DVLA warns that vehicle owners could land themselves a £1,000 fine for breaking the number plate law.

Of course it is our job to keep you guys up to date. That is with the latest news and information which comes in, regarding number plates. Which is why we’ve found out that the DVLA have issued some new rules and regulations to how our number plates should be displayed – to which we have acted on.

As of 1 March 2022, the DVLA announced some new rules. Of which if not abided by, you could land yourself with a hefty fine of up to £1,000! A steep price to pay! The new regulations include; changes to the lettering styles, materials used, location identifiers and much more.

The Law On Number Plate Letters

The DVLA have announced that the only style of letters they allow on a number plate have to be solid black. This means that previous styles such as neon, frosted, carbon and the ‘3D effect’ (not 3D Gels as their one-tone nature is legal) shouldn’t be used. Of course here at Number1Plates, we ensure that we abide by all rules which means these styles are no longer on our number plate builder – to ensure that our customers are not illegally displaying plates. 

There is good news however to counteract the unfortunate, that we are still able to display our range of lettering, which include;

• 4D Laser number plates
• 3D Gel number plates
• 4D Gel number plates
• 5mm Laser number plates
• 5mm Laser Gel number plates
• Standard lettering
• Aluminium pressed 

If you’re unsure if the letters you want are legal, take a look through our number plate builder to see if they are there. If they’re not, then they will be illegal! We ensure to keep our manufacturing within the law, meaning that anything illegal is not available. Everything else which IS legal is featured!

 

The Changes To Material Used

The DVLA introduced further regulations in regards to the actual material which makes the lettering. They announce now that if letters are okay if made from perspex, acrylic or our 3D gels. Letters made from anything else are illegal. It is a step towards trying to make ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) easier, through having solid materials with solid colours! 

New Laws Regarding Number Plate Location Identifiers

It is now a legal requirement for all number plates to include; the suppliers’ business name and postcode, along with the manufacturer name and the latest identifier (ie BS AU 145E) at the bottom of the plate. We do automatically put ours on the bottom of every plate, however a lot of customers sometimes get confused and think that we have put this there as a marketing tactic! This couldn’t be further from the truth, infact, we do it so small that you can only see it when you’re stood right in front of it. When the plate is on the back of your car, you can’t really see them at all. However, they are a legal requirement and so we’ll always have them on there.

 

Spacing Of Letters On Number Plates

The DVLA have also announced that number plates must be legally spaced. This means in the format “XX00 XXX” and cannot be any different. We have found through research that many people who have a private registration which spells a name (for example ‘HA77 RRY’) have mis-placed letters and illegally spaced their plates to try and create a flow of the name (for example ‘HA77RRY’). However, what they don’t know is that this is actually illegal! We ensure that all of the plates which we send out are fully legal and correctly spaced, so don’t worry about placing your order as we have got it all under control when it comes to legal number plates!

To read more about number plate news, head over to our news page to find out more. We keep up to date with all the latest press releases and DVLA launches to ensure we fully inform our customers on the latest news!

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us here at Number1Plates through our email; info@number1plates.com.