Personalised Number Plate Information

NUMBER PLATES:

Are you a cat lover with a few hundred quid to spare? How about a huge Dennis the Menace fan keen to show your appreciation via the medium of your motor?

Well you’re in luck as the DVLA – the body in charge of car registrations in the UK – is holding 2017’s first live auction of registration numbers this week and among the plates on offer are WH15 KER ( yours for a starting price of £700) and BE11 ANO (a mere £400).

The event – which starts on Wednesday – will see a total of 1,500 personalised registrations being auctioned to members of the public.

The registrations on offer have been chosen by DVLA to suit all tastes, styles and budgets and range from plates that reflect names such as EL17 OTT, HA15 RRY and PA14 ULA through to quirkier offerings such as OUR 848Y, OLD 800K and YOU 105E.

And fans of Harry Potter could find themselves spellbound by POT 110N which carries a reserve of £250.

The agency will be aiming to build on the success of its live auction programme in 2016, which raised £25.6 million through five sales – setting a new record for a second consecutive year. Last year, the total sales of personalised registrations by the DVLA surpassed £147m, taking the total amount raised since the sales began in September 1989 to £2.4 billion.

Sales by the agency suggest that interest in personalised plates has soared in recent years with a 150 per cent increase of registered bidders for its live sales since 2011. On average 9,500 customers com[pete for lots per auction.

Adam Griffiths, of DVLA Personalised Registrations, said: “It’s been nearly three months since our last live sale, and I am really excited by our first sale of 2017 where some really great registrations are available to bid for. We have experienced two successive record-breaking years and, when you look through the catalogue at the registrations we have compiled for this sale, I am very hopeful that this success will continue.”

He added: “Bidding in person is by far the most popular way to buy a registration and it is at the auction where you will find the real atmosphere – it’s a great day out and we make the experience as enjoyable and friendly as possible. If you can’t make it to the auction we offer free telephone, internet and absent bidding facilities”.

Just some of the 1,500 personalised registrations included in the forthcoming sale include:

115 A (reserve – £2,500), ABY 641L (£250), AMB 2R (£350), ARO 88IE (£250), AUS 111E (£250), 350 B (£2,500), B111 NDS (£250), B111 NKY (£250), BA11 DGE (£400), BE11 ANO (£400), BOS 551E (£250), BUB 4 (£1,200), 105 C (£2,500), CA17 RLY (£400), 888 CM (£2,200), 8111 D (£2,500), 247 DR (£2,200), 845 E (£2,500), ENS 20 (£1,200), FAS 70 (£1,200), FEZ 488 (£300), 458 FUN (£1,200), 111 G (£2,500), GA13 BBY (£400), GET 81G (£300), GTR 2R (£350), 120 H (£2,500), HGV 81G (£300), HOT 911A (£250), IG 111 (£2,200), 1000 J (£2,500), JOS 55H (£300), KAR 4H (£350), LE66 OTT (£700), 811 LS (£2,500), 500 M (£2,500), MAX 80W (£300), NAZ 5 (£500), NER 111S (£250), 72 O (£2,500), (£400), POT 110N (£250), RO13 BYS (£700), SMY 17H (£300), 801 T (£2,500), 812 TH (£2,200), TW15 TER (£700), UV51 NGH (£700), VAZ 110 (£300), W42 DLE (£250), W166 LES (£250), WH15 KER (£700), 222 X (£2,500).

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As a company we sponsor sporting events such as the 'White Gold Cup', and many local events for clubs, charities and schools.

We also sponsor the Generation FMX freestlye motocross team.

So let the experts take the stress out of buying or selling your registration mark. Why not browse this site, and if you need any further assistance, we are on hand from 9am until 7pm Monday - Saturday, 10am - 4pm Sunday.

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Most of the time, the agency successfully eradicates any plates that may shock or offend the British public.

But every now and then, one slips through the net.

While they may possess the largest number plate database in the UK with millions of conventional registrations, the website also holds some of the most hilarious and outrageous licence plates DVLA-approved to roam Britain’s roads.

And considering their comical value, some of the best plates carry with them an unbelievable price tag – close to half a million pounds in one instance.

Naturally, the Sun Online Motors team sifted through their archives to compile a list of the top 10 most outrageous number plates in the UK – but don’t be surprised if your favourite shocking plate has an equally outrageous asking price.

