropriately.

I could "take the risk" and just get the dubmeister plates made up. I gather its a £30 fine and a rap across the knuckles at the moment and a "change them now" type statement, which isn't too punishing, but I'd much rather not give the friendly Policemen an excuse to pull the car over at every opportunity.

Metal plates aren't legal on vehicles made after 1974 (ish) and if you get caught with "wrong" plates a few times the DVLA can revoke the private plate and make you into a mere mortal again.

Try www.fancyplates.com for nice plastic plates without branding on the bottom (you can add your own slogan if you want). No paperwork required, but the plates don't have BS mark on them. That said, i've used them on vehicles for about 3 years now and never had a problem when i've been pulled.

Muncher · 27 Dec 2006 at 16:10

The BS number and postcode is only a requirement for the manufacture of plates in the UK. If the plates are made outside of the UK and imported without the markings they are perfectly legal.

Tumbletop · 27 Dec 2006 at 18:53

SB118 said:
Metal plates aren't legal on vehicles made after 1974 (ish) and if you get caught with "wrong" plates a few times the DVLA can revoke the private plate and make you into a mere mortal again.

Crikey really? Right plastic it is then

Now just to find a price competitive non-UK manufacturer who is happy to export. Thanks SB118!

Rhyzz · 28 Dec 2006 at 17:01

My plate on the M3 was 'M3 ***', I changed this to say 'M3 * **' with the legal amount of spacing between the letters, Police had nothing to say about it, so the part about changing the letter spacing is nonsense. Police have better things to do than pull someone over for having illegally spaced lettering, people who change the letters to look like something else are the idiots of the world.

andi · 28 Dec 2006 at 17:08

Its not really nonsense, as it is illegal. Your unlikely to get pulled for just that, but they could if they really wanted to, and if your pulled for something else, it may come up in conversation.

johnny6 · 28 Dec 2006 at 17:23

From personal experience I've found that as long as you don't take the mick the police generally don't give a monkeys.

My girlfriends car has the wrong style of letters, it isn't a stupid font and the letters are all still readable. Both of us have been pulled over for other things but the police have never said anything about the plates.

A friend of her sisters had a private plate that started M12 and he changed it to look more like MR. He got pulled over and fined within the week.

That said I drove round in my first beetle without a front number plate for about 18 month and the police never said a word about it, even though I got pulled over several times questioning why I had black and silver plates. So it might just be a case of the police being a bit slow in my area.

Tumbletop · 28 Dec 2006 at 18:20

I found this site: http://www.classic-number-plate.com/ who appear to be part of the "craigsplates" group who claim to make legal plates. Their number plate builder's first question is a selection between legal and show plates. Interesting, selecting legal and moving on gives the option of both metal and plastic plates.

They insist on the relevent documentation (via scanned images in an email or by post) before they will ship you the plates, suggesting its all legit. They also say they have to put their name/identity on the front, as required by law. I might give them a ring tomorrow and confirm that they will do metal plates with the BS mark on them.