Club Arnage

any one on here have a personalised plate with none correct spacing ????

Yep....pretzel has tw05 top on his Nissan

I freely admit that technically speaking my plates are illegal if the letter of the law is applied.

However, they are not 'personalised'. They did come with the car and the spacing is correct.

But they are changed to legal ones for the MoT.

BUT, I would never stitch up a mate as wishy seems to do here.

BTW Robbo, have a look at CA South Coast meet soon, dates to be organised. Looking at end of August.

Yes, and the nice boys at Hampshire Constabulary gave me a £30 ticket for it.
Nothing better to do.

A recent story in the Newcastle evening chronicle showed a plate which had picked up a fine for its owner , the plate had been spotted by a camera , which apparently noted that the spacing was incorrect. There was a picture of the plate being held by the owner and it looked ok to me, the reg wasn't anything special just initials in the correct font.
It really is the sign of a surveilance state that fines a citizen for a minor technical offence picked up using remote surveilance.

To be fair to the police, the owner of the registration failed to mention that he was fined for having his company logo as part of the plate, which is obviously illegal.

my point is :

dvla are considering revoking plates thar are illegal if stopped. they would require photgraphic evidence to show they are legal.

basically :

if they are given £30 ticket by police, and photo taken, this info is sent to dvla.if a second ticket is issued then dvla may revoke the registration plate, thus meaning you couldnt drive it on the road.

its a new system and so will have issues, but for the worst offendings it could help.

personally i have neded to stop and interogate the plate to ascertai correct plate.

just thought i'd let you know, pass the word like. its the advice i'll be passing on in my pfofessional role.

( sorry for typing, still getting used to being one handed )

well done for spotting the illegal logo, In the article it stated that it was illegal spacing, so hence my comment that the plate looked ok. I fully agree with stopping and fining and revoking plates that are illegible due to ridiculous spacing or alteration or illegal fonts. However If in fact the offence was noted by a camera then I still think its taking things a bit far.

This is exactly what happened to me. The BiB that stopped me, took a photo and told me all that. He also said the DVLA could enforce a Q registartion to the vehicle (which may well impact on the resale value of the vehicl), if a second offence is recorded and the plate withdrawn. Not sure how true that is, as Q is for "indeterminate year of manufacture" as far as I am aware. Wouldn't that be punative too?

i think its the dvla own the registration, they can re-voke it. i'm sure the first person who has it reviked ill appeal, then the case law will determine future action.

Is that illegal though??

There is a company in town that will make you your own plates up with whatever logo you want on them. People have national flags, football badges, etc on them.

They do insist on correct letter spacings and you have to have your V5 and ID with you!

When one of our cars was MOT recently, one of the notes was that the number plate was not the correct font and had incorrect spacing.

It still passed, this time.

But what I would guess is, when we get pulled in the future and the defence of "well we did not know" now goes out the window. As it is on the MOT computer system. So we stilled be nicked.

BIG brother is watching you. - He knows what, when and where you do it  :-X

Our (sadly deceased) Trans Am had small font number plates.  This was commented on at the last MOT.  The car was registered in 2000 and the regulations changed on 1st September 2001.  There is, however, a paragraph that allows for this - "Display of Vehicle Registration Marks on Imported Vehicles (which have a restricted space for a standard sized number plate)"

Have a read of the DVLA data sheet attached.

The interesting thing to me is that there are no torrences given in the document.    I would therefore conclude that all number plates are likely to be illegal.   Given the equipment is used to manufacture the Plates in what is effectively mass production I doubt that they produce Characters with an  exact hight width & stroke .  They may be slightly over or slightly under.  Now the spacing is interesting.  For plates Fitted after 1 September 2001 The spacing between groups  should be 33mm  So if it where 34mm or 32mm would that be deemed illegal.   

