Number plates – stand out from the crowd!

An explanation of the UK number plate system

Most people simply see number plates as a way to identify each vehicle and of course the authorities need it for the same reason. The standard UK number plate also helps identify the year of make of the vehicle and the area where the vehicle was first registered.

New style number plates were introduced in September 2001. These were easy to read as the digits used for the age identifier matched the year when the vehicle was first registered. For example if the registration was FN02 BNM, the digits 02 would indicate that the vehicle was registered in 2002 (please refer to Table A at the bottom of this page for more information about this). The first two letters allow authorities and the avid registration anorak to identify the area where the vehicle was registered.

The original system of car registrations started in 1903. There wasn't really any consistent way to allocate registrations to vehicles till the authorities realized that cars were here to stay and they were growing rapidly in numbers. The very fist registrations had only a letter and a number following it. The letter denoted the where the vehicle had been registered. These first registrations did have any way of showing when the vehicle had been registered. In 1932 the system had to be changed due to the shortage in available combinations. It was extended to three letters and three digits. In 1950 this was extended yet again with the reversal of the digits and letters (i.e. the digits preceding the letters).

The suffix system was introduced in 1963 (see Table B at the bottom of the page for more information). As the number of cars on our roads continued to increase, the government devised a slightly more flexible system, which would allow registrations to be identifiable by having a year suffix on it. The new system also had more possible combinations, which would be needed to cope with the growing demands. The prefix system was introduced in 1982 and it basically reversed the suffix system.

If you wish to buy your own number plates, you can start by using the many searches on the left hand menu of this website. The most popular search tends to be the ‘Search For Your Name’ one as this is what most people would like displayed on their cars! There are many ways of getting an affordable registration on your car, if your name is not available. People also get registrations with important numbers on them. These numbers could signify important dates such as birthdays, year of birth etc.