10. TTII TTS – £8,499
9. F4 KKA- £16,800
8. 69O MY – £6,999
7. PUII HER – £3,499
6. OR64 SAM – £40,000
5. OO04 OOK – £10,472
4. I5 EXY – £95,000
3. B4I FKU – £9,999
2. MRI3 UTT – £495,000
1. PEN 15 – £110,000

ormerly the most outrageous number plate in Britain, the infamous CUII NNT registration has been banned.

Despite resembling one of the most explicit words in the English language, the licence plate slipped through the DVLA prohibited list in 2016, and was given a value of £6,000.

Some of the country's rudest number plates have been revealed - and could be yours for the cool price of £495,000.

Outrageous plates such as TTII TTS, F4 KKA and PEN 15 are available to buy online for those inclined to splash out on an expensive joke.

Each year, new plates are approved by the DVLA, with a cheeky handful slipping under the invigilators' noses and finding themselves onto Britain's streets.

The list will normally include personalised plates spelling out rude words or potentially offensive messages, as well as religious or homophobic terms.

The list of personalised plates the DVLA believes to be in poor taste runs into many pages.

For the 2016 registration year, the DVLA's censors refused a large number of plates, including B16 COX, CR16 PLE, PR16 CK and BU16 ERY.

Some of the more vulgar terms to be outlawed by the licensing agency include B16 NOB, FA16 OTS and TT16 TTY.

But plenty of new number plate combinations will be allowed, and names are expected to be a high seller.

The private number plate market in the UK is worth around £2.3billion a year, and some number plates can sell for astonishing amounts of money.

In 2014, the plate '25 O' sold for a record-breaking £518,000 at a DVLA agency auction, beating the previous record by nearly £100,000.

A publicly-funded committee meets twice a year to decide which number plates are unsuitable for Britain's roads.

The Minister of Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, says the Ghanaian public is increasingly becoming intolerant of perceived corruption and poor service delivery at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA).

According to him, many of the authority’s clients consider it to be the worst in terms of service delivery, thereby creating avenues for middle men, popularly known as ‘goro boys,’ to take advantage of the stifling bureaucratic system at the place.

He has therefore asked management of the DVLA to quickly deal with the ‘goro boys’ syndrome at their various offices.

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Acrylic Number Plates

Acrylic number plates sigify the registration mark of a vehicle.

They can be made of different materials, but more commonly seen are metals and acrylics. But as to how the standard specifications on the use, make and display guidelines of number plates are, it would vary with every city and country. There are some who would prefer to have their number plates more personalized. As long as how it is obtained abides with the regulations, such is possible. In fact, motorists of today are starting to appreciate better the value of vanity plates.

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Students at a school in Surrey have been threatened with having their bikes locked away unless they comply with a new policy on cycling to school, which includes having a number plate attached to their bikes.

In a letter sent to parents, Keith Batchelor, head of the Beacon School in Banstead, said that he was implementing new rules on children cycling into school, and parents would have to sign an agreement before their children were allowed to ride in.

As well as telling students to stick to the Highway Code, wear a helmet, and use hi-vis clothing and bike lights “where appropriate”, the new rules also mean that students will have to have a number plate (supplied by the school) attached to their bikes, which Mr Batchelor hoping that this will make students not following the rules more identifiable.

“On joining the school this September, I decided to refine the current cycling policy to enhance further the safety of the students in our care and develop their sense of responsibility on the road,” Mr Batchelor said in a statement, as reported by Get Surrey.

“The procedures will support the safeguarding of our students on their journeys to and from school and help us to celebrate safe cycling. We will provide extra training to students where it is needed.”

As part of the new policy, the school says that students who fail to follow the rules may be banned from cycling to school, with those who continue to ride in having their bikes locked up until their parents or carers are available to collect them.

Number plates for bikes have been the subject of discussion in recent months after a survey by Halfords found that two-thirds of respondents were in favour of cyclists having to have them attached to their bikes.

However the idea came was slammed by both cycling campaigners and motoring groups, with the AA describing it as “impractical and unnecessary” while Cycling UK said “rather than encouraging people to cycle, and bring all the associated health and wealth benefits, it is more than likely to put newcomers or occasional cyclists off cycling altogether.”

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Overseas territories

Some of the British overseas territories, including Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, use similar number plates to the UK, with the same colours and typeface.

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On average, the city RTOs earn close to Rs 12-14 crore annual revenue from the sale of special numbers. The number '1' can fetch a maximum of Rs 12 lakh if it is not available in the current running series and is purchased from a future series. A two-wheeler owner can buy the special number for Rs 1.5 lakh. At the Andheri RTO, large TV screens display information on VIP numbers.
The latest statistics show that Pune tops all RTOs when it comes to selling the special registration numbers, while Mumbai comes fifth.

