Personalised Number Plate Information

NUMBER PLATES:

Would you like your birthday, wedding, graduation or employment day reflected on your car plate? It's possible.

Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has launched a new phase called of 'Your Memorable Moments on Your Vehicle's Plate' initiative for U-Coded plates. The initiative avails the opportunity for customers to choose five-digit plates bearing this code personalised to resemble important events in their lives such as birthday, employment, wedding and graduation day, among others, according to the RTA.

The available numbers relate to the period from 1967 to 2017. The cost of the special plate is Dh1,620 each and customers can buy their number plates from RTA Customers Happiness Centres all over Dubai, service providers, strategic partners, RTA website (www.rta.ae), or the smart app 'Drivers & Vehicles.'

"This stage fits well with the intention of adding to people's happiness in Ramadan and the joyous Eid al-Fitr," said Sultan Al Marzouqi, director of vehicles licensing at RTA's Licensing Agency.

The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has launched a new phase of ‘Your Memorable Moments on Your Vehicle’s Plate’ initiative for U-Coded plates. The initiative avails the opportunity for customers to choose five-digit plates bearing this code personalised to resemble important events in their lives such as birthday, employment day, wedding day, and graduation day, among others. The available numbers relate to the period from 1967 to 2017. Customers can buy their number plates from Customers Happiness Centres all over Dubai, service providers, strategic partners, RTA website (www.rta.ae), or the smart app ‘Drivers & Vehicles.’ This stage fits well with the intention of adding to people’s happiness in Ramadan and the joyous Eid al-Fitr.

Sultan Al Marzouqi, Director of Vehicles Licensing, RTA’s Licensing Agency, said: “The U Code number plates bearing dates from 1967 to 2017 will be issued, once available on the list of plates in RTA’s website. The total cost of the plate is AED1620. Customers can buy their number plates from Customers Happiness Centres all over Dubai, service providers, strategic partners, RTA website (www.rta.ae), or the smart app ‘Drivers & Vehicles’. This stage fits well with the intention of adding to people’s happiness in Ramadan and the joyous Eid al-Fitr.

"This phase, of ‘Your Memorable Moments on Your Vehicle’s Plate’ initiative, follows the remarkable turnout seen by previous phases of Code "S” and “T" for the dates from 1981 to 1998. This initiative reflects the core role of RTA in providing new and premium services to raise customers’ satisfaction and happiness through engaging them in selecting personalised & important numbers for their vehicle plates,” concluded Al Marzouqi.

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It had been expected to sell for between £15,000 and £25,000 but the first Manx vehicle registration plate ever to be issued was eventually sold last week for £100,000. It is, says auctioneer Murray Keefe, a valuable piece of Manx history.

It was the first Isle of Man number plate and people do like to have number 1. At the auction we had 4 telephone lines wanting to bid on the number plate and quite a few bidding in the room so I was not surprised it made so much money knowing that some of the plates in the United Kingdom make substantially more than that. "

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For those residents wishing to secure their vehicle registration plates, and so preventing them from being stolen, the Kirwans Bridge Neighbourhood Watch is holding a Safe Plate Day at the next Nagambie market.

The group will be setting up in Blayney Lane on Saturday.

For just a gold coin donation, get your number plates secured with the one-way safety screws.

● Another crime prevention initiative being held this weekend will be at the Tallarook market on Sunday.

Police will be there with engraving equipment to put identifying numbers on residents pushbikes, scooters and any other similar equipment.

Bring your property down, with your drivers licence and that number will be engraved on the item.

This helps to prevent theft and also greatly assists police to find owners if property does get stolen or lost.

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Number Plates as an alternative investment

Investing in car registration plates may seem like an unorthodox way of making money and a considerable statement in the process. Nevertheless, hundreds of investors and drivers now choose to purchase car registration plates with significant future returns available. The most obvious reason for purchasing car registration plates is to personalise your vehicle, to make you stand out from the crowd.

Even a mere decade ago, drivers with personalised registration plates were seen as wealthy and successful. In the present day, car registration plates are now more accessible and economical for the everyday working man to purchase. Drivers looking for a potential investment must keep in mind that the registration plate they purchase must be easy to sell on in the future.

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In fact, when the DVLA issues a car’s registration plate, they actually follow a very distinct system.

