NewReg.com News Archive

Number Plates that contain microchips enabling cars to be tracked on the roads are to be tested by the Government and could soon be in use in the UK.

The high-tech plates transmit information such as Vehicle Identification Numbers to data readers placed alongside roads, which can be picked up at any speed and up to 300 feet away. Making use of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, the tagged plate scheme is said to be a massive improvement over cameras that use character recognition and only have a 75 to 90 per cent accuracy rate.

The Department for Transport officially approved the microchipped plates last week and testing is expected to start towards the end of this year.

A DfT spokesman said that they want to see if the scheme would make Number Plates harder to clone or forge, in response to the growing trend of commuters in the London congestion charge zone using fake plates to avoid paying the charge or subsequent fines. Forged plates are also frequently used by organised criminals when commiting robberies in order to avoid being traced.

Already in use in San Francisco to collect road tolls, the use of this new technology is being closely watched by police forces in the US, which are interested in the possiblities of using it to track uninsured drivers, car thieves or even to foil terrorists using their roadways. However, civil liberty groups are typically wary, warning that such RFID systems could easily become a "back door surveillance tool".

With millions set to take to the roads next month in the new car registrations, a little financial forethought before you hit the forecourt could put you in a winning position.

Last year saw over two and half million new car registrations take to the roads, and with the release of the latest Number Plates next month set to whip up a seasonal frenzy of car purchasing, Bradford & Bingley warns buyers to look carefully at their finance options before they leap into the driving seat.

Whether it's a sporty little number for whizzing around town or a sturdy 4X4 for cruising around the countryside, most people will spend hours trawling from dealership to dealership making sure they've got the perfect car. However, how many of us invest the same time in finding the right finance? With average APR's on some car finance deals heading towards 14%, scouring the market for the most competitive loan options will soon put your finances in top gear.

Mike Senior, head of personal lending at Bradford & Bingley, comments: "September traditionally sees a seasonal rush of new car purchases with drivers eager to be the first onto the road with the latest number plates. Although it may seem the speediest option to take out finance offered by the dealership, you could be leaving the forecourt seriously out of pocket. With the best personal loan rates below 6%, it really does pay to hit the brakes and take your time researching your finance options carefully, ensuring that you get the cheapest deal available."

Some finance plans offered by car dealerships will often require a deposit of between 10-40% of the 'on the road value' or a part exchange on an old vehicle to secure your borrowing. If you don't have savings or security to match, you could find that it puts you to the back of the starting line up and you may not secure the car you want. By researching the market fully, you may find a personal loan that will offer you the full amount you need to purchase your dream machine, and at a competitive rate.

Attention to detail will also get you racing ahead. Some car finance deals, for instance, are restrictive on the term of the loan. The majority of dealership payment plans will last for two, three, or five years, however, by shopping around you may find more flexible repayment term that suits your needs and budget more accurately.

When choosing your loan, check if you can overpay or if you can repay your loan early. You may be heavily penalised if you decide to 'park' your payment plan and faced with extra costs for early repayment.

Senior concludes: "There are a number of important details to consider when buying your car, but how you're going to pay for it should be in pole position alongside the make and model. Failure to shop around or getting a broker to do the shopping for you could leave a big dent in your finances. Why pay more than you need to? A little bit of forethought will definitely help you on the forecourt."

The next DVLA Personalised Registrations auction will be held in the East Midlands between September 15-17. The venue is Sketchley Grange Hotel, Hinckley, and one of the 1449 personal plates on sale is BL05 SOM.

Other plates with a similar gardening theme include VEG 6Y, GRA 55Y and POP 1E. There is also a wide range of dateless plates featuring many different letter and number combinations, and are all given a reserve price which starts from £250.

Around three-quarters of us still do not understand the new car registration plate system, according to a survey.

Introduced in September 2001, the seven-symbol system indicates both where and when a new car was registered.

