Number Plate
Number plate anecdotes
Did you ever play that game where you made a note of every Number Plate that passed your gate? We at National Numbers still engage in the game while driving down the motorway. We spot a number plate that looks familiar, especially on coaches. Over the years, we have supplied whole fleets with series of number plates. The type of number plate we mainly used were from Northern Ireland as we were able to allocate a certain letter combination with a numerical series, for example OUI 4562, 4563 etc.
We once transferred a whole series of NI number plates to a fleet of hearses - we gently suggested that the "FIL" marks they chose were perhaps not advisable in deference to the possible demise of a "Phillip" in the future! The Chief Exec. thankfully chose a much more anonymous series of number plates eventually.
The above incident reminds one that, in order to transfer each number plate, a funeral director had to undertake voluntary MOT's. You see, hearses are MOT exempt (although subject to very strenuous alternative testing) but to be able to take part in a cherished transfer, the donor and recipient vehicles must be subject to MOT testing at some time in their life. At this point, you may be interested in learning something about the list of regulations put in place by DVLA with reference to the transfer of a number plate from onvehicle to another or onto a retention certificate.
The Number Plate Cherished Transfer and Retention Scheme
- The donor (ie the vehicle giving up the number plate) vehicle must exist and be available for inspection if randomly selected.
- The vehicle must be registered at DVLA on a computerised V5/C (registration certificate). The record was effectively closed many years ago - this was a deadline by which vehicle keepers had to register their number plate on the Swansea computer. Any old cardboard log books were not acceptable after this date. However, if a keeper could provide sufficient evidence of the age of manufacture (say, from a vintage car club) then the original number plate could be allocated on a non transferable basis. Thus helping to stamp out fraudulent applications since the financial incentive of the subsequent sale of the number plate was removed.
- DVLNI (Driver and Vehicle Licencing Northern Ireland) operate a similar transfer scheme but, at the moment, no retention facility is available.
- The vehicle must be currently licensed or be accompanied by a tax application. However, with regard to the donor vehicle (i.e. the vehicle "giving up" the number plate), since 2005 a concession has been introduced whereby the vehicle can still qualify if the last disc has been expired (not refunded) less than 12 months.
- The vehicle must be subject to MOT/HGV testing sometime in its life - as discussed earlier with reference to hearses.
- Only the registered keeper can apply at present to either transfer or retain the mark although, a recent Act of Parliament has been passed which will allow a 3rd party to apply at the time of retaining a number plate, with the keeper's permission of course.
So now you can start to become your own expert - plenty more articles in Number Plate Info or DVLA Info on the navigation bar or there are short paragraphs like car number plate, dateless number plate, DVLA numberplates.
There is also a sister article Number Plates which contains more factual information about the history of the number plate.
Or perhaps you are ready to start your search for your ideal number plate.
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Find out more about:
DVLA Number Plate
Private Number Plate
Number Plate formats explained
