Safe Speed Forums

you are tootling along and your number plate drops off...

DO you know the penalty for not having a registration plate?


What should you do as a temporary measure (there are some ground rules on this which every good motorist should know )

When you order and fit replacements - do you know the law on screws and lettering?

What if you cannot find the plate which you lost... what should you do? And why?

(it's amazing how many do not know what to do or even the laws regarding plates.. )

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Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

What I'd really like to do is write out a temp reg plate with the words 'HaHa, you thought you'd got me' before speeding through every Gatso I could find at twice the limit

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Why can't we just use Common Sense?

No ideas about temporary measures but I think the penalty for not having a No. plate is pretty trivial - not as bad as getting spotted doing a few MPH over the limit WITH one!

Know about screws and fonts - "Display of Registration Marks" regs but can't think of anything even vaguely pretentious that my plate could be made to say even with 2 dozen black screw caps on it!

Cheer? Grin like a Cheshire cat? Write a poem about 'days gone by', when having a number plate was not onerous?

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

I seem to recall many years ago (probably even pre-camera) a law being drafted to totally standardise reg plates. ie no stupid fonts, no shifting around of letters and numbers to create huge spaces so it spells out what the owner wants it to, or positioning of screws so that an "i" is formed out of a 1 for example. But I still see loads of registrations that have been doctored. Whatever happened to this law? Although the primary use of reg plates these days is to charge camera taxes, they can also be used for other more trivial* things such as tracing perpetrators of violent crimes, armed robberies, get-away cars etc. In such circumstances being able to remember a reg plate in a couple of seconds could be vital.


* Apologies if I seem over-cynical. Sometimes I just can't help it.

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Why can't we just use Common Sense?

What was that noise?


Less than for speedin' and that's all that really matters. I heard £30 + 3 shineys.


Avoid police cars. Don't go driving around town centres at night, turn on to the nearest side road if you see a police car. Find nearest speed camera and drive through a few times with fingers up. If you live near police, draw shoddy almost-readable numberplate like people have on trailers.
And if this was a multiple guess exam like the theory test then a possible answer could be "Drive around with the boot open."


Letters go on numberplate. Screws go through numberplate. Not the other way round. If you run out of letters do not use screws to make the remaining ones.
Screws mustn't be black to modify the letters. Letters should not be facing the car. Have not found any law so far which sais letters have to be upright. Letters must be to the correct design like what I found on that DVLA web page a while ago. You should order a new plate with the same letters in the same order as the plate which fell off. Different letters could avoid speed cameras and these days it's almost worth the risk.


Tell the police and get membership of Pepipoo, someone else will put it on their car and you will have to deal with NIPs they generate.

Actually no, DON'T tell the police, you'll get stopped every ANPR trap you go through!

Occasionally I have seen numberplates on the road. Should I A. Ignore them? B. Pick them up and take to local police station to hand over when they apologise for having anythign to do with camera partnership? 3. Pick them up and sell on eBay?

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Andrew.

A friend of mine lost his rear plate on the motorway. Didn't know it had fallen off.
Got stopped by the Police, this was the days when the motorways had Police on them.
Copper walks up to the drivers door, and asks, "Is your number *** *** *?", yes my friend said.
Copper says "Do you want it back?"

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Semper in excreta, nur quantitat variat.

Only correct and proper!

_________________
Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

£30 fine and up to £1000 if it goes to court and you lose!

You can fix as tempo in window - and most decent BiB accept such things can happen and nothing deliberate.

If you cannot find your plate - DO TELL US!

People clone them ...

_________________
Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

I've never really understood this one. Can't they just clone any plate that they see driving past? They don't have to physically have it in their hand do they! I know these days you're supposed to not be able to get number plates made without showing all your documentation but, I bet like the old paper MOT certificates, there will always be someone the criminals gan go to to get a dodgy set of plates!

Suerly its easier to clone a plate if you see the car driving past, yo ucan make sure the make/model/colour line up.

You can only get a plate made if you have the correct documentation? Bollocks. The front plate on my car I ordered off the internet for 16 quid (compare to 40 quid at halfords). It meets all the relevent construction&use standards regarding font size*, spacing reflectivity and so on though it doesn't have the makers details printed along the bottom.

I didn't know you were supposed to report lost plates to the police. One of my old company cars lost a front plate. I just got another one made up and drove around with it wedged between the windscreen glass and dashboard for a month or so until the sunlight had melted the plate into a curve that matched the curved numberplate holder meaning that this time it didn't spring off when I stuck it down with double sided pads.

Didn't report it as I didn't think the local police would care to be honest. If anything I expected they'd fine me for littering.

*My car is a grey import, so I'm legally allowed to have a smaller font due to an odd sized numberplate holder.