GB plate no longer valid?

[Western Sunset]

I actually saw a Range Rover with the new UK badge yesterday.

 

[cjmillsnun]

You can buy vinyl stickers for a few quid which have UK and a UK flag which will cover up the blue part of the number plate which has the GB bit on for those that have that style of plate. I wonder how long it will be before the Government decides you carn't have the EU flag on your plate in this country?

These are illegal as it is illegal to alter a number plate.

 

[Noddy]

Be nice if Welsh, English, Scottish flags and codes had international recognition. Not fair that these countries can't fly their colours on their cars officially. It wouldn't be too hard for lists to include them.

Can I point out that a lot of this is to with international treaty (and BTW none has to do with EU), specifically the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic which is administered by the United Nations. The only thing that has changed is the country identifier changing from GB to UK. One of the reasons the rules are different when going to Ireland, Spain or Malta is that they aren’t (full) signatories to the convention (even though they have EU regional identifiers). Although England, Wales, Scotland identifiers are perfectly legal in the UK, they aren’t countries recognised by the UN, and ‘regional/state’ identifiers are not valid.

https://unece.org/DAM/trans/conventn/Conv_road_traffic_EN.pdf

and

Vienna Convention on Road Traffic - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[py_megapixel]

These are illegal as it is illegal to alter a number plate.

I thought that was only the case if the alteration obscured or changed the characters in the registration number, or brought the number plate out of compliance with the requirements? At least that's the implication of what the government website says

 

[cjmillsnun]

I thought that was only the case if the alteration obscured or changed the characters in the registration number, or brought the number plate out of compliance with the requirements? At least that's the implication of what the government website says

Any sticker will make the plate non compliant as it won’t meet the standards for retroreflectivity.

 

[pitdiver]

We have just purchased a newer car. Well the wife has. Before we could take the car from the dealer they changed the number plate to a new one with UK on it.

 

[Noddy]

Did they charge you? If not that’s saved the cost of a sticker if you need to travel in it on the continent!

 

[pitdiver]

Did they charge you? If not that’s saved the cost of a sticker if you need to travel in it on the continent!

No, but as they wanted to have their name on the plate, they just did it as part of the pre sale prep.

 

[37424]

Any sticker will make the plate non compliant as it won’t meet the standards for retroreflectivity.

I don't see why it would be an issue the number plate lettering or reflectivity is not affected, you have to leave a minimum of a 11 mm border at the end of the car lettering but providing you comply with that I don't see why it would be an issue. On my car its hard to even tell its a sticker it blends quite well.

 

[Western Sunset]

Various sellers on Amazon/eBay are saying that their stickers are reflective and comply with regulations.

 

[The exile]

I find that owners of cars registered in Northern Ireland do not believe any rules apply when going south anyway. The majority of cars using the M1 as a racetrack has always been yellowplaters.

Is that because the Republic doesn't have easy / cheap access to DVLA records, making it impractical to pursue drivers for fines unless they're actually involved in an accident. I can remember this being an issue with parking / speeding violations in German border areas - the bureaucracy involved in finding out details of ownership where no harm had actually been caused meant foreigners got away with it - as long as the offences didn't mount up too much. I never put this to the test when in the UK with my German registered car!

 

[pitdiver]

Doesn't a number plate have to adhere to a British Standard (BSAU145e). Surely placing a sticker on the plate invalidates it whether it is allegedly reflective or not?

 

[randyrippley]

So what's happening with GBM / GBG / GBJ?
Man and the Channels Isles aren't part of the United Kingdom so UK* plates would be inappropriate

 

[dgl]

Naturally there are loads of rules relating to number plates including that older ones white/yellow are technically non-compliant but have "grandfather" rights meaning that whilst you can use/display an original one you can't legally have one of the same style remade. So say for compleatness you wanted replica dealer plates to replace damaged ones on a T reg vehicle, for example, you can't, though people do sell them (hubnutvids has replicas on his Daewoo Matiz) and I would expect authorities to turn a blind eye.

Also the amount of people who go around with "tinted" number plates or ones with an illegal font it seems that some authorities do not care.

 

[Noddy]

So what's happening with GBM / GBG / GBJ?
Man and the Channels Isles aren't part of the United Kingdom so UK* plates would be inappropriate

Playing devils advocate are the Channel Islands part of GB?


But here is a serious answer:

https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/CN/2021/CN.207.2021-Eng.pdf

Reference: C.N.207.2021.TREATIES-XI.B.19 (Depositary Notification)
CONVENTION ON ROAD TRAFFIC VIENNA, 8 NOVEMBER 1968
UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND: NOTIFICATION UNDER ARTICLE 45 (4) 1
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, acting in his capacity as depositary, communicates the following:
On 28 June 2021, the Secretary-General received from the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in accordance with Article 45 (4) and Annex 3 of the Convention, a notification stating that the United Kingdom is changing the distinguishing sign that it had previously selected for display in international traffic on vehicles registered in the United Kingdom, from “GB” to “UK”, and that “this change will apply only to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and will not extend to any territories for the international relations of which the United Kingdom is responsible”.
The change in the United Kingdom’s distinguishing sign will take effect three months after the deposit of this notification, i.e., on 28 September 2021, in accordance with Article 54 (4) of the Convention

 

[37424]

Doesn't a number plate have to adhere to a British Standard (BSAU145e). Surely placing a sticker on the plate invalidates it whether it is allegedly reflective or not?

