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DJ: “Even though it’s been around for four years, most of us don’t understand how the new number plate system works. A survey by the Post Office has found that over 75% of those questioned didn’t have a clue about all the numbers and letters, that don’t seem to mean anything much. Len Stout is from the Dunstable based Regtransfers.co.uk. Len, good morning to you”

Len: “Good Morning.”

DJ: “Now you do a nice business in private plates.”

Len: “We do quite well. As the biggest dealer, we should do.”

DJ: “I’ve heard that as well. Listen, do you understand the new number plate system?”

Len: “Fortunately I do, Yes.”

DJ: “What does it mean? You look at it and it just – I mean, there’s got to be a simpler way of doing it.”

Len: “Well when you thin what it’s got to do, there probably isn’t. The first thing I thought when I first saw it is that it’s very much like the continental plates. But it’s a fairly simple structure really. It’s not quite as complicated as people believe. The sort of structure really goes … the first two letters are local memory tag and the dvla office. For instance the local area tag would begin with ‘K’, so the first two letters, if one of them is a ‘K’, it’s registered in the Luton area and the second letter is just the regional office it comes from within that area. Anything in Luton would have a ‘K’ from a ‘K’ followed by an ‘A’ or an ‘L’. Anything in Northampton would be a ‘K’ followed by an ‘M’ to a ‘Y’.”

DJ: “Ok.”

Len: “The front letters are the regional identifiers.”

Len: “The two numbers that follow it denote the year in which it was issued. As you know the ‘55s’ are out tomorrow, so it’s the second half of the year (i.e. the September issue), so it’ll begin with a ‘5’ and the year number follows, which again is a ‘5’.”

DJ: “And then three random letters?”

Len: “The last three letters are just random, yes they are.”

DJ: “You see if I was lucky enough to be buying a new car, I’d think I don’t need all this, I’d rather have a private plate.”

Len: “You can do. You don’t have to have a brand new registration on it. I know they are automatically issued when you buy a new car, but you can purchase your own private registration and put it on the car. The only thing you can’t do is put a new registration on an older car, cos you’re effectively trying to pretend it’s a newer car.”
DJ: “Yeah you can’t do that.”

Len: “But you can get any older registration on a brand new car.”

DJ: “If someone were to buy a private plate, how quickly does the whole process take, so you can get that private plate on your car?”

Len: “With new registrations issued first time round, it can be done within days. If you allow a week, just to be on the safe side, just in case there are any problems with the post, you could do that. There are other reasons why some older registrations might take longer. Depends on where they are coming from, if it’s a private sale or if it’s a transfer from Northern Ireland – that sort of thing. In the main with the new style registration, if it’s first time issued, you can get it done within a week.”

DJ: “Why do you think people go for private plates? Obviously if you’ve got a lot of money, it is that cache – it is a unique plate. But there are a lot of normal people who want that individuality.”

Len: “Exactly, and that’s what it’s all about. They are called personal plates or personalised number plates for that very reason. People like to personalise their own cars and to sort of sometimes buy a status symbol, or even as an investment or even for a bit of fun. That’s the one thing about number plates that I’ve found since I’ve been here – you can have it for many, many reasons and some of those I’ve just mentioned are just a few of the many reasons why people buy them.”

DJ: “A friend of mine has got a number plate which is just two letters (his initials) and a number and I guess it’s worth a great deal of money.”

Len: “That could well be. I can’t …”

DJ: “I can’t tell you obviously, but because of the characters and the one single number, it is very exclusive and that’s got to be worth a lot of dosh.”

Len: “In particular anything with a number ‘1’ on it, would be the more expensive ones, as a general rule, cos they are the top of the tree. So someone’s initials and a number one are the top of the tree, as it were in general terms. There are exceptions to that, but that’s generally what they are.”

DJ: “I think that’s the price range it goes from, sort of relatively cheap to quite expensive.”

Len: “You can pay from less than a hundred pound to one or two that we’ve got for half a million.”

DJ: “Half a million?!”

Len: “Half a million. That’s the asking price currently.”

DJ: “And people pay that?”

Len: “They haven’t yet. But in the scheme of things, these are the antiques of the number plate business. These are things like ‘V1’, ‘X1’, ‘E1’ and ‘Y1’, which are all issued in 1904.”

DJ: “Coh! And which is the most expensive one you’ve come across?”

Len: “All those four are half a million pounds currently.”

DJ: “And the most expensive one you’ve sold, Len?”

Len: “The most expensive one we’ve sold was £170,000 but I can’t tell you what it was.”

DJ: “No obviously, I understand that.”

Len: “We can’t do that because people just don’t want that sort of thing.”

DJ: “But that’s more than the car’s worth!”

Len: “It is and that’s one of the other strange things about personalised plates, you can buy a brand new car, put a quality number plate on it and in five years time the plate’s worth more than your car. So the depreciation doesn’t affect some of the better number plates. It can affect the car, always affects the car, but in certain circumstances the number plates are worth more.”

DJ: “Len it’s been good talking to you. We talked about this last week as well. And I said look if I ever get into any money, I’m going to get my own plate made up and it’s going to be like a rude Italian word. Do people come up to you and try and get away with rude words on their plates?”

Len: “We got a special section on our website, Regtransfers.co.uk, with all the rude numbers in there. So it’s a little bit like children going back and looking at the dictionary and have a lot of fun.”

DJ: “Cause we all want a bit of a laugh, don’t we?”

Len: “Well the thing is that’s really what I enjoy about number plates. They are fun, there is a serious side because of the money involved. Primarily they are fun, they are individual and there is something here to suit everybody.”

DJ: “Len good talking to you, thank you.”

Len: “Ok”