Personalised Number Plate Information

NUMBER PLATES:

When you key in the vehicle number there is an immediate response which shows its make, model, age, colour, insurance status and owner. Databases know all that for every vehicle, instantly.

It’s amazing how law-abiding everyone becomes when the whole lot is known, and joined up. Without exception. In a blink. And with very little time cost or inconvenience.

So why can’t your PIN be like your number plate, holding an interconnected record of everything anyone has a right to know about you. No more forms and questionnaires and endless administrative complication and time cost-for a bank account, a mobile phone, a car log book, a licence, a permit, a title deed, service utilities, passport renewal or whatever.

Just key in your PIN and a password that gives your permission, and any supplier will have instant and complete access to the (selective) information the law entitles them to.

Computers do all the crunching and privacy categorising, and keep a permanent digital record to guarantee an audit trail that will keep everybody honest-including the administrators.

And if things can be joined up per person, they can also be joined up for all the people and provide a treasure chest of national statistics for planners and the general public.

As a non-contentious example, we could know the total number of vehicles, their class proportions, age - and anything else about them of use, interest or importance at the push of a button.

There are lots of reasons why we need to know more about our national fleet of vehicles with four wheels or more. But robust data is somewhere between scant, inconsistent and non-existent.

We have to resort to extrapolation, a bit like this: In the past decade, all Kenya’s main motor companies have sold about 140,000 new vehicles of every shape and size from town runabouts to prime mover trucks.

That figure represents about 10 per cent (maybe) of today’s total national road-going fleet of things with four wheels or more. The average age of that portion is about 5 years.

Over the same period, there have been about 860,000 used imports mostly aged about 8 years on arrival.

The average age of that contingent today is therefore around 13 years. Put both groups together and you have a million vehicles with an average age of about 12 years.

The rest of the fleet about 400,000 - was already here 10 years ago, having arrived in much the same new-used proportions. So that segment’s average age was also around 12, and is therefore now around 22.

With some slightly trickier arithmetic, we can therefore estimate that the overall average age of all the vehicles in Kenya today is about 15 years. That’s not a precise fact, but it is a strongly indicative probability.

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If you are buying the plates separately then you'll need to go to a registered number plate supplier to get new number plates for your vehicle. The registered supplier will need proof of your identity, as well as proof that the registration number belongs to you. The number plate supplier will need to see at least one document from each of the lists below. This will allow the number plate supplier to confirm your name, address and entitlement to the registration number. All documents must be original, not copies.

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A businessman who bought the No.1 limited edition licence plate in Abu Dhabi for Dh31 million has been sentenced to three years in jail for issuing a dud cheque to the organisers.

The Emirati man had bought the special number plate at an auction last year.

The Abu Dhabi Misdemeanour Court handed down the sentence to the Emirati man after he was found guilty of fraud and issuing a bounced cheque.

Abu Dhabi public prosecution had ordered for the detention of the 32-year-old man after organisers of the auction filed a complaint that he issued them a cheque after buying the number plate, even though he didn't have enough balance in his bank account.

Prosecutors had detained the businessman. He was charged with fraud and issuing a bounced cheque.
And during interrogation, the Emirati admitted to giving the cheque to orginisers despite being aware he didn't have sufficient funds in his account, said prosecutors.

"He said he was planning to re-sale the rare number plate at a profit so he could pay the value of the cheque to the organisers and maintain enough balance in his account," said a prosecutor.

Authorities, however, said one can only re-sale a number plate bought in an auction after one has paid the full amount and that any resale before making the payment is considered illegal.

The auction, which generated Dh99 million, was hosted by Emirates Auction in cooperation with Abu Dhabi Police on November 19, 2016 at Emirates Palace hotel to commemorate the Abu Dhabi Government's Golden Jubilee.

And the Emirati beat several bidders for the coveted plate after starting at Dh1 million. The limited-edition golden jubilee plates all featured the number 50 in the top left corner.

Fifty vanity Abu Dhabi number plates were up for grabs at the Emirates Auction event.

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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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Dubai: U66, Z777 and M2222 will be among 80 unique number plates up for grabs at the Roads and Transport Authority’s (RTA) 94th open auction on March 11.
Registration for the year’s first auction, which will be held at Emirates Towers’ Godolphin Ballroom, will open from March 4.

The last two auctions of last year generated huge interests with single digit plate D5 going for Dh33 million in October, while the plate number Q2 on offer in December went unsold despite massive expectations.

“The recent open auctions saw huge footfall from various community segments. This has promoted us to offer another chance for the public to engage in positive bidding for their fancied numbers in various codes,” Sultan Al Marzouqi, Director of Vehicle Licensing at RTA.

The numbers on offer range from two and three digits to four and five digits, including S90000 and U66.

During the auction, plate N572 will be on offer through a draw for the participants.

“Interested bidders can register in RTA’s Customers Happiness Centres at Umm Al Romool, Deira and Al Barsha. They can also register through RTA’s website (www.rta.ae), or Drivers and Vehicles app, and each participant is required to have a traffic file in Dubai,” said Al Marzouqi.

Registration for the auction will remain open until the day of the auction, and bidding will start at 4.30pm.

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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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