Personalised Number Plate Information

NUMBER PLATES:

Record numbers of motorists are driving cars fitted with personalised numberplates amid a surge in “auto vanity”.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency sold a record 374,968 registrations last year, up 12 per cent in 12 months and almost five times the total in the mid-90s.

The trade in numberplates made more than £110 million for the Treasury in 2016-17 alone, a record annual total.

The rise coincides with an increase in the number of registrations made available by the DVLA, combined with a sharp rise in the value of rare plates over the past two decades.

In an era when we’re all supposed to be flaunting our individuality, the trend for personalised car number plates has apparently never been higher. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), which sells new and never-issued registrations, sold 374,968 last year, an increase of 12%.

Among private dealers, who sell pre-owned plates, business is just as good.

“For the past five years, [the market has] been steadily rising.” It is thought one reason is a personalised plate makes the age of the car less obvious. But he also says social media has played a huge part. “It’s, ‘Hey, everybody, look at me’,” he says.

People post pictures of their new cars on Instagram, and adding a private plate “seems to be something that people can use to boost their social media reach”.

At the entry-level end of the market, “registrations that start at £250, on average there are 800 of those sold every day.” He says one fairly common customer is the parent who buys a personalised plate for their child on passing their driving test, to go with a new car. “My typical client would be someone in their 40s or 50s, they’ve got a bit of money sitting about and always fancied a personalised number plate.”

At the extreme end, plates can fetch more than £500,000. In 2014, one classic-car dealer bought a “25 O” plate, reportedly for his Ferrari 250 GTO, for £400,000 (the final price, including fees, was £518,000) and a “250 L” for £130,000.

“The numbers that were selling for £1,000 in 1980 now sell for £150,000. What probably changed it was in the late 80s, when the government started to sell numberplates. We in the trade all thought it would devalue the numbers, but it didn’t, it just got more people interested.”

A personalised plate is “a prestigious thing. There’s a little bit of vanity about it,” says Saperia. As for those of us who believe it’s the mark of a bit of a berk, Saperia points out that the DVLA’s sale of personalised plates “bring more than £100m every year to the treasury”.

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Since the dvla introduced the bsau145d legislation it has been increasingly difficult for motorists to obtain number plates with anything other than legal spacing.

There is however another line of argument for the defence of the serial mis spacer. They say that a number plate that has been altered to make a word or a name is much more memorable in the event of an incident.
They also argue that the dvla blatantly auction registration numbers that would be virtually worthless without mis spacing.

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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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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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Recently, Rishi Kapoor bought himself a new set of wheels - a shiny new luxury SUV - and took it out for a spin yesterday. Mumbai Mirror couldn't help but notice the common thing between Kapoor's cars, old and new - the number plate digits of all cars in this Kapoor household total up to '8'.

A source close to the family told the tabloid that the Kapoor trio - Rishi, Neetu and Ranbir - have always considered the number '8' very lucky for the family. When Ranbir purchased his first jeep back in the late 2000s, the number plate was a one digit, '8'. Later, two cars that followed, one a fiery red sports car and another sedan, too featured a single digit plate.

On the other hand, Neetu, whose driven a blue SUV for the last couple of years, also has a number plate that adds up to 8. "It's also because it coincides with Neetu's birthday, July 8, and everyone in the family makes sure that the registration number totals up to it," the source added pointing out that even Ranbir's football jerseys always have the same number.

The Kapoor clan's affinity for numerology comes as no surprise, since it's always been about digits with Bollywood stars. Amitabh Bachchan, whose birthday falls on October 11, considers his lucky number to be 2 and many of his dozen cars feature the single digit on their plate, three of which have been photographed at multiple events.

Similar for Shah Rukh Khan, who has a triple five (555) on all his number plates. Shahid Kapoor also makes sure to flaunt his lucky number 700 on his plates and even added a custom plate to his Harley Davidson, with the three digit figure on it. Saif Ali Khan sticks to the number 7, since his birthday falls on August 16 and Sanjay Dutt always has a 4545 plate.

Also in the News:

HALIFAX—A Nova Scotia man fighting to have his last name — Grabher — reinstated on a licence plate says police have now forced him to remove an inactive Alberta plate from the front of his car.

Lorne Grabher said he received a call from police Monday after a complaint was lodged against the personalized Alberta licence plate he had on the front of his car.

Nova Scotia requires only one valid plate, at the rear, and drivers in the province often place inactive or novelty plates on the front of their vehicles.

Grabher says police told him he would face a stiff penalty for driving with a fraudulent plate if he did not remove the Alberta plate, which had his last name on it in capitalized letters.

The 69-year-old man said he feels he’s being unfairly targeted.

“I’ve been red-flagged,” he said from his Dartmouth home, noting the large number of vehicles in the province that have inactive out-of-province plates on the front.

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In 1963, numbers were running out once again, and an attempt was made to create a national scheme to alleviate the problem. The three letter, up to three number system was kept, but a letter suffix was added, which changed every year. In this scheme, numbers were drawn from the range AAA 1A to YYY 999A for the first year, then AAA 1B to YYY 999B for the second year, and so on. Some areas did not adopt the year letter for the first two years, sticking to their own schemes, but in 1965 adding the year letter was made compulsory. As well as yielding many more available numbers, it was a handy way for vehicle buyers to know the age of the vehicle immediately. At first the year letter changed on 1 January every year, but car retailers started to notice that buyers would tend to wait until the New Year for the new letter to be issued, so that they could get a newer" car. This led to major peaks and troughs in sales over the year, and to help flatten this out somewhat the industry lobbied

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