But if the sticker is designed to that standard and placed correctly on the number plate then surely it shouldn't be an issue, in any case the e standard only applies to new number plates from September 21.

 

[Meerkat]

Also the amount of people who go around with "tinted" number plates or ones with an illegal font it seems that some authorities do not care.

It's a silly thing to do, especially considering that many of those with illegal plates seem the sort to be pushing other boundaries - the illegal plate gives the plod a cast iron reason to pull you over and turn you over a bit, breath test etc, without justification for an accusation of persecution or profiling.
I got pulled over and made to clean my number plate once, I think the sarcy old copper was quite disappointed I was a boring office boy and not the chav he was expecting from the car type (hot hatch).

 

[cjmillsnun]

But if the sticker is designed to that standard and placed correctly on the number plate then surely it shouldn't be an issue, in any case the e standard only applies to new number plates from September 21.

There isn’t much difference between the d and e standards. And it has to be retroreflective not just reflective and has to match the exact retroreflectitity of the original plate.

 

[37424]

There isn’t much difference between the d and e standards. And it has to be retroreflective not just reflective and has to match the exact retroreflectitity of the original plate.

But in reality as long as the main letters of the number plate are to the standard and providing the blue or green bit is the correct distance from the numbers I doubt anyone is going to bother too much about the Blue or Green bits if they look ok. In any case I'm happy with mine and you have to look really closely to even tell, and if such as the police did complain about them I would just remove them.

I also notice around where I live there are plenty of people taking the mick out of green plates, I saw a Cooper S Diesel with them on the other day.

 

[Meerkat]

But in reality as long as the main letters of the number plate are to the standard and providing the blue or green bit is the correct distance from the numbers I doubt anyone is going to bother too much about the Blue or Green bits if they look ok. In any case I'm happy with mine and you have to look really closely to even tell, and if such as the police did complain about them I would just pull them off.

Blimey, they let you do that?! (sorry, must be less childish)

 

[37424]

Blimey, they let you do that?! (sorry, must be less childish)

I've just rephased it for you LOL.

 

[route101]

Be nice if Welsh, English, Scottish flags and codes had international recognition. Not fair that these countries can't fly their colours on their cars officially. It wouldn't be too hard for lists to include them.

My car has SCO and Saltire flag on the plate. Not sure how that works abroad.

 

[XAM2175]

My car has SCO and Saltire flag on the plate. Not sure how that works abroad.

It's not recognised by the Vienna Convention, so officially you would need a "UK" oval.

 

[Cloud Strife]

Not sure why they couldn’t have had GB and UK both being allowed, at least for a transition period. Didn’t the Republic of Ireland use both EIR and IRL at one point?

Yes. Originally SE from 1924, then EIR from 1938, then EIR/IRL from 1962 (though I believe IRL was in widespread use), then finally IRL from 1992 onwards.

I actually wonder why Ireland changed it, given that the first official language is Irish and the name of the country is Éire in Irish. They didn't change plane registrations (EI).

Then again, a lot of country codes don't really match the language of the country. CH is the most obvious one, but then Finland used SF until 1993, Albania has always used AL rather than SH, Cyprus uses CY rather than K, etc etc. Intriguingly, Malta used GBY until independence, whereas Cyprus always used CY. And then there's the oddity of Canada using CDN - "Canada Dominion" rather than CAN or even just CA.

My car has SCO and Saltire flag on the plate. Not sure how that works abroad.

It doesn't. You need the UK sticker on top.

 

[Gloster]

SF was Suomi-Finland.

 

[XAM2175]

I actually wonder why Ireland changed it, given that the first official language is Irish and the name of the country is Éire in Irish. They didn't change plane registrations (EI).

There was a suggestion put before the Dáil in 1950 that the Government examine "the tourist identification plate bearing the letters EIR ... with a view to the adoption of identification letters more readily associated with this country by foreigners", which certainly sounds plausible for a reason. The markers for aircraft registration, by contrast, are far less 'obvious' to the public and (I'd wager) probably far more bother to change.

 

[Ediswan]

CH is Confoederatio Helvetica. As far as I can tell, the Latin version is used to avoid having to choose one of the living language equivalents, which would upset those who speak any of the other languages.

 

[XAM2175]

CH is Confoederatio Helvetica. As far as I can tell, the Latin version is used to avoid having to choose one of the living language equivalents, which would upset those who speak any of the other languages.

Yes, it's to avoid showing favour to any one of the four official languages, but usually only where there isn't space to use the full four; so for example the legend on coins is in Latin only, but banknotes are marked with the full set.

 

[route101]

Are the country oval stickers used outwith Europe?

 

[XAM2175]

Are the country oval stickers used outwith Europe?

Ostensibly yes, but as far as I know it's nowhere near to the same extent.