Tradeplates

what exactly does a tradeplate on a bike do?
I had a booked test ride yesterday and upon examining the bike, the road tax
was out of date. The salesman informed me that I could ride on their
tradeplates.
My understanding is that this would cover me from the insurance perspective,
but road tax is a different thing entirely and had I been stopped (which I
was not) my licence would have got the ticket. Am I right and was this a
dodgy sale? (I am not buying it cause it misfired all the way up the road
anyway)

 

Paul H emerged from their own little world to say

Tradeplates are nothing to do with insurance. They are issued by the DoT to
allow a trader to drive/ride a vehicle on the road without displaying a VED
disc i.e. a brand new unregistered vehicle or a SORNed vehicle.

 

The registered keeper of the vehicle is responsible for ensuring it's taxed
and it's a non-endorsable offence anyway.


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The speccy Geordie twat.

 

Thank god for the internet, as I see no other way you could have resolved
this issue, though maybe in the future people will be able to communicate by
"talking" and you could ask the salesman about it.

 

So it *doesn't* mean you can slap a trade plate on one of the
tatty cars on the forecourt to save you getting the bus back
home every day?

 

Mo says...

We used to do this alot when I lived in Trowbridge. I had a Mk3 Cortina
that would never have passed an MOT in a million years[1]. I ran it for
6 months on the trade plates from the car sales site I worked at.

[1] It had almost no void bushes left in it, the radiator was held in
with fencing wire. The handbrake was non existent, in as much as the
lever had ripped out of the floor. I used to travel all over the country
in that car.

 

Lozzo emerged from their own little world to say

IIRC trade plates only replace a tax disc. The vehicle has to be
roadworthy otherwise i.e. valid insurance & MOT. Of course, as someone
in the trade, you would be driving to/from a testing station even if it
happened to be in Carlisle.

 

You are not allowed to stop at the shops on the way either and you can't
use a bike trade plate on a car or a car one on a bike.

 

wessie says...

Trade plate laws have changed since 1984, which is when I ran the
Cortina. IIRC you didn't need an MOT if you had trade plates as recent
as 1992. I don't know exactly what the requirements are nowadays, but
I'm sure SWK will be along very soon to spout chapter and verse on the
subject.

 

Wasn't it you who said that they'd never take a vehicle on the road
which wasn't insured? How is an unroadworthy vehicle any better?

 

Ben Blaney says...

It's still insured and having trade plates at the time deemed it legal.
Unroadworthy vehicles can still be insured.

 

I know that. I'm curious about the moral distinction in your mind.

 

Ben Blaney says...

Fair point, and I can see why you're asking.

If an unroadworthy but insured vehicle causes someone loss or injury,
then at least they have some recourse to compensation and help. I don't
want the rest of my life ruined even further by having to pay
compensation out of my own pocket for ever because I hurt or killed
someone whilst uninsured.

I can drive more carefully when I know I have a fault, but I can't
instantly become insured.

 

But if the vehicle is roadworthy and uninsured, it's less likely to
cause someone loss or injury.

I'd rather someone didn't run me over, than someone run me over and
pay me out for being in a wheelchair, or whatever.

 

Ben Blaney says...

Very true, but all this was about 20 years ago, when I was a little bit
wild. I still had some semblence of a conscience though, hence I always
had insurance. With trade plates on the car I was legal, that was all
that mattered then.

Maybe you'll feel different about things like leathers and safety kit
when you age a little more, who knows. There are a fair few around these
parts who think it's irresponsible to ride in jeans. It really is a case
of each to their own.

I don't drive unroadworthy vehicles any more, I grew out of that a long
long time ago.