New Number Plates come in on March 1 and September 1. A March registration is shown by a 0 and a September one by a 5, with the second number indicating the year. The numbers are preceded by two letters indicating which area of the country the car is registered.

The numbers are followed by three random letters.

The survey by Post Office car insurance showed that 27 per cent mistakenly reckoned that new numbers being introduced tomorrow would be 05 when they will actually be 55. A further 45 per cent did not know what the new numbers would be at all, while a quarter thought the two letters at the beginning of the plate referred to the area in which the driver lived. Some people even reckoned the two letters represented the driver's initials or the make of the vehicle. Women were more muddled about the plates than men, with 81 per cent of females confused by the new format.

Jane Inglefield, of Smith Knight Fay Audi dealership in Stockport, believes most customers do understand the new number plate system but there is less clamour for new cars at a single point of the year because they are now issued twice a year instead of once. She said:

"People who change their cars often will understand the plates, but people who have had the same car for some years might have some difficulty. Customers are still excited about the new registrations when they come out and we have been busier every year since 2001 when the changes were introduced."

Post Office car insurance head Claire Oldstein said: "It's been four years since the current number plate format was introduced and still only a quarter of people actually understand what the letters and numbers on registration plates mean. With so many of us confused, those driving round in new cars this week might not turn as many heads as they'd like."

The survey involved 563 adults.

The Number Plates used on the three Mini Coopers that grid-locked a city in the original 'The Italian Job' movie will be auctioned in Cumbria this weekend and could fetch upwards of £40,000.

The registration plates are thought to have been removed from the three Minis shortly after the filming of The Italian Job that was released in 1969 and gave Michael Caine one of his biggest roles. A private collector, from outside Cumbria, plans to sell the plates during the Classic Car weekend to be held at Dalemain, near Penrith.

H & H King Cumbria Auction Rooms will be selling the plates on Sunday during its sale that will also include a selection of old motor cars and Carlisles last remaining tram. The plates GPF 146G, HMP 729G and LGW 809G are expected to attract national and international interest due to their link with the comedy film that quickly turned into a classic.

Michael Caine took the lead role as the ex-con who came up with a devious plan to steal gold bullion from the traffic-choked streets of Turin. He spouted immortal one-liners including "You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" Caine recruits a misfit team of underworld robbers, including three plummy ex-public school boy rally drivers and uses an England versus Italy football match as cover for their heist. But The Italian Job's real stars were the three Mini Coopers patriotically sprayed red, white and blue that out-run police in an immortal car chase which preserved forever the British publics love affair with the little car.

Auctioneer Paul Laidlaw said: "The Number Plates have been submitted late for our auction from a private collector who lives outside Cumbria who has just seen our sale advertised. They are a rare find and because of their link with this fantastic film should make between £30,000 and £40,000".

Retail Motor Industry Federation executive Justin Tidmarsh has taken on responsibility for supporting dealers in cherished number plates, at a time when the Vehicle Registration Marks Bill is due to achieve a second reading in Parliament. It seeks to simplify legislation surrounding the assignment rights of cherished numbers.

Tidmarsh has been appointed to the role following an internal restructure. Alistair Manson, who is now focusing on his role as head of the RMI's National Franchised Dealers Association, as well as head of the RMI's Society of Motor Auctions, will continue to support Tidmarsh and the members in the short term to assure a smooth handover.

A new hotline telephone number has been launched today to help the DVLA clamp down on car tax cheats.

There are thought to be as many as 23,000 untaxed vehicles in South Yorkshire alone. The public are being asked to tip off the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency about untaxed vehicles in the war against motorists who refuse to pay. As part of the new crackdown, extra wheelclamping units will be operating across the region where motorists failing to display a valid disk will have to pay a £200 release fee to get their vehicles back. If not claimed within 24 hours, the release fee will rise to £280, plus an additional £15 a day. Vehicles not claimed within seven days will be crushed. There will also be a number of special roadside cameras installed to read passing Number Plates and check whether they are taxed. Special roadside checkpoints will also be set up.