While it may look like a random combination, a number plate can actually tell you how old the car is and where it was registered.

A new format for registrations was introduced in September 2001, meaning all cars registered after that date would have their number plate made up of three parts.

How to tell where the car is from

The first section of a number plate is the local memory tag – the first two letters of the plate.

This identifies where the vehicle was registered, and is itself broken down into two parts.

The first letter stands for the local area, for example E denotes Essex, while L stands for London.

The plate’s second letter then identifies at which DVLA office in that area the registration took place – multiple letters can signify the same DVLA office.

How anyone can tell how old your car is just by looking at it

The two numbers in the middle of your plate identify how old the car is.

The DVLA issues two lots of number plate combinations each year on March and September 1st.

All plates issued between the 1 March and the end of August will use the same two numbers as the year they are registered.

For example, a car registered in May 2017 would have “17”.

Vehicles registered between September 1 and the end of February the following year, use a similar pattern of higher numbers.

When the format changed in 2001, this group of vehicles were identified differently by starting the labelling from “51” rather than “01”.

Therefore this second lot of numbers will always be 50 plus the year the car was registered – so after 2010, the number starts with a 6.

For example, a vehicle registered in December 2009 will show “59” on its plate but December 2011 will be “61”.

Is any of the plate random?

The final three letters of the number plate tend to be a random combination that make the registration unique.

But it’s not uncommon for cars with neighbouring letter sequences to be from the same manufacturer, due to batch allocation of new registrations to dealers by the DVLA.

The letters “Q” and “I” are excluded from the random sequence, along with any phrases that are deemed offensive.

Using the current scheme, there will be a sufficient combinations to last until the end of February 2051.

What about registrations before September 2001?

From 1983 onward, licence plates used a leading single letter to represent the year of first registration.

The letter “A” was used in 1983, progressing through the alphabet, finishing with “Y” at the end of August 2001.

The rest of the characters on the plate were random.

Prior to 1983, the same system was used, but with the year letter at the end of the plate rather than the beginning.

A PETITION against a police chief's decision to sell the first number plate issued to the county has gathered over 850 signatures.

Retired police constable Alan Matthews started the online petition after he found out that the 'AB 1' licence plate was up for auction.

Police enthusiasts have lambasted the decision to sell the plate, which has traditionally been used on the staff cars of Worcestershire's Chief Constables.

West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) John Campion claims the sale will enable him to invest in frontline policing.

Mr Matthews, aged 69, who worked for West Mercia Police from 1985 to 1994, said: "It's a piece of police heritage that shouldn't be sold off.

"It was the original number that the chief had. I just think that there's other ways the PCC could save money.

"I'm getting quire ratty about it. When you have been in the police you see how much waste there is.

"It's a sad thing that people in the UK have so much history but don't think much of it."

Jon Cherry, the director of regplates.com, thinks the plate will sell for between £225,000 and £275,000.

He said: "We have sold similar plates recently at this level and the market for high quality original issue number 1 plates is very strong.

"The buyers of these are intent on having only the best and only this plate will suffice!"

Mr Campion said his priority is use the assets at his disposal to make West Mercia a safe place.

"The prospect of a chief constable or any public servant using a private number plate belongs in a time gone by, both for security reasons and public expectation," he said.

"Therefore a considered decision has been made to market ‘AB 1’ and any sale proceeds will be reinvested towards frontline policing in West Mercia."

He acknowledged the history behind the plate but said it had not been used for around six years.

A spokesman for Mr Campion said he was not selling anything else apart from the number plate.

Vehicle registration was introduced in 1903 and it is believed 'AB 1' was first issued to Worcestershire's Chief Constable Herbert Sutherland Walker in 1908.

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In 1989 a lot of these stored old models were registered in advance of legislation that required all new vehicles registered on or after 1 January 1990 to have catalytic converters fitted. This included vehicles held in storage and out of production for several years, in some cases five years or more. By the late 1990s, the range of available numbers was once again starting to run out, exacerbated by a move to biannual changes in registration letters (March and September) in 1999 to smooth out the bulge in registrations every August, so a new scheme needed to be adopted. It was decided to research a system that would be easier for crash or vehicle related crime witnesses to remember and clearer to read, yet still fit within a normal standard plate size.

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