MOT & License Plates

Post a thread a couple of months back, I can confirm that the MOT is now
quite stringent on plates [1]. Mine is legal size, legal spacing, standard
font - but it was deemed a fail because the arrangement doesn't meet the
standards [2], which are now specified as part of the test. A crock, I
think, since it makes no difference to legibility, camera-recognition or
memorability (improves it in my case).

[1] Thank-you Carl Rosner, who phoned me up to advise they would be making
me a new plate on the basis that I brought it in already fitted with blu-
tac, and charged me just a tenner.

[2] The rules say, for my reg type, I should have:

Letter Number
Letter Letter Letter

and I have it arranged

Letter Number Letter
Letter Letter

 

It all depends on where you take it for an MOT. Although having numbers
outside their groupings is specifically proscribed so is probably a
little blatant.

The Guzzi passed in October with its illegally small but not taking the
piss plate. How the turbo fares at its MOT tomorrow we shall see.

 

sweller secured a place in history by writing:

Agree. But, at the end of the day, is this contradicting the spirit or
intention of the law? No - in the vast majority of cases, anyone who has
done this has done so to form a word or name (waves), making the number
instantaneously memorable. It's hard to accept that a number could be
harder to remember as a result, and if anyone was that bothered they'd use
a fake one in the first place.

But it's also very difficult to legislate for...so I guess we're stuck with
it....

 

It's only a number plate, does it matter?

 

Number plates have recently been included in the motorcycle MOT test. So
in the scheme of getting a valid MOT pass then, Yes, I suppose it does
matter.

 

The incohol haze has cleared now - but I believe my question was
directed at the OP. As in "does it matter to you how the plate is laid
out?"

Having re-read the thread I see that it's a vanity/novelty plate and I
guess it only makes sense/is funny when laid out in the 'wrong' way.

It may be this causes problems for OCR cameras. They could misinterpret
the plate as it has a letter where a number is expected and only two
letters on the 2nd line when 3 are expected.

 

rb secured a place in history by writing:

I rejected this as a possibility, because there are instances where the
camera (or the recognition, to be more accurate) has to determine a
character that could be a letter or a number. Granted, there could be a
fairly complex algorithm in here that attempts to assist the recognition by
calculating the likelihood of a character being one or the other, based on
the number of characters, the accuracy of recognition of other characters
etc, but if the recognition was potentially that flaky I don't think it
would be in use in the first place.

 

Ferger wrote:

[snip]

So are you going to tell us all what word it spells or not?

 

Take the plate off, and tell them the bike's unregistered and that you
can't register it until you have an MoT (as is indeed the case).

Remember to pocket the tax disc as well.

 

rb secured a place in history by writing:

T1M
FG

My surname is double-barrelled;this is what people generally call me at
work etc.

 

I imagine the bike came with a legal plate and that you have a screwdriver -
that should obviate the problem.

John

 

Eatmorepies secured a place in history by writing:

Well, it did....but that's not the plate that's on it now.....

 

Why not replace it with a big fluorescent 'nick me' sign?

 

Wouldn't it be easier to replace it with a non-chav plate, though?

 

SteveH secured a place in history by writing:

Why? It's not particularly dubious - legal in every respect except there's
a letter on the top row that should be on the bottom. I don't see it's
anywhere near as inflammatory as odd / small fonts, small plates etc. And
I haven't been pulled for it in the two years since I've had it on the
bike, during which time I've had three 'conversations' with HMC. There's
nothing about the plate that warrants any serious attention.

 

It's not 100% legal hence the MOT fail. I'd imagine the dibbles have
more to do than pull you over for having a gay plate.

So to solve the MOT problem, as has been suggested, present it with a
legal plate and then change it back when it's passed.

 

sweller secured a place in history by writing:

Don't have any problem with this, just think the suggestion that it's
tantamount to having a fluorescent 'Nick me' sign is a tad hyperbolic, most
coppers aren't even aware it's not legal.