Registration Numbers Club

What's happening in Dubai?

RNC member, Peter Entwisle, returned recently from a holiday in Dubai where a further auction of personalised plates had taken place. These are now a regular feature in the area and the local press report the results widely.

The number K50 sold for a staggering 1.5 million dirhams (£263,500) and 126 raised 1.3 million dirhams (£228,400). G36 sold for 1.14 million dirhams (£200,300) and K999 went cheap at 710,000 dirhams (£124,750)!

In total, 115 numbers were sold which raised 16.2 million dirhams (£2,846,250) for the Roads and Transport Authority. A further auction will take place at the end of the year but future auctions could be held online.

Is this back door taxation?

If you have a modern credit card sized driving licence with a photograph of yourself on it, rather than the older paper version, you may not be aware that it has to be renewed every 10 years to keep it up-to-date. It costs a rather expensive £20 a time just to do this.

According to a Sunday newspaper, using a Freedom of Information request, this netted the DVLA £42 million last year with a further £20 million gained by them for replacing lost or stolen licences which now cost an amazing £56.00 a time!

Hugh Bladon is a Registration Numbers Club member and also a spokesman for the Association of British Drivers. He claimed that this is just another way to extract yet more cash from hard pressed motorists. The AA has also joined the discussion saying that, as road tax raises around £45 billion a year, the cost of driving licences could come out of that.

It was an EU directive which introduced photographic driving licences back in 1998 to standardise them across all member countries. In response, the DVLA said it is obliged to recover the costs of its operation through fees and that as people change visually over the years, it is vital to update licences regularly.

Hi-tech plates coming to India

The Indian State government has requested bids to design, manufacture and fit new High Security Registration Plates (HSRP) to all motor vehicles. Security measures would be incorporated, such as a laser hologram and non-removable fixings to prevent counterfeiting and duplication. They would also include a unique identification number.

It will become mandatory for all existing registered vehicles to replace number plates with new HSRP versions within two years of the scheme being implemented.

A senior official said that crime prevention would improve once all vehicle registration plates were in the new format. The scheme is designed to ensure a uniform specification all over India for all types of vehicles. The bid also states that old number plates must be environmentally destroyed.

RNC Rally 2012

The Registration Numbers Club has announced that 2012 marks its 35th anniversary. A rally will be held on Sunday 1 July 2012 at a country park in Lancashire. Further details are available at www.TheRNC.co.uk

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