Another interesting point is that the document talks about Plate fitted before 1 September 2001 and Plates fitted after 1 September 2001.  What are the rules for Plates fitted on 1 September 2001.   So if you have a 1999 car and you break a number plate if you replace the plate it will be fittted after 1 September 2001.   Does that mean it must comply with the post 1 September 2001 rules? 

I wouldn't mind but I paid for some Jerk to produce all that cr*p.

t.

The legislation itself refers in all instances to On or after 1 September 2001.





[/quote]

Yes.
The Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001:
PART IV ....
16.—(1) No material other than a registration mark may be displayed on a registration plate
except material complying with the requirements of any of the relevant standards mentioned
in Schedule 2. (International distinguishing signs)

That's absolutely correct. When you buy a reg mark from the DVLA, you are entering into an agreement with the Secretary of State, whereby you  undertake not to misrepresent the registration mark in any way.

My plates (correctly spaced, but I haven't measured!) have a euro flag with a black background rather than the standard blue, it looks much better as it keeps the plates in two colours, before having them made I rang an MOT station to see if they thought that would be ok and the reply was that it didn't matter, however it now seems that they aren't legal.
However its nothing but petty beaurocracy if I get stopped for it, it wont be picked up by ANPR so only an officious ~@~@ would pick it up. Lets hope that the uninsured drivers talking into their handheld mobiles whilst speeding get picked up first, once the country is cleared of this danger then there might be time for officers to spend on fund raising for HMG.

Well I kinda guessed that would be the case.  :)     

I also guess that rather than "Number Plates Fitted" or "Vehicles constructed" they mean "Vehicles first registered".    But it's more complex than that.  If you import a second hand car and you can prove the Date of Registration I am pretty sure the DVLA will allocate you a Registration for that year.   
Of course if they can't determine the date you get a "Q" plate.

I know it's not mentioned in the document Steve posted.  But you can't Transfer the plate  AB 57 ABC to a car that is currently registered as
AB 07 ABC.  That is true even if the 57 car was registered on 1 Sept 2007 and the 07 registered on 31 Aug 2007.  Both cars will have been constructed before 1 Sept and it's quite possible that the 57 car was constructed before the 07 car.  You can of course transfer the 07 Plate to the 57 car since that make the car look older.

A friend of mine purchased a secondhand car that had been Registered on 1 Aug one year but the Letter was the letter for the previous year. 
He quired it with the Motor Taxation dept. and they amended the Mark so his K reg car became an L reg car.

But if I understand it's purpose the document it is to guide a lay person by providing a "Plain English" version of the law.  But it's not really that good and of course it would not stand up in court.

t.

Robbo, OK what happened to the other one?

If you training in unidextrorial workings let me know mate.

Leftie

the leftie is broken. it was hit by white van man and is in plaster for 6 weeks.

most people spend time on un-insured phone holding speeders. i'd be happy if the digits were legal or readable from 20.5 metres. there are always others who are "stricter" with more minor infringements.

Did you know motorcycle indictors have to be 240 mm apart at the rear !!!

Robbo,

Sorry to hear that mate. I hope you knicked him well and truely and banged to rights.

Well, we can't really rename you 'Rightie' can we. So how about Dexter?

Leftie

Bad luck Phil, i am rapidly learning that it's best to give white van mand and his mate Tipper man a very wide berth on the bike.

Look out for him at weekends too - usually in an old BMW

As for number plates, all the criminals buy theirs in Jersey or the Isle of Man.  Same set up, different law

Leftie,

No problem about my good friend Wishy - he hasn't stitched me up (well, not in this instance anyway). To my knowledge my plates have the correct typeface and spacing, with no emblems, flags or any other nonsense. I was quite specific with the supplying dealer that these criteria should be met when they registered the car.  It's just a personalised registration.

It will be interesting to see if I get a visit from our friends in the constabulary as a result of this posting mind - will he be hauled up for wasting police time?

Pete B.

Going on this thread fella's how do i stand with going over to an electroluminescent number plate as i can not see the difference from what i already have (wishing to stay legal).
 I have a TVR Griffith which is a backlight transparent number plate as fitted as standard , which is starting to look a little old. So i thought electroluminesence would be a good replacement any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.
As for spacing and adding black number plate caps to alter how a number plate reads i cannot see the piont it is an easy bang to rights nick so why bother ????

Electroluminescent plates are a tricky one. The regulations require that the space where the plate is fitted is lit, so technically you still have to have the standard numberplate lamps. Also, the numberplate has to be retroreflective an comply with the relevant standards. Provided that both of these conditions are satisfied then I believe that EL plates are OK to use.
Word of caution though, they can be very noisy from an EMC point of view if not properly designed so you may get problems with radio & mobile reception.

Saw a very doggey plate today.   S 14 LKY  where the 4 was an L with a very small vertical bar to make it in to a 4.  The spacing was all wrong too.

So it actually read SILLKY.

t.

Not sure what that is, but i'll ask the question or read the books in the morning.

They are the same thing as the illuminated numbers on the cars @ Le Mans. Basically made from a material that when you put a voltage across it it emits light. Effectively it is a backlit number plate where the backlight is built into the plate itself.
It is this last point that makes them a grey area according to the regulations as the regs call for the mounting area to be illuminated, not the plate itself. Playing with words it might be, but the strict interpretation of the regs means that you still have to have standard license plate lamps. We were looking into using this technology when designing the Bentley Conti GT, but couldn't get the bean counters to accept it when we were already having to fit normal lamps. In fact the VW group has been looking to use these for sometime, but still no go with the regs...they do look good though  ;D, and would be a definite improvement over normal lamps

Just come back to this. I can only pressume that it would be classed as a lamp. And therefore xould only display red light to the rear and would need to be a certain height from the ground.If it were the green light that GT cars run, thats a no as your not a doctor.....

If displayed to the front... i'd have to look at the heights and output to determine if a side light and how far in from the extreme's of the body..

Whilst you lot were in LM, i was learning all this stuff !!!

I hope that helps. Basically your asking for a pull and these defects if involved or contrubutory for a crash would see the insurance company worm out of a full settlement.

I was stopped on the weekend for slightly excessive speed(68 in a 40....towing a horsebox!!)
While the kind officer only bollocked me about the speeding he did notice that my first letter of my reg was spaced one gap away form the rest.He told me that VOSA were being more lenient of people doctoring their plates and that some things are now being let go.They told me to take my truck to an MOT station and if ,in their opinion,it was ok then the police would accept it as it is.They then told me to phototcopy and keep the slip they game me and keep it with me incase i got stopped again

PM

Sorry in the delay in getting back fellas. Big G all griffith number plates were backlit as standard from the factory and so were several other tvr models no external number plate lights. The number plate was is semi transparent with back lighting bulbs which makes the number plate appear yellow when lit this always leaves mot tester's who do not know the cars scratching heads. So going on the fact that they are backlit anyway i did not think an electroluminecne as long as it gave off the same colour would be too much of an issue. But i still want to stay legal  :-\ :-\ 

Jack, i'd suggest it a NO.
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2001/uksi_20010561_en.pdf

is the public link to the laws. Have a look at page 10 with reference to the plate being a material that meets a british specification.

Hope it helps.

I wanted electroluminescents for my number plates but google wasnt my friend when I sought the people who supplied them

The law may (does?) say they cannot be backlit but we had several cars back in the forties and fifties with the lights backlit and shining through a semitransparent but blacked out where relevant number plate in a box on the back of the car*

I would have cited these if stopped

Wasn't one of those the Riley RM? I definitely saw them on many cars back then


*time for a Google search...

Hi Robbo thanks for the information. I dont think i will bother it seems more hassel than its worth. Shame would have looked cool.  :( :(

I did do a Google but no certainty that the Riley had lights inside its box

another story makes its gentle way into mythology  :(