While Pune RTO has sold 30,366 numbers and fetched a revenue of Rs 23.45 crore, this was followed by Nashik RTO where 27,545 VIP numbers were sold to citizens at a cost of Rs 19.59 crore. At Thane, as many as 10,744 special numbers were sold to fetch a revenue of Rs 9.98 crore while Kolhapur sold 10,611numbers for Rs 7.3 crore.
The craze for getting a VIP number began in the northern states," said an official. For example, in Punjab, there have been cases of farmers buying VIP numbers for lakhs of rupees in auction. In 2012, a Chandigarh businessman purchased registration number CH-01-AN-0001 for Rs 17 lakh. The number AK-47 is also popular in Punjab and sold for Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh almost every year.

On Saturday an Emirati businessman bought the distinctive Dubai car plate number AA10 after posting the winning bid of 3.12 million dirhams during the Roads and Transport Authority's (RTA) 97th 'Open Plates Auction'.

Majid Mustafa, who has been participating in the RTA auctions since 2002, told the UAE-based publication that he will keep the AA10 number plate for his personal use and mount it on one of his numerous cars.

The RTA's year-end auction raised a total of 12.75 million dirhams this time around and saw nine other AA code plates, including 12, 50, 100, 333, 786, 1000, 8888, 11111, and 55555 going under the hammer.

Mustafa also said that he has owned a total of 5,000 special plates, many of which he already traded and gained profitable margins. At a price of 6 million dirhams, the most expensive plate he has ever acquired was I10.

During the auction on Saturday, the second most expensive plate went to Essa Al Habbai who bought AA12 for 2.72 million dirhams.

Another Emirati won the bidding for the third most expensive plate, AA50, priced at 1.84 million dirhams, while a 44-year-old Lebanese expat acquired AA11111 for 1.21 million dirhams.

"I will mount it on my Lamborghini..."
Another Emirati, 32-year-old businessman Jaber Khamis, won the number AA333 after bidding 700,000 dirhams for it.

"The plate (AA333) is really special. I will mount it on my Lamborghini but I might also sell it if I find the right buyer who will offer a really good price," Khamis told Khaleej Times.
At the auction, RTA also unveiled a new design for Dubai number plates. It will feature the Dubai brand logo, and the letters and digits will be printed in black on white background.

In October, RTA already raised 25 million dirhams at the 'Open Plates Auction'.

"The number auctions organized by the RTA are characterized by transparency and enthusiasm. They measure up to the aspirations of customers who seek exclusivity in this regard. Such auctions suffice the needs and aspirations of number plate enthusiasts, and reflect RTA’s keenness to realize its third strategic goal of 'People Happiness'," said Ahmed Bahrozyan, CEO of RTA’s Licensing Agency at the time.

$30,000 for personalised plates? Tell him he's dreaming.

Gracemere man Chase Ferguson's "for sale" post attracted plenty of attention overnight, but probably not the kind he was after.

Ironically, the $30K price tag he's placed on a set of "no idea" personalised number plates has spurred a thread of witty remarks and memes, but few interested buyers.

"Two standard size prestige plates. NO IDEA. Excellent condition still on vehicle. $30 000 or nearest offer," he posted to the Rockhampton Buy, Swap, Sell Facebook page on Sunday night.

It comes as the Rockhampton was found to have the second-highest number of personalised plates in the state, with 3644 residents pimping their rides.

The region sits next in line to the Sunshine Coast (5598), which trumps the regions of Mackay (3012); Gladstone (1072); Bundaberg (1072); Fraser Coast (766); Warwick (305) and Gympie (602).

While some are saying Chase's asking price is exorbitant, $30,000 is a bargain compared to some sellers who are asking up in the hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars.

Rodney Gilchrist has taken up "dream" real estate on the personalised plate front, buying up DREAM1, DREAM2, DREAM3, DREAM4, DREAM5 and DREAM6 and re-selling for $300,000.

The number plates have been on the market for about 12 months, as the church pastor patiently waits for a cashed-up fleet manager to buy the plates.

Chase Ferguson has been contacted for comment.

If none of the above appeal to the rev head in you, here are some of the top-dollar plates up for grabs online:

HEART: The most expensive plates in the state, but the seller suggests a heart surgeon may have the $50,000 needed to snap them up.

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It should be noted that there are no restrictions on using a vanity or cherished registration on a car that is newer than the original date of the registration plate, but it is prohibited to transfer a registration that is newer than the vehicle it is used on. This is to prevent the transfer of newer registrations to older vehicles as a measure to protect consumers.

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