VEHICLE REGISTRATION PLATE CHANGE

Many of you will not be aware that the format for vehicle registration marks did change on 1st September, so here are some brief details.

The new registration marks will all be made up of seven characters. There are three parts to the registration mark, each with a separate meaning:

The first two letters show where the vehicle was registered, the Local Memory Tag.
The two numbers indicate the age of the vehicle, the Age Identifier.
The last three letters give a unique identity to a vehicle, the Random Letters.

The Local Memory Tag will be based on a really logical basis, namely the DVLA Office in the area! For the Sevenoaks area there are DVLA offices in Maidstone and Brighton, consequently the Local Memory Tag will be G followed by the Local Identifier of A to O for Maidstone and P to Y for Brighton.
The Age Identifier gets even better! Vehicles registered between September and February will be allocated the number 51 in 2001, 52 in 2002 etc. Vehicles registered between March and August will be allocated the number 02 in 2002, 03 in 2004 etc.
The new system should be with us until 2049 and should assist the police with witnesses being able to recognise local vehicles more easily. However, it’s not quite the system that has been adopted by the French or the Germans for many years where you can identify vehicle regions very easily. But we’ll see how it works over the coming years, particularly for the more creative minds who dream up personal registrations.
Further details can be found by reference to the following DVLA Website: http://www.dvla.gov.uk/vehicles/regmarks/reg_marks_sept2001.htm

Colin Rodger

This is gonna be one of those anorak hobbies—Car number plate spotters, seen standing on foot bridges and by the sides of trunk roads with note books, flasks and Anoraks!  Ahhh! Bless!!! ……..ED

The Acorn : October Edition