John Moore, the DVLA's enforcement manager, said:

"We are determined to target this irresponsible group who consistently evade paying their road tax. There is a strong link between untaxed vehicle, motoring offences, anti-social behaviour and crime. From past experience we have found that up to 80 per cent of untaxed vehicles have no insurance and up to 70 per cent of the occupants have criminal records."

It was announced earlier this year that a selection of Q prefix registrations will be available for purchase some time in the future. The Q prefix marks were originally omitted from the cherished transfer scheme and were only issued to vehicles of indeterminable age. The forthcoming Q marks that do take part in the cherished transfer scheme will effectively act as dateless registrations in that you will now be able to assign a Q prefix mark to a vehicle of any age. The prices of these registrations are currently unknown but we believe they should be quite reasonable.

If you are interested in requesting a 'Q' prefix registration please click here.

THE DVLA has been ordered to improve its databases after it emerged 32 per cent of its records contained errors.

A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) said growing use of police cameras which read Number Plates meant it was even more important to improve accuracy of the records. The inquiry into the way the Government has tackled car crime praised the Home Office for reducing car thefts and vehicle break-ins by 30 per cent since 1999. But there was scope for even more success in combating the crimes which cost Britain about £2.1 billion a year, it said.

More progress was needed to improve security in a large number of car parks, said the auditors, and it is still too easy for criminals to give stolen cars the identities of "written-off" vehicles from salvage yards.

The NAO report said: "Vehicle record accuracy must be improved to facilitate the more effective use of automated enforcement. Tighter regulation of salvage operators should make it more difficult for the identity of written-off vehicles to be used to enable stolen vehicles to be re-sold. NAO chief Sir John Bourn said: "Many of the initiatives to tackle vehicle crime have yet to be fully implemented.

Home Office minister Hazel Blears said: "I am pleased that the independent NAO recognises the significant achievement that the Home Office has made in cutting car crime."

A DVLA spokesman said: "DVLA's top priority is to improve record accuracy. The information in the NAO report relates to a survey carried out in 2003. Since then, a number of major initiatives have been introduced to improve record accuracy. The survey indicated that the police have no difficulty in tracing vehicle keepers from DVLA data in over 90 per cent of cases."

In 2003 and 2004 there were an estimated 241,000 vehicle thefts and 1.3 million vehicle break-ins.

Proposals to change the rules surrounding cherished number plate sales had a successful first reading in Parliament yesterday (Wednesday 20 July 2005), according to the Retail Motor Industry Federation.

The Vehicle Registration Marks Bill passed its First Reading in the House of Commons. A date for the Second Reading has been set for Friday 11 November 2005. Mark Hendrick MP for Preston tabled the motion under the 10 minute rule to amend the current legislation so that the assignment rights of a cherished number could be transferred directly to the new keeper at the time of initial retention. During the debate, Hendrick said:

"The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and the Cherished Number Dealers Association are strongly in favour of the proposed changes. There have been several cases of organised criminal activity aimed at acquiring valuable numbers by illegal means. I propose the introduction of an option for third parties to be granted entitlement as soon as the number is placed on hold under the retention facility. The bill would aid the industry involved in buying, selling, and transferring registration marks with no additional costs to Government. It would amend the Vehicles Excise Registration Act 1994 to simplify the administrative process for selling cherished registration numbers and would be warmly welcomed by many customers, as well as cherished number dealers."

Justin Tidmarsh, head of the RMI"s Cherished Number Dealers Association commented:

"The motion was well received and the issue was laid firmly in front of Government, who would benefit from the additional volume of transfer fees, which the trade would certainly produce. We look forward to the Second Reading in November with interest."

The 10 minute rule system enables backbench MPs in the House of Commons to raise issues that might otherwise be overlooked.