Too much on our plates? Many baffled when it comes to the meaning of our car’s number plates

With the new ’74 number plates expected on September 1^st, Go.Compare car insurance has revealed that 22% of drivers do not understand the meaning of a car’s number plate. This number rose to over a quarter (27%) when it came to motorists aged over 65.

The research, which asked over 1700 people with a driver’s licence about their understanding of the current number plate system also found that 14% of motorists didn’t “have a clue” how many times a year UK registration plates are updated. 16% believed these were updated just once a year and a further 60% of people knew that they are updated twice a year, in March and September.

The same survey found that a significant amount of people also didn’t understand the significance of the letters and the numbers that are used in a number plate. The current UK registration format for a car’s number plate is two letters and two numbers followed by three letters. The first two letters are known as a 'Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) memory tag' and identify where in the UK the vehicle was registered.

The third and fourth digits of a number plate – also known as the ‘age identifier’ of a car – tell you when the car was made, and whether it was registered in the March or September of that year and the last three letters at the end are random. For example, the number plate CA24 ABC is a vehicle registered in Cardiff, in March 2024.  Just over a third (34%) of drivers who took part in the survey said they didn’t know what the letters meant and when asked about the numerical digits of a number plate, 29% said they didn’t know what they signified.

Commenting on the research, car insurance spokesperson for Go.Compare, Tom Banks, said:

“If you’re going to be picking up a new ’74 plate vehicle this September, you might be disappointed to know that almost a quarter of people won’t know that you’ve just driven this off the forecourt.

“It seems many drivers are still in the dark about what their number plate digits really mean, but it’s always good to be able to work out the age of any car you’re thinking of buying, particularly if it's second-hand.

“It’s equally important to be aware of the various rules and regulations regarding the colour of the plate, the size and spacing of the letters and numbers, and even the font required. Get any of these wrong, or try to change them to your own wants, and you could be facing a significant fine.”

Go.Compare car insurance has also compiled a list of legal requirements when it comes to a vehicle’s number plate. They must:

• Be made from a reflective material
• Display black characters on a white background (front plate)
• Display black characters on a yellow background (rear plate)
• Not have a background pattern
• Failure to show your number plate can incur a £1,000 fine and your vehicle will fail its MOT

Motorbikes only need to display a number plate on the rear.

There are also some rules around the characters on the number plates:

• Characters (except the number 1 or letter I) must be 50mm wide
• The character stroke (the thickness of the black print) must be 14mm
• The space between characters must be 11mm
• The space between the age identifier and the random letters must be 33mm
• The margins at the top, bottom and side of the plate must be 11mm
• Vertical space between the age identifier and the random letters must be 19mm

For more information about UK number plates, please visit https://www.gocompare.com/motoring/guides